After many instances in which Manchester United found itself on the winning side of last-gasp victories, most notably the Champions League final in 1999, their fans witnessed a monumental loss in extra time today.
Yes, Manchester United lost even the last trophy it could possibly win this year, the English Premier League title, after Manchester City players were able to score two goals after the 90th minute of their match against Queens Park Rangers (and one of these goals was actually scored after the conclusion of Man. U. 's game at Sunderland, as everybody who likes Man. U. was waiting to be able to start celebrating).
Speaking of which, this game, against Sunderland, did not seem to hang in the balance at all.
United for sure couldn't have scored 10, to be sure of a title win on goal difference (and maybe they should get some advice from Lyon on how to get teams - see Dinamo Zagreb - to step aside and lose at large goal differences), but they were always the team most likely to score next. At the end, also, they were just trying to pass the time safely, no doubt paying more attention to the game in Manchester than to their own exploits. Thus, in the last minutes, the Man. U. team was many times seen just passing the ball randomly so the time could run down quicker. And was that apathy, or what, from Sunderland?
QPR, though... totally different story! They did play the best game of their season, probably. And was there some compensation promised from United?
(I don't know.)
But, in my opinion, there was another factor that changed QPR a bit during the last few minutes of the match.
See, they were up 2-1. But Bolton, the team trailing QPR, was also winning 2-1, at Stoke. Man. City was missing chance after chance. And the QPR team maybe thought there was no way for City to score two goals when they could barely score one (with Zabaleta's goal even seeming to have gone in by accident) in almost eighty minutes.
And then it happened. In minute 77, Stoke City equalized against Bolton, and that score meant QPR no longer needed a win. A draw was not necessarily needed, either, anymore. And for sure QPR thought they would at least get a point against Man. City, considering how the game was going.
So, with the news from Stoke becoming known at the Etihad Stadium, Dzeko perhaps scored from amidst a bunch of players already thinking of their well-deserved vacations, and sure of their Premiership survival.
For sure, QPR did not want to lose, but I think Dzeko's goal discombobulated them.
Additionally, Aguero's goal was lucky, too, because Balotelli got an amazingly inspired touch of the ball, that fooled three QPR defenders, just as he was falling down, to set up Aguero's finish.
But all of that circus, and having their fans go from crying in despair to unexpected joy in extra time, should have totally been avoided.
Manchester City tortured their fans by almost letting slip away a win that they should have secured easily in the first place.
They were up 1-0 against the team with the worst away record in the Premier League. How do you screw that up? Well, Tevez and company, or should I say Lescott and Kompany, almost did. Cisse's and Mackie's goals should never have been.
Of course, in the end, City did very well to get back on track for the title, but it should have been way easier. That's all I'm saying.
Manchester City was certainly better than Manchester United this season. But they need to improve to win more titles, that's for sure. If they let another team come from behind, like this year, to secure an eight-point lead in the standings, with 6 matches to go, next year, for sure City won't come back to win the title in the same kind of dramatic fashion.
And yes, for those who give two cents, Bolton was the one relegated, not QPR, in spite of the amazing loss.
See highlights here.
By the way, Mark Hughes, QPR's coach said "Manchester City got lucky", not long after the match. A better commentary than anything Alex Ferguson had to say.
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