Manchester United manager Louis van Gaal was in high spirits following his side’s 4-2 win at Old Trafford over local rivals Manchester City, ending any possible title challenge for the visitors and ensuring the north-west city is once again red for the first time in four years.
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The Red Devils manager was clearly pleased for the club’s fans at the result and understood the magnitude of the game in the city. He was quoted on BBC Sport saying, “”I was very pleased because the fans are pleased and we are playing for them. The fans have not always had a good time because we started very bad.
“But still they were supporting, and now the results are coming back. It’s great to be a supporter of Man United right now.”
Following some disappointing performances at the start of the season, Van Gaal was pleased with the turnaround in fortunes and his side’s ability to kill games off and put teams to the sword. Despite this, he did hint that had the team started the impressive form earlier, they could have possibly mounted a potential Premier League title challenge.
He added, “That is the most pleasant memory – you have seen the arousal of the fans. I cannot complain about the fighting spirit of my team because the first 15 minutes Manchester City dominated and scored.
“We equalised and regained confidence and then from there we played a fantastic match. Of course I think maybe we could have started this form earlier but the last 20 matches we’ve been good and better than most of the Premier League.”
For a manager who takes every game as it comes and doesn’t look beyond their next fixture, Manchester United’s manager was in ambitious mood and seemed confident of securing third place in the table and automatic qualification to the Champions League group stages.
He said, “”We are now four points ahead of City in third place which is very important because it gets you automatic qualification into the Champions League.
“We started badly, there was a lot of stress building up and because of that we went 1-0 behind. But we have good team spirit and came back. The second half was fantastic.”