Manchester City 3-1 Manchester United Stats: A Phil Foden-Inspired Comeback Sees City Keep the Pressure on Liverpool
Even though they were losing at halftime, Manchester City managed to stage a comeback and defeat their rivals Manchester United with goals from Phil Foden and Erling Haaland. This defeat for Man Utd marks the first time in nine years that they have lost a league game from a halftime lead. Let's take a closer look at the important statistics from the Manchester City vs Manchester United match.
At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City managed to win an important victory in the Manchester derby by overcoming their opponents. Phil Foden scored two goals in the second half to help his team come from behind and earn crucial points as they strive to win their fourth consecutive top-flight title, a feat that has never been achieved in England by any other club.
Prior to today, Manchester United had not been defeated in their previous 143 Premier League games when holding a lead at half-time (winning 123 and drawing 20). This impressive record extends back to 21 September 2014, when they suffered a loss to Leicester City with a score of 5-3.
As the season winds down, the outcome of individual games can heavily impact who will ultimately win the title. Prior to Foden scoring the equalizer in the 56th minute, the Opta supercomputer favored Manchester City to win the Premier League with a 47.6% chance. However, after the goal, they slipped to second place with a 40.5% chance of winning, behind Liverpool who had a 44.7% chance. But, with this impressive come-from-behind win, Manchester City has once again taken the lead as favorites with a 52.9% chance of winning the title.
Marcus Rashford kicked off the score by making a remarkable shot from a long distance just after eight minutes had passed. This was his fifth goal in a match between Manchester United and Manchester City. Only five other players for United have scored more goals against City in league competition throughout history.
Man City has faced a setback in the Premier League for the 12th time this season. This number is only surpassed by the 2019-20 season where they fell behind 13 times. During that previous season, they could only recover 10 points from losing positions and it resulted in them not winning the title. In contrast, this season City has turned things around and has so far recovered from falling behind 21 times, with Liverpool being the only team to have accomplished this feat more with 22 points.
Rashford scored a challenging goal, but Haaland had an easy opportunity to score an open goal before halftime. City tried to score 18 times in the first half, which was the most Man Utd has faced in a league game in 15 years. As we mentioned earlier this week, Man United receives many shots, and the second half had a similar pace.
After taking 20 attempts at the goal, their persistence paid off when Foden unleashed a powerful strike into the upper corner, just like how Rashford initiated the scoring. Soon it was Foden's turn again as he secured his 18th goal of the season, making it his highest tally so far in a single season with the club, after just four more attempts and a span of 24 minutes.
During the recent match, Foden made nine efforts to score out of the 27 total shots attempted by Manchester City. This performance marks his personal record for shots attempted in a single Premier League game. In the previous season's match hosted in Etihad Stadium, Foden had scored three goals in a hat-trick. This time, he managed to secure two goals against the same rival team, Manchester United. With this, Foden's total goals against Manchester United across all competitions reach six, which is also his leading goals tally against any other team - he has scored six goals against Brighton as well.
Following his earlier mistake, Haaland made up for it and finally scored a goal during added time, marking his sixth goal in the Manchester derby in just five appearances in the match. This particular goal also marked his 80th goal in all leagues for Man City since joining the team in the summer of 2022. This impressive record places him 31 goals ahead of any other player in the Premier League during that timeframe, with Mohamed Salah of Liverpool coming in second with only 49 goals.
Even though United was in the lead, they can't really be upset about losing a match where they only had 26.3% of the ball and 60 fewer chances in the other team's box than their opponents. They only made one attempt at a goal after the 23rd minute (a weak effort from Casemiro in overtime from a free kick). In the second half, Erik ten Hag's team only managed to make 42 passes in the other team's half - that's 223 less than City's 265.
According to Opta's predictions, the Premier League is likely to secure an additional spot in the UEFA Champions League for the 2024-25 season. However, it seems Manchester United may not make it to the top four, as the Opta supercomputer estimates their chance of finishing in the top five is only 11.8%.
The loss was not a surprise, but it didn't do any favors for the team. They have 11 games left to play and they need to make up for a difference of six points to catch up with Tottenham, who have an extra game in their pocket. Next season, they might only qualify for the UEFA Europa League, and it seems like Ten Hag won't be leading the team anymore at that point.
Post-Match Facts: Man City Vs Man United
Timeline: Man City Vs Man United
Statistical Center: Manchester City Vs Manchester United
Our Opta match center provides you with all the statistics of the Premier League derby match between Manchester City and Manchester United that took place on Sunday at the Etihad Stadium.
The game analysis area located below features statistics for both the teams and players, along with projections for the number of expected goals to be scored, graphs showing passing networks, a chalkboard provided by Opta, and additional information. This comprehensive section provides all the necessary tools for conducting your own examination of the match.
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