On this day: Manchester United beat Manchester City in five-goal thriller

By Darren Plant, Senior Reporter | 07 August 2014

On this day in 2011, Manchester United come from two goals behind to beat rivals Manchester City 3-2 in the Community Shield at Wembley.

On this day in 2011, Manchester United and Manchester City renewed their fierce rivalry when they faced each other in the Community Shield at Wembley Stadium.

United had earned their spot in the traditional season opener after winning the Premier League title during the previous campaign, while Manchester City ensured a place against Sir Alex Ferguson's side by winning their first FA Cup for 42 years.

Ferguson included summer signings David de Gea and Ashley Young, with Phil Jones taking a place on the bench, while Manchester City's three new additions - Stefan Savic, Gael Clichy and Sergio Aguero - were all kept in reserve by boss Roberto Mancini.

Both teams started the North London fixture with an attacking mindset, with Joe Hart being forced to keep out a low Young strike, while Aleksandar Kolarov was causing trouble for United down the left-hand side.

Slowly but surely, United were beginning to dominate possession and shortly before the midway point of the half, Nani cut inside from the flank before laying the ball off to Wayne Rooney, but he wasn't able to hit the target.

Manchester City's English defender Joleon Lescott scores a goal during the FA Community Shield football match between Manchester United and Manchester City at Wembley Stadium in London, on August 7, 2011 © Getty Images

Referee Phil Dowd dished out three yellow cards in as many minutes as tensions threatened to boil over, but Rooney attempted to ensure that the focus remained on play by sending a curling effort marginally wide of the top corner.

However, with seven minutes remaining of the half, it was City who took the lead through Joleon Lescott, who jumped above Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand to send a header past De Gea.

All of a sudden, City were in the ascendancy and they made it two before half time after an inexcusable error from De Gea. Edin Dzeko's 30-yard effort should have been easily dealt with by the Spaniard, but he let it go through him and into the net.

United needed an immediate response after the break, and after Danny Welbeck had headed a Tom Cleverley cross wide of the post, they pulled a goal back through Chris Smalling, who beat Lescott to direct the ball past Hart.

The match had developed into a thrilling contest, with both teams showing that they were exceptional going forward but less than assured in defence, and that continued as United found an equaliser with less than a quarter-of-an-hour gone in the second half.

Manchester United's Portuguese midfielder Nani goes round Manchester City's English goalkeeper Joe Hart to score the third and winning goal during the FA Community Shield football match at Wembley Stadium in London, England on August 7, 2011 © Getty Images

In what was an early contender for goal of the season, Cleverley and Young combined on the edge of the area before sending the ball through to Nani, who lashed it past Hart and in the Manchester City net.

The momentum of the game was broken up by a series of substitutions, but despite United remaining on top, they were grateful to De Gea for keeping them level with 15 minutes remaining when he pulled off a terrific save to deny Adam Johnson at the near post.

United responded through Cleverley, who was producing a superb second-half display, but his effort was saved by Hart as his team started to build up a head of steam going into the closing moments of what had been a pulsating encounter.

With the game remaining level in injury time it appeared as though it would be decided on penalties, but in the fourth minute of added-on time, Nani capitalised on some indecision from Vincent Kompany to latch on to a long ball from De Gea, and with impeccable composure, he rounded Hart to tap the ball into an empty net to give United their 19th Community Shield.

After a topsy-turvy campaign, City got their revenge on the final day of the season when two injury-time goals from Dzeko and Aguero helped them to a 3-2 win over Queens Park Rangers to earn the club their first Premier League ahead of United, who had been ousted on goal difference.