Key events
71 min Sesko’s long-range shot hits Dias and spins behind for a United corner. It’s swung deep, headed back by Maguire and claimed by Donnarumma.
70 min A dipping long-range shot from Fernandes is pushed away by the sprawling Donnarumma. Apparently that’s United’s first shot on target since the Foden red card.
68 min: Enzo Fernandez hits the post!
Haaland finds Enzo Fernandez in space 25 yards from goal. He shapes a trademark curler that is shovelled against the right-hand post by the diving Lammens!
68 min: Man Utd substitution Benjamin Sesko for Youri Tielemans. No time to dwell on that, because…
68 min The official verdict is that Dorgu’s outstretched foot played Haaland onside. The reason for the delay was that the VAR team needed to check whether Enzo Fernandez, who was palpably offside, made any contact as he dived towards the ball.
67 min United started the second half excellently but they look shell-shocked at the moment.
65 min That’s already Haaland’s ninth goal for City against United, one short of the record held by Franny Lee and Joe Hayes.
64 min The angle of TV replays can somehow make players appear to be offside when they’re not. That must be what happened here with Haaland.
Gvardiol’s cross from the left side of the area ricocheted off a Man Utd defender, Dorgu I think, and flew towards the far post. Enzo Fernandez, who was definitely offside, missed an attempted diving header and Haaland adjusted his body to cushion a half-volley over Lammens. That’s a quietly brilliant finish.
GOAL! Man Utd 0-1 Man City (Haaland 60)
The goal stands! Haaland looked offside to the naked eye, but VAR have given the goal! It was a fantastic finish, half-volleyed over Lammens from a very tight angle.
VAR check ongoing Maybe he wasn’t offside…
60 min: Haaland has a goal disallowed! Gvardiol’s deflected cross is finished expertly at the far post by Haaland, but he was fractionally offside so the goal won’t cut out.
58 min United’s main attacking options are Benjamin Sesko and Mason Mount. City’s options, attacking or otherwise, includes Nico O’Reilly, Ayyoub Bouaddi and Mateo Kovacic.
56 min United are putting City under sustained pressure for the first time. Cunha receives the ball in a bit of space, the space beloved of all false nines, veers away from a defender and splashes a shot over the bar from 18 yards. Decent effort but maybe he should have tried to find a teammate.
52 min Moments later, Rashford’s shot from the angle is deflected into the side netting.
51 min: Mainoo hits the post!
Dalot and Fernandes combine to tee up Mainoo, who takes a touch and cracks a dipping, curling shot from 25 yards. It hits the left post, rebounds off the back off Donnarumma and then ricochets to safety. That was a beautiful effort from Mainoo, a player who is enjoying himself again after a miserable summer.
50 min City win a corner when Ruben Dias’s header deflects behind. Nothing comes of it but they’ve made a relatively comfortable start to the second half.
47 min City brought on Iliman Ndiaye for Rayan Cherki at half-time. These are the revised teams.
Man Utd (4-2-3-1) Lammens; Dalot, Maguire, Martinez, Dorgu; Tielemans, Mainoo; Mbeumo, B Fernandes, Rashford; Cunha.
Man City (4-4-1) Donnarumma; Nunes, Dias, Guehi, Gvardiol; Ndiaye, Anderson, Fernandez, Semenyo; Haaland.
46 min The second half is under way.
The Fernandes kick My interpretation – and this is a live blog, not a judicial review, so mind the abuse please – is that, though Bruno Fernandes may well have intended to kick Phil Foden in the back, there was more than enough ambiguity for him to escape a red card. There was no such ambiguity with Foden’s reaction.
Fernandes was kicking towards a ball that was available a split-second earlier, before Foden fell in front of it. Even if it was deliberate, there was nowhere near enough evidence to suggest it was a clear and obvious error. That said, had Fernandes been sent off on the field, there probably wouldn’t have been enough evidence for VAR to overturn to the decision.
Also, it’s a game of football, and Claude is going to kill us all so who cares.
Marc Guehi talks to Sky Sports
[On the red card] I didn’t see nothing. My only job is to focus on what’s next.
Roy Keane’s verdict (via Sky Sports)
I don’t think that’s a red card for Foden. To me, Bruno’s the one who’s violent here. Foden is a bit daft, but so is Bruno. You can’t be rolling around [like Fernandes]; they’re all members of the PFA, you’ve got to look out for each other.
Barney Ronay
Half-time reading
If you watched US television adverts during the World Cup for any length of time one thing just kept leaping out. I’ve mentioned this before here, but it still seems both jarring and significant. Every third or fourth rotation in that endless daytime scroll, in between the Chicken Megadeth Hyper-Box Family Meal Deal, either side of David Beckham expertly consuming a light beer, is an advert for antidepressants.
The format for these is always the same kind of thing: contented, wholesome people throwing frisbees, or strolling through a small-town antiques fair, while a warm, honeyed, reassuring voiceover talks about how horrifying their lives are, with the suggestion that only a lengthy course of Smileothorium can solve this.
