Former Manchester United’s defender Gary Neville has commented on Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side 0-2 defeat to Manchester City on Saturday drawing the parallel with boxing. At Old Trafford, on Saturday afternoon in Manchester derby City defeated Manchester United on a 2-0 match score, thanks to an Eric Bailly own goal and a Bernardo Silva score before halftime.
“At the end of the game there was a consensus as to where Man City are and where Man United are, and it’s not where anyone expected United to be at the start of the season. They came second last year, third the year before. This was the year, especially adding Varane and Sancho, where Man United were going to get closer,” Neville told Sky Sports.
“It’s difficult to summarise the game other than to say that against Liverpool it was smash, bang, wallop. But this was like a general anesthetic – City put United to sleep. For the last half an hour, City toyed with United and made them look really ordinary. It was demoralising,” he added.
“I’m a Man Utd fan, and you marvel at the exceptional quality and discipline of City. The discipline of Phil Foden and Gabriel Jesus to stay in their position; there’s a method to it which is clinical and ruthless. That was a brutal second half, even though they didn’t score. That was like 12 rounds of real pain, like when Tyson Fury says he wants the other boxer to feel the pain for 12 rounds of three minutes, not to knock them out but to toy with them. That’s how it felt”.
