Match 12 Review: All money, No play makes CITY look like an IDIOT (Video)

“If Sir Alex is given 170 million for transfers, he will probably create an invincible team.”

These were the words of the commentators when they calculated the net worth of players in the City starting XI. Add to that 90 millions on the bench and you can see why everyone hates them. 260 million worth of players and still no trophy to show.

The build up to this derby was intense with players and manager of both the teams coming out in the media to taunt the other.

Both the teams started with a full strength squad that was available to the managers for selection with United opting for a 4-3-2-1 formation to tackle City’s somewhat similar formation. United had a full strength defense with Rafael, Vidic, Rio and Evra along with a strong midfield that consisted of Fletcher, Carrick and Scholes. The hero of the last match, J.S. Park and Nani started as wingers with Berbatov alone up front.

It hardly took one minute for the game to heat up with Paul Scholes committing a foul when the clock read just 35 seconds. This was the first of many challenges from the midfield maestro. It seemed that the game would just get more intense from here but that was not the case to be. The first half of the highly anticipated Manchester derby had nothing much to excite the noisy crowd of 47000 present in the stadium apart from a Tevez free kick which was managed pretty awesomely by our “Flying Dutchman”. Apart from that, there was a chance for Evra, when the left back took the ball into the penalty area with a delightful footwork only to see his shot hurled right at Joe Hart.

In the 42^nd minute, Scholes was given a long due yellow card for his rash (for us, awesome ;)) challenges.

Rafael, the Brazilian left back who “tamed” Gareth Bale a few days ago against Tottenham certainly had Tevez and Silva “in his pocket” for the entire first half, matching Silva in terms of pace. The main highlight of the half, or rather the entire match, came when Rafael and Tevez had an intense war of words just before the end of first half. The Argentine “twat” was probably frustrated by the lack of chances his team had created. The referee had to intervene along with a few players to separate them ending the first half with a promise of a fiery second half.

Watch the Rafael Tevez fight incident video 

But again, the crowd was disappointed as both teams concentrated on defending rather than scoring. United were forced to make an early substitution in the second half when Rafael, who entered the ground limping slightly in the II half, had to be substituted after just 5 minutes of play. Wes Brown took his place at the Right Back.

Evra too had to be substituted for John O’Shea because of an injury he picked up in the first half. The story of the second half was similar to the first, though United enjoyed a bit more possession in the second half as compared to the first. A creative move saw Wes Brown's cross to Berbatov whose shot went straight into the hands of Hart. Just an inch to the right or left of the keeper and surely Berba would have celebrated in style. City had a chance later when a slight defensive error from O’Shea led to a strike by Zabaleta which went over the post. Both teams made changes with City bringing on Adam Johnson for Milner, Kolarov for Boateng and Adebayor for Tevez and United bringing on Chicarito for Berbatov. Though, none of them had much of a chance to make an impact on the game that ended in a goalless draw.

Analyzing the performance of the players, one has to agree that when Rio and Vidic combine at the heart of the defense, it becomes impossible for the opposition players to break through.

Rafael was excellent before being substituted by an injury and so was Evra who was a constant threat for City denfense with his fast runs to the other end of the pitch. Scholes was as-ever at his best with Carrick performing slightly better than in his previous outings. Fletcher was outstanding in the second half giving away everything when United were defending on the break. Berbatov didn’t have much to do and Park and Nani did enough to get a draw out of this tricky fixture.

This is what the BOSS had to say after the match: "City are very difficult to beat on their own

ground,that's obvious from the way they set their stall out in the second half. But I think there was maybe too much tension for the game to be as open as people thought it was going to be. I was pleased with the control we had of the game and some of our football was very good. We were very confident, we had good composure on the ball but we needed to make chances and we needed to win the match. In that sense we only had two openings, two

chances, one in the first half and one in the second half from open play. So that's a bit disappointing for us."

Next up for United is Aston Villa, away from home on Saturday. Till then sing it loud “GLORY GLORY MAN UNITED”

Manchester City 0-0 Manchester United (Quick highlights)