Manchester in England will come to a standstill at 5.30pm on Sunday when the town’s two football giants City and United collide at the Etihad Stadium.
As it stands, the “noisy neighbours”, as legendary Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson once called City, have the bragging rights in town after winning four of their last five Premier League meetings with the red half of town.
The Sky Blues are also defending champions in a league they’ve won three times in a row now. Such is Pep Guardiola’s team’s dominance in England that they’ve won the league six times since United’s last victory back in 2012/13.
Currently in sixth place on the log - 15 points behind their noisy neighbours who are second - United are the ones who will be looking to make geraas on Sunday.
But former Red Devils captain Roy Keane reckons it will be a moeilike task against Erling Haaland, Kevin de Bruyne and their spanmaats.
Keane says: “If United keep giving up the sort of chances they have in the last month or two then City will punish them. Hopefully a good Manchester United will show up and put in a good performance but they’ll certainly be up against it.”
The Red Devils know all about punishment at the Etihad, having lost 4-1 and 6-3 there on their last two visits to City.
To avoid a repeat, coach Erik ten Hag will need all their big guns to fire and with captain Bruno Fernandes playing through the pain of a “very bad” in the last two games, the coach wants people to rally around his captain.
After beating Nottingham Forest 1-0 in the FA Cup on Wednesday, Ten Hag hit out at online fans saying his skipper is kleinserig.
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The coach says: “He has a serious injury, he continued to play on Saturday [against Fulham] and now also he fought to be part of this game. He has a very high pain threshold...
“When you see that maybe they criticise him on social media, it’s pathetic. It can’t be.”
City klapped United 3-0 in the reverse tie, with Haaland klapping twice in that match.
𝗜𝗖𝗢𝗡𝗜𝗖 🤩
@VincentKompany's thumping header secured the three points against United back in 2012 💥 pic.twitter.com/WqZyeAyJvA