In another world there would be a call to study this phenomenon, to consider why a nation of such dazzling abundance and opportunity should also feel glazed, worthless and deprived of hope. But this is not that world. More than 50 million Americans have depression. This is demand and supply in action, a battle for market share in a £6bn industry. The US often worries about itself in its post-industrial age. What are we now? What can we still make? Where is the new frontier? Well, human misery is looking pretty hot right now.
Half time: Man Utd 0-0 Man City
Phil Foden’s red card was the main event of an otherwise subdued first half at Old Trafford. Foden walked for a retaliatory kick at Bruno Fernandes, but City dealt well with the numerical disadvantage and had an equal share of the game. Marcus Rashford hit the post with a free-kick, but that aside United didn’t really threaten.
45+1 min Enzo Maresca is booked, presumably for offering an unsolicited opinion regarding the competence of the matchday officials.
45 min: Rashford hits the post!
The free-kick is slightly to the left of centre. Rashford clips a delicious effort over the wall and off the outside of the left-hand post. Donnarumma wouldn’t have saved it.
44 min Enzo Fernandez concedes a silly free-kick on Tielemans 25 yards from goal. United are having a decent spell as half-time approaches.
42 min Rashford runs at Nunes, who makes a smooth tackle just inside the area. He’s been excellent against an opponent who can give full-backs twisted blood.
“The bottom line,” begins Eric Peterson, “seems to be that Bruno Fernandes knew what he could get away with, and Phil Foden didn’t.”
Also: Fernandes acted, Foden reacted.
41 min Since the red card, City have had more possession and the only attempt at goal.
40 min “Commentators agree with you but I can’t see how that’s more than a yellow for both players,” says Andrew Clifford. “Fernandes kicks Foden twice while he’s on the ground, nowhere near the ball, and Foden’s kick was reined in with no chance of causing an injury.”
I know what you mean, but ultimately Foden studded him in the stomach. Retaliation always looks worse as well. Fernandes was, at least in theory, going for the ball.
36 min Semenyo skips past Dalot and blasts a low cross that spins behind for a corner off the stretching Tielemans.
34 min City have arguably played better since going down to 10 men. As Gary Neville says, they’re moving the ball more quickly than earlier in the game.
32 min Fernandes reverses a lovely through pass to Rashford, who can’t quite control it on the stretch. The ball runs towards goal and Donnarumma flies from his line to dive at Rashford’s feet.
City have switched Rayan Cherki to the right, by the way, so they’re playing without a No10.
30 min “Simon McMahon’s point has been fully borne out by the madness of Phil Foden,” writes Justin Kavanagh. “A couple of yellows earlier would have stopped this pot from boiling right over so early. Instead, here we are now, chaos fully embraced. But entertained, admittedly.”
I think Foden’s reaction would have been the same regardless. There are certainly some games in which the referee loses control by not showing early yellow cards, but this feels like an isolated incident.
28 min Here’s what happened with the Foden red card.
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Fernandes shoved Foden over from behind near the touchline.
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As Foden fell, Fernandes had a short kick at the loose ball but instead caught Foden. (The alternative interpretation is Fernandes knew full well he was going to catch Foden and used the location of the ball as an excuse.)
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Foden rolled backwards and pushed his studs into Fernandes’s stomach. It wasn’t especially violent, but by the laws of the game it constitutes violent conduct.
27 min A City corner is cleared as far as Cherki, whose chest-volley is well blocked by Mainoo near the penalty spot. That might have been sneaking in.
26 min Although that was a clear red card, I really feel for Foden, especially in the context of his struggles over the past couple of years.
City might feel doubly aggrieved because of the red card that should have been shown to Diogo Dalot on this ground in January.
25 min Foden doesn’t want to leave the field and is eventually told to do one by a hard-faced Erling Haaland.
Fernandes definitely had a kick at Foden and it’s a surprise he wasn’t booked. Foden’s response was instinctive, unwise and a clear red card.
VAR are checking this. Fernandes had a little kick at Foden, though in theory he was going for the ball. Foden rolled over and then shoved his studs into Fernandes’s stomach. Good luck getting away with that.
23 min: Phil Foden sent off!
Crikey, what’s happened here. Phil Foden has been given a straight red for lashing out at Bruno Fernandes.
22 min Dalot’s short backpass is read by Semenyo, who tries to find Haaland in the middle. But he doesn’t get enough on his lobbed cross, allowing Lammens – who was a long way from home – to claim.
At the other end, Enzo Fernandez makes a vital lunging tackle to stop Mbeum’o’s cross reaching Tielemans 12 yards from goal. He had to get that right.
21 min Rashford receives the ball from Cunha on the left side of the area, uses Dorgu by not using him and then cuts inside to hit a shot that is blocked at source by Nunes. Good defending.
United are the better team at the moment, though there isn’t a huge amount in it.
