Manchester United's Michael Carrick insisted the race for the Premier League was still on after his side's shock 2-1 loss to Manchester City at Old Trafford on Sunday.
Goals from Darius Vassell and Zimbabwe international Benjani Mwaruwari put City 2-0 ahead at halftime and left the champions with too much to do in the second half as Sven-Goran Eriksson guided City to their first league win at their local rivals' home ground since 1974.
Defeat left United two points adrift of league leaders Arsenal, who could extend their advantage to five points if they beat Blackburn Rovers.
PHOTO: AFP
But England midfielder Carrick, who scored United's consolation goal deep into injury time, insisted Sir Alex Ferguson's team remain in the hunt to retain their title.
"There are still a few games to go and I don't think Arsenal will go the rest of the season winning every game," Carrick said. "I'd be surprised if they do that. There will be a few more ups and downs to come and hopefully we can have more ups than downs."
This was United's first home match since Wednesday's 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster which took the lives of eight of their players and killed 23 people in all.
Before kick off both Ferguson and Eriksson laid wreaths in memory of those who died when an airplane carrying United home from a European Cup tie crashed on take-off.
Then came the minute's silence, the subject of much debate in recent weeks amidst fears of City supporters disrupting the tribute.
However, it was impeccably observed by all fans inside the ground.
"It was nice to see that the minute's silence for the Munich disaster went down really well," Carrick said. "Everyone was quiet, but in terms of the game, we have not gone home very happy."
United manager Ferguson was not around to discuss his team's performance having left Old Trafford immediately after the final whistle in order to catch a flight to South Africa for a press conference in Cape Town tomorrow to announce United's pre-season tour of the country.
But his assistant, Carlos Queiroz, blamed fatigue caused by the midweek international break for United's failure to avoid defeat.
"It was a very disappointing result for us. The lads tried their best to win, but it wasn't our day," he said. "We started with anxiety and we tried to win the game too early against a team who are always very well organized and threatening to surprise you on the counterattack. We had the wrong approach."
"But we had seven or eight players away who played 90 minutes for their national teams in midweek and that is always a problem. It is a not an excuse, but the team was affected by it," he said.
City's victory reignited their bid to claim a Champions League spot this season and manager Eriksson believes that Benjani, a ?3.7 million (US$7.2 million) buy from Portsmouth, could prove key.
"We have technique and pace, but with Benjani in our team we are even better because he has technique and pace in abundance," Eriksson said. "He will be extremely important for us because he is the perfect player for how we play football. With him and Martin Petrov, we were able to play some wonderful football and make some terrific counter-attacks."
Also See: Weary, winless Chelsea look to Africa
When Joan Monfort took photographs of Lionel Messi with a baby for a charity calendar almost 17 years ago, he knew the long-haired young man would make it big in soccer. He could not have imagined the little boy would as well. The baby in the photos — which have gone viral — was none other than Lamine Yamal, the Spanish wunderkind, who at 16 is showing such promise that he is already being compared with the greats. He is the youngest person to have played for Spain and the youngest to compete in the European Championship. The long-forgotten photo from 2007
Taiwanese tennis ace Hsieh Su-wei and partner Jan Zielinski of Poland on Friday advanced to the mixed doubles final at Wimbledon, just one step away from clinching their first mixed doubles title at the tournament. Hsieh and Zielinski, who won the Australian Open title earlier this year and who had reached the semi-finals at the French Open, battled past second seeds Michael Venus and Erin Routliffe of New Zealand 7-6, (7/0), 6-3. In the first set, the Taiwanese-Polish duo saved a set point, pushing the set into a tiebreaker. They clinched the set by winning the tiebreaker with seven straight points. The duo
CHALLENGE SET: Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and Poland’s Jan Zielinski are to play against New Zealand’s Michael Venus and Erin Routliffe in the mixed doubles semi-finals Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei and her Polish partner, Jan Zielinski, on Thursday advanced to the mixed doubles semi-final at Wimbledon in a tight battle that ended in a super tiebreaker. The seventh-seeded duo, who won the Australian Open mixed doubles title earlier this year and reached the semi-finals of the French Open, needed 125 minutes to beat Britain’s Jamie Murray and the US’ Taylor Townsend 7-6, 6-7 (10-5). Hsieh and Zielinski took the first set with a 7-2 win in the tiebreaker and seemed poised to close out the match in the second set tiebreaker when they took a 4-0 lead. With the Taiwan-Poland
Modern pentathlon has obstacles ahead as it bids farewell to the horse at the Paris Olympics and prepares for a future more familiar to fans of Ninja Warrior and Tough Mudder. The blend of fencing, freestyle swimming, show jumping, pistol shooting and cross-country running caused a commotion at the 2021 Tokyo Games when a German coach struck a horse that refused a fence. The sport was dropped from the initial list for the 2028 Los Angeles Games, but reinstated after the governing Union Internationale de Pentathlon Moderne (UIPM), led by 77-year-old German Klaus Schormann, decided the equestrian element would be replaced by