FA Cup: Man United hang on to beat City 3-2

No one could have imagined a 3-2 scoreline before kick-off with Manchester United going into the game as underdogs. Not to mention their poor run of form and the back-to-back defeats prior to taking on their bitter rivals in the FA Cup. But they hung on and managed to narrowly win a closely fought encounter. The initial 10 minutes looked pretty even before Wayne Rooney scored a brilliant header from an Antonio Valencia cross but it got worse for Manchester City when referee Chris Foy showed captain Vincent Kompany a straight red. [caption id=“attachment_175709” align=“alignleft” width=“380” caption=“Wayne Rooney and Michael Carrick celebrate a Manchester United goal. Getty Images”]  [/caption] City continued to attack despite being down to 10 men but Danny Welbeck struck an astonishing finish on the turn to open the floodgates. The youngster then won a penalty for his team which was initially saved by goalkeeper Costel Pantilimon but Rooney, who took the spot-kick scored from the rebound. Roberto Mancini brought on Pablo Zabaleta and Stefan Savic at half-time in a bid to keep the scoreline respectable but it was left-back Kolarov who struck from a perfect free-kick just after half-time. Paul Scholes made his return from retirement around the 60th minute amid a roar from the United end but made a mistake to give the ball away to Aguero. The Argentine hitman’s shot struck the palms of Lindegaard but he was on to the rebound in an instant to peg back the score to 3-2. United had to live through a few nervy moments as City poured forward with all their might. There was an appeal for handball as Phil Jones tried to block a Kolarov cross but the referee waved it away. City continued to attack with their fullbacks as the center of every piece of action which put Lindegaard in trouble. The battle in midfield was intense with Owen Hargreaves adding to the tackling prowess of City and Ferguson brought on Anderson to level his threat. In a last few minutes, City got another free-kick in the same area as before and it went straight to Lindegaard, who punted it away into a crowded box. United had to defend a corner as the last kick of the game neared and they saw out the threat to win 3-2 and advance to the 4th round of the FA Cup. Rooney told ITV: “We knew it was going to be a difficult game today. Obviously going 3-0 up, we maybe took our foot off the gas a little bit, City got two goals and we had to make sure we saw the game out which we managed to do so we are delighted.” Rooney dismissed any notion that he would be leaving the club following newspaper reports on Saturday morning which implied he had had a major falling out with manager Alex Ferguson. NOTHING TO PROVE Asked if he had a point to prove, Rooney replied: “Not at all: what’s been in the press of late has been a load of nonsense, because it’s me, because it’s Manchester United, it’s blown up out of context. There are no problems with me at this club, I want to be at this club for a long time.” Rooney said the team were surprised when they realised Scholes was in the squad. “It was a bit of a shock to be honest, we didn’t know until we were in the dressing room. It’s great. It gave everyone a lift he’s a fantastic player and he showed his quality when he came on.” United manager Alex Ferguson was not overly pleased with his team’s performance despite victory. “I think we made them look better than they were,” he said, “We were very careless in the second half, but the problem was, being 3-0 up at halftime, the players thought they were through and took their foot off the pedal.” In another game, Chelsea, who won the cup three times in the four seasons before City’s triumph last May, beat Portsmouth 4-0 at Stamford Bridge in a replay of the 2010 final which they won 1-0. Juan Mata put Chelsea ahead just after halftime and three of Chelsea’s goals came in the dying minutes with Ramires scoring twice and Frank Lampard once in stoppage time against the Championship (second division side). With inputs from Agencies