Manuel Akanji lamented Manchester City's reaction to Bruno Fernandes' controversial equaliser in the derby, suggesting the Blues did not calm down and deal with the situation as well as they could have.
City had grown into the derby and taken a second-half lead through substitute Jack Grealish, but Fernandes' leveller was quickly followed by Marcus Rashford's winner five minutes from time to ensure the Blues suffered back-to-back defeats.
The United equaliser was the turning point as an offside Rashford continued his run to the City penalty area, before allowing Bruno Fernandes to take over at the last second to score past Ederson. Although Rashford didn't touch the ball, City were adamant that he interfered with play and should therefore have been ruled offside.
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However, the referee and his assistant determined that Rashford did not interfere, and the goal stood, much to City's collective frustrations. And Akanji admitted that City should have taken the opportunity to reset and clear their heads and must learn that lesson for their next fixture,
"We played really well, second half better than the first half," he told City's media team. "We did some changes. We dominated and deservedly scored the first goal. Also after the 1-1 we've got to be clearer in the head. We've got to defend for a couple of minutes to calm down and attack again. We didn't do that today after the 1-1 and I hope we can improve on that in the next game.
"It was a different performance [than the Southampton defeat]. Against Southampton it wasn't a good game at all. We lost a lot of duels, we weren't good with the ball. We had a lot of misunderstandings. That was a lot better today, but still we've lost chances and we really need to win on Thursday against Tottenham."
Akanji had already made his feelings clear on why Rashford interfered with play from an offside position, and repeated his frustrations when asked by City TV.
"For me it's clearly offside. Rashford is chasing the ball for 30 metres," Akanji explained, adding that he defended the situation to deal with Rashford's run.
"He stops at the last second where he was able to shoot and I focussed myself on him. Bruno