Manchester United Vs. Manchester City, FA Cup Semi-Final: City Defeat 10-Man Red Devils 1-0 Thanks To Toure Goal

Yaya Toure has stolen the show at Wembley Stadium for Manchester City, as the Blues have put together a fantastic final hour of football en route to a 1-0 win over their rivals Manchester United. City will be headed to their first FA Cup final in 30 years, where they will likely be favorites against the winner of tomorrow’s semi-final between Stoke City and Bolton Wanderers.

The lone goal came in the 54th minute from Toure, who might have been named man of the match even if he didn’t score the winner. The chance was created when Michael Carrick sloppily gave the ball away to Toure in his own half, and the Ivorian took advantage. After getting the ball, he powered past Nemanja Vidic and finished calmly, giving City the only goal they would need.

Yaya Toure’s opener hasn’t seen City drop into a defensive shell like many might have expected - they’re still going for it and severely testing a shell-shocked United defence. Although the goal hasn’t quieted the red half of Wembley, who are still singing along quite happily, it’s given City some extra impetus and they look more likely to grab their second than their opponents do to equalise. United have done nothing yet this half.

Both Manchester United and Manchester City came to play in their FA Cup Semi-Final at Wembley Stadium, but neither team has been able to finish thus far. Dimitar Berbatov had the first half’s best chances and he absolutely should have put the Red Devils ahead early, but he wasn’t the only person guilty of poor finishing.

Berbatov’s chances came back to back in the 15th minute. The first came after a great bit of build-up play, capped off by a through ball into the box by Park Ji-Sung. Berbatov ran onto the ball and got a shot away, but it was well saved by Joe Hart. Seconds later, Nani sung a low cross into the box that met the foot of Berbatov, but the striker inexplicably skied his easy chance over the bar.

Two minutes of injury time saw not much in the way of real action, so we’re going to go into the interval at 0-0. It’s not been too bad of a match so far, and it would be surprising if we ended up going to extra time or penalties here.

United weren’t done there, however. The ball popped out to Nani on the left wing, and the Portuguese - apparently all recovered from that Nigel de Jong kick of a few minutes ago - worked his way into the area before sending in fizzing low cross that Berbatov was first to. The Bulgarian slid in but got tangled up in his Aleksandar Kolarov’s feet, sending the ball flying over the crossbar from three yards out and simultaneously twisting his ankle in the process. He should be ok to continue, however. It’s all United right now, though.

So we’re rather back to square one here - slow passing play that builds up to nothing but totally pointless punts forward. One of these two teams would do well to even try to attack; their fear of being hit on the counter is obviously curtailing their more aggressive tendencies.

That said, City just came up with a quarter chance on a two-man attack, with Yaya Toure and Mario Balotelli surging up the middle of the pitch. Balotelli outsped his marker and Toure’s throughball came very close to finding him, only for the ever-alert Edwin van der Sar to reach the ball just ahead of the Italian striker.

It’s difficult to see a fool-proof strategy for beating Silva, so United might have more success in blocking off his obvious passing opportunities. Contain whichever one of Edin Dzeko and Mario Balotelli Roberto Mancini fields (on recent form this is not particularly difficult), don’t let Yaya Toure break through the lines and suddenly Silva becomes far less of a threat.

It’s easy to forget that City have on occaision played brilliantly this year, certainly well enough to beat United should the league leaders come out at something less than their best. Danny Pugsley at SB Nation’s Manchester City blog Bitter and Blue is reminding everyone that City do have the talent not to simply get rolled over by United and that the game could be much closer than many expect:

The narrative is all skewed to one side here. City are perennial losers, something that their cross-city foes enjoy pointing out ad nauseum, and they stand a very good chance of winning the competition if only they can dispatch their demons against Sir Alex Ferguson and company.

Mancini then has good reason to wish to change history for his suddenly beleaguered club: