The points were shared in the 170th Manchester Derby, as Manchester United and Manchester City played out a goalless draw at Old Trafford.
The result means that United stay fourth in the Premier League table, while City climb back to the top of the Premier League on goal difference. It could have been different had substitute Jesse Lingard’s effort in the dying moments dipped a little lower instead of hitting the crossbar, but it wasn’t to be for the Reds.
Louis van Gaal and Manuel Pellegrini both felt that the result was fair, but what did their players have to say?
Chris Smalling:
I think it’s one where it could have been a little bit more [exciting]. Both teams were very compact and well organised, and there weren’t too many chances.
I think we probably edged it overall with the chances we had in the second half. Towards the end, you could tell that, for the last 20-30 minutes, they were hanging on and bringing on defenders, so it was on us to really push forward and we did. On another day, the chances we had might have gone in.
I think if we came into today’s fixture and, if someone told us we would get a clean sheet, we would have taken your hand off.
I think we can take a lot of confidence from this game. We more than held our own and we had the better of the chances, so I think we are still in the title race.
Vincent Kompany:
I don’t know how it looked from the outside but it didn’t feel like a dynamic derby – neither side wanted to lose the game, but there was some good battles and interventions out there and for us, a good draw.
We found it difficult to find space and when we did find it, we didn’t do enough with it but defensive stability is what the bigger teams need and I think we both showed that today.
They had to work hard for their chances but we have the best keeper in the league so it was a good draw and overall it was a good performance.
