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Whatever now happens in the FA Cup and whatever the banner at Old Trafford may say it is not quite true to suggest Manchester City have not won anything for the past 35 years. They won their biggest match of the season here and, although their conquered neighbours will be reluctant to admit it, one of Manchester United’s biggest matches of the season too. They denied United a treble, and while that may not quite count as knocking them off their perch, it is a beginning. It would be typical of City to go and lose to either Bolton or Stoke in the final now, yet they will always have this happy memory. It was a match they had to win to retain any sort of local pride, not to mention wider credibility after all the money that has been spent, and in the end they won it surprisingly convincingly. Ryan Giggs never started in the game and Paul Scholes did not finish it, but this was emphatically City’s day, not a reprise of 1999. Pre-match rumours of a weakened United side proved unfounded as Sir Alex Ferguson named something close to his strongest available team. Javier Hernández had to be content with a place on the bench with Dimitar Berbatov leading the attack on his own in similar fashion to the home league game against Fulham last week, the first occasion United had to manage without the suspended Wayne Rooney. For his part Roberto Mancini left Edin Dzeko on the bench and went with a front three comprising Adam Johnson, Mario Balotelli and David Silva. The formation was no surprise, nor was the absence of Carlos Tevez, but what City fans were anxious to see was how aggressively their side would attack after the limp surrender at Liverpool on Monday night. They were still waiting to find out, after 15 minutes of typically stodgy semi-final fare from both sides, when United suddenly burst into action and came close to taking the lead with an intricately worked passing move. Only Joe Hart’s reactions denied Berbatov in the end, but the way Michael Carrick, Scholes and Park Ji‑sung played the striker clear on goal with a series of short, precise passes through the middle was almost Brazilian in its slick audacity. United almost caught City out from the resultant throw-in, too, and were grateful Aleksandar Kolarov stayed alert at the far post to prevent Berbatov sliding home Nani’s low cross. Nemanja Vidic flashed a header wide from a corner as United began to rack up the goal attempts midway through the first half. By that point in the game City had had none worthy of the name. The first proper City threat arrived just past the half-hour mark, when Silva’s accurate cross from the right picked out Balotelli near the penalty spot, only for the ball to stick under the striker’s feet. Had the Italian managed to get in a shot he might have scored, but when Barry took over the Englishman was obliged to shoot from a narrower angle and could find only the side-netting. All the same, City were inspired to produce their best spell of the first half: Balotelli forced a save from Edwin van der Sar with a deceptively powerful effort from 30 yards out; then from a Johnson corner Joleon Lescott volleyed over at the far post from a position a recognised forward ought to have at least hit the target. City were thus able to claim a rough parity of attacking ambition by the time the interval arrived, in fact with a late near miss from Vincent Kompany and a good block from Vidic being required to stop a promising Yaya Touré run they probably shaded the first period. They had started with sensible rather than excessive caution and, with United possibly tiring after their midweek exertions against Chelsea, City played their way into the game and finished the first half looking the more purposeful. Balotelli also began the second half looking sharp, freeing Kolarov on a left wing overlap and narrowly failing to convert his return ball to the near post, though it was Touré who finally opened the scoring when United made a series of defensive errors. First Van der Sar put his own defenders under pressure with a weak clearance, then Carrick surrendered possession to Touré to make the situation worse. Suddenly gathering momentum as United’s cover evaporated, Touré held off Vidic before rolling a low shot beneath Van der Sar. With United barely venturing out of their own half, City relaxed to the extent of making a few trick passes as the hour came up, although what they really needed to settle the matter was another goal. While Balotelli playing with confidence verging on impudence is a sight to behold, his tendency to waste good positions with too nonchalant a pass would have been better saved for less fraught situations. Johnson almost forced an own goal from Van der Sar and Lescott headed wide from a Silva cross before United reminded their opponents that they were still in the game. What settled City’s nerves in the end was United going down to 10 men, with Scholes all too predictably seeing straight red for a lunging challenge that raked Zabaleta’s thigh. In fairness the ball was there to be won and neither player was holding back, but whereas Zabaleta succeeded in reaching the ball Scholes played only the man. Berbatov was sacrificed for a replacement midfielder in Anderson, a switch that seemed to further reduce the likelihood of United getting back on terms, although not every City supporter would have been happy to see Shaun Wright-Phillips take over from Johnson for the last 11 minutes. Mancini was possibly not banking on an extra five minutes of stoppage time as well though, despite the substitute infuriating as only he can, City managed to see it out. FA Cup Manchester City Manchester United Paul Wilson guardian.co.uk