Owen was taken to United hearts for embodying their DNA: a refusal to surrender. Sir Alex Ferguson’s side had dominated for much of this absorbing game yet City, resilience personified and inspired by the outstanding trio of Given, Nigel de Jong and Bellamy, kept fighting back, kept equalising. As the team who live closest to United, City should really know about their neighbours’ most celebrated quality. United never give up. From Nou Camp ’99 to Old Trafford ’09, injury time is their time.
Matt Lawton, Daily Mail
But there were times when United were second-best and Hughes looked so right when he dared suggest United were not the same now Cristiano Ronaldo and Carlos Tevez have moved on.
Tevez was terrific, ignoring the boos and a lack of fitness to deliver a display that would have been perfect had he not squandered one first-half chance with a shot that bounced off a post.
For long periods City were the better team in crucial areas: in midfield, where Gareth Barry, Nigel De Jong and Stephen Ireland dominated their opponents in much the same way they had Arsenal, and further forward, where the superb wing play of Craig Bellamy and Shaun Wright-Phillips exposed Ferguson's failure to find a decent replacement for the world's best player.
Oliver Kay, The Times
Hughes felt that City were “robbed”, furious that Owen had scored in the sixth minute of stoppage time, when Alan Wiley, the fourth official, had indicated that there would be four — or, to be accurate, a minimum of four. The minutiae of that decision are discussed elsewhere, but, no matter that City showed character in fighting back three times to equalise — and no matter how cruel defeat was on Bellamy, who scored twice and rivalled Ryan Giggs, his former Wales team-mate, as man of the match — it would have been an injustice had United’s second-half performance not been rewarded.
Kevin McCarra, The Guardian
Regardless of the resentment and the galling knowledge that not even a third leveller, from Craig Bellamy in the 90th minute, could secure a point, this match did City some credit. Sir Alex Ferguson would have you believe that a series of bungles caused United's difficulties but that was an acceptable account mostly of the second half. Prior to that, Carlos Tevez, back at his old club, and others were menacing.
City had been incisive and Bellamy, who would eventually score twice, was too vibrant for Ferguson's defence to subdue him entirely. There was disquiet in the United ranks before the game was under way. It could be witnessed in the Stretford End barrier that declared, "Your players make money, our players make history."
Sam Wallace, The Independent
That shock for Old Trafford preceded City's best period of the match when De Jong was excellent and you had to wonder what might have been different had Emmanuel Adebayor been available yesterday. Park Ji-sung struggled to make an impression. The mind drifted to what a difference Cristiano Ronaldo would have made. But there was no mistaking who came out for the second half minded to win the game.
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