Juan Mata settled the 173rd Manchester derby to ease the pressure on Jose Mourinho.
The United boss had confessed to feeling trapped in his Manchester hotel room to add to the pressure poor results have created.
And Mourinho revealed he was so desperate to repay the fans for Sunday’s 4-0 drubbing at Chelsea that he changed the line-up he had intended to play against City.
“Yeah, I picked a stronger team,” said the Manchester United boss. “In the last seven games we lost one, but it was a big defeat in numbers that the history of this club does not deserve.
“When I’m at a club, my heart belongs to the fans and I felt deeply for them. I never had people like these ones. We lost 4-0 and they were still supporting us.
“Today the stadium was full, not full of people, but full of real support. The love the people have for the club is bigger than bad results and bigger than three bad seasons.
“We had to give something back and my players gave everything.
“The feeling was fantastic because the players showed that they really care, they care for the fans and they fought for them.”
Mourinho put his hands together to gesture he was sorry to the fans last night and he feels the derby win has helped erase the painful memory of Sunday.
“I’m happy not for myself, but for them,” he said. “In the last week everything went against us.
“We are professionals, but the fans obviously felt such a negative result deeply and today was a good chance to clean a bit of that feeling away because it was a derby and a knockout competition.
“To win against Man City, I think gives everyone a better feeling and I’m especially happy for the players and the fans.
“To support Manchester United when they are winning Trebles is easy. To support Manchester United when they are winning five titles in seven years is easy.
“But to support them when they lost 4-0 is not easy and that’s what I’m happy for them that we won.”
Manchester United will play West Ham in the quarter-finals of the EFL Cup.
COMMENTS