First blood to United as City get a football ‘lesson’

Manchester City 2 Manchester United 3. It's the red half of Manchester celebrating today after the Sky Blues were given what Wayne Rooney later called "a footballing lesson" in their Community Shield clash at Wembley. Two up at half-time, City squandered their precious lead after the break and were finished off by a 93rd minute goal from Nani.

"This shows who the best team is," said Rooney afterwards, adding: "All game we dominated. We never know when a game is finished, we took them apart. The scoreline is deserved. We are the champions and we're the team to beat." The England striker later rubbed more salt into City's gaping wounds by tweeting: "I have to say I think today was a footballing lesson."

Yet for the first half – contrary to what Rooney might have said – City gave as good as they got with Edin Dzeko, Nigel de Jong and Micah Richards all roughing up their opponents physically as referee Phil Dowd brandished four yellow cards.

City's approach unsettled United and on 38 minutes Roberto Mancini's men took the lead when David Silva's cross caused hesitation between Rio Ferdinand and debutant United keeper David De Gea. The confusion gave Joleon Lescott time to head the ball into the Premier League champions' net.  On the stroke of half-time City doubled their lead when Edin Dzeko was given far too much time and space to shoot by the United defence and his 20-yard effort beat De Gea when it should have been saved.

Ferguson's response was to replace his ageing and ineffectual central defenders Ferdinand and Nemanja Vidic with the young pair of Phil Jones, 19, and Jonny Evans, 23, while in midfield 21-year-old Tom Cleverley came on for Michael Carrick.

The injection of youth transformed the game and on 52 minutes United pulled a goal back when Chris Smalling fired home Ashley Young's free-kick, and six minutes later the scores were levelled when Nani started and finished a move that included neat contributions from Rooney and Cleverley.

By now City were struggling to last the pace and though United dominated possession for the rest of the game it wasn't until the third minute of stoppage time that Nani scored the winner after a catastrophic mistake by Vincent Kompany. The City defender, standing on the halfway line, appeared to have plenty of time to deal with a United clearance, but with Nani bearing down on him he fluffed his lines and the ball rebounded off the United player sending him through on goal. Nani then duly rounded Joe Hart and slotted the ball home.

"It's good to play against Man City and win like that," said Nani afterwards. "This is Manchester United and we always believe until the last minute."

For United the victory was sweet revenge for their defeat by City in last season's FA Cup semi-final at Wembley, and manager Alex Ferguson said: "Credit to the players, they kept their heads, played football and got the result we deserved. We have got a really good squad. They have courage to keep the ball and are not intimidated by rough tackling."

City manager Roberto Mancini admitted he was "disappointed" at the way his side had thrown away a two goal lead, saying: "Maybe they played better than us. But the right result after 90 minutes would probably have been 2-2." ·