Manchester United travelled to the Etihad to take on Manchester City and the game had a lot of pride at stake for the away side. City needed a win to lift the title against their archrivals and were well on their way to their third league title in seven years after a 2-0 lead during halftime. However, United suddenly realized during the interval that it was a football game and they had a few stars themselves.
In a remarkable period of around 98 seconds, Paul Pogba scored twice to cancel out Vincent Kompany and Ilkay Gundogan’s first-half goals. United complete the come from behind win with a goal from Chris Smalling in the 69th minute.
City threw Kevin De Bruyne, Gabriel Jesus and Sergio Aguero in the second half but United held firm and eked out a memorable win. Here are the talking points from the game…
#3 Paul Pogba shows what he is capable of
A few months ago, Pogba was doing exactly what he was expected to. Then, a red card against Arsenal followed and from there, his season just didn’t click on. There were games where he looked extremely laboured. He was given the task to mark players, to track back, and to control a certain part of the pitch. Pogba isn’t that sort of a player, is he?
The pattern was the same during the first half against Manchester City as United were woeful and were chasing shadows. The second half was a completely different story with Pogba at the heart of it all.
The Frenchman’s runs were hard to stop as City took the foot off the gas. Pogba was a menace in the attacking third and got into good goalscoring positions. In a way, it couldn’t have gotten any worse for City, so they threw the kitchens sink and were rewarded.
Pogba is at his best when he plays the more dynamic role like he did in the second half. Putting in a shift, for sure yes. But doing that throughout the 90 minutes and shackling his ability? No.
