SOCCER:ROBERTO MANCINI angrily pinned the blame on the referee Chris Foy and insisted Manchester City could regard their 3-2 FA Cup defeat against Manchester United as a moral victory and a demonstration that his team are in a position of strength to win the Premier League.
Mancini was so incensed with Foy’s decision to send off Vincent Kompany he initially said he would not talk about it on the basis he did not want to incur a Football Association disciplinary charge and preferred to “stay on the bench for the next month”.
The City manager could not help himself in the end and also accused Wayne Rooney of deliberately influencing the referee by running to him and demanding a red card. “Rooney told him his decision,” he said pointedly.
City will appeal, with Mancini confidently claiming the decision would be overturned, but the mood was not only of bitterness and anger. The City manager was so encouraged by the way his team had threatened a replay after being 3-0 down at half-time he delivered his most confident speech yet when addressing the impact it could have on the title race.
“The feeling is good,” he said. “I’m not frustrated at all. I’m disappointed for the result but I’m happy with our performance and proud of my players. We played for 80 minutes with 10 men and, unless I make a mistake, we didn’t concede any chances at all in the second half. We knew it wouldn’t be impossible but very difficult to score three goals but, in the end, we had a chance and I think this is important for us for the league.
“We have taken a big move forward. We have really played well and I think we can win the league now. United are the top squad in England and if we can play like that against them with 10 players, show the same attitude and the same strength in every game, we will win the league.”
Alex Ferguson’s jubilation about gaining some form of revenge for October’s 6-1 defeat at Old Trafford was certainly tempered by what happened in the second half.
“We made them better than they were,” the United manager said. “It was ridiculous.
“We were so careless in the second half. We took our foot off the pedal from a position when we should have battered them. They waited for us to make mistakes. We made them and it turned it into a score it shouldn’t have been. This does us no good [in terms of the title] as it was a careless performance. We should have been home and dry.”
Ferguson warned Rooney at the end of another week of controversy, headlines and, finally, some brilliant football, he is facing the same problems Paul Gascoigne encountered at the height of his fame. “Wayne Rooney is a headline maker,” Ferguson said.
“He has to realise that the press have another Gascoigne. Good or bad, the press don’t mind. It is the situation that existed many years ago with Gascoigne. That’s what we are dealing with and he will have to suffer it. We have seen the good stuff today, but any flaws will be absolutely annihilated.”
On a day Paul Scholes made his surprising return, Ferguson could be seen berating Foy at the final whistle for denying United a penalty when the score was 3-1, and he dismissed Mancini’s defence of Kompany. “I have seen him [Kompany] do it before,” Ferguson said. “He has got away with it before. If there had been contact with Nani then it would have been a bad one. He [Nani] is lucky because the intention was there. It was a two-footed tackle, off the ground, and a red card. So the referee was right on that one.”
Mancini disagreed. “No, it’s impossible. Every person has his opinion and I respect his [Ferguson’s], but a red card for Vinnie? No. I’m sure we will win an appeal.”
Kompany faces a four-game ban because it is the second time he has been sent off this season, meaning he could miss both legs of the League Cup semi-final against Liverpool and the league games against Wigan Athletic and Tottenham.
