For Manchester United, the last five minutes of added time felt like an age. For Manchester City, time was ticking too quickly.
At 2-2 and down to 10 players, United just needed to hang on to claim one point to secure Champions League qualification. City sought one more goal at Old Trafford to snatch the European prize from their rivals.
It was not pretty, but United got the job done, qualifying for the Champions League for the second time in their seven-year existence.
City fell short. Interim head coach Nick Cushing, coy about his future, had failed to achieve his top-three task.
United’s desperation to get just one point showed. In the first half there was an intention to be forward-thinking, but they hardly played in the “full throttle” manner with which head coach Marc Skinner wanted them to attack this game. They lacked quality and discipline in what was a stop-start game and found themselves 2-0 down within 42 minutes.
Skinner said his team were “passive” as City scored a beautifully worked goal, finished off by Laia Aleixandri while Gabby George failed to track Rebecca Knaak, who headed home City’s second from a corner. But on a big occasion, in a derby, in front of 31,465 fans in the unfamiliar setting of Old Trafford — don’t forget they lost to Chelsea…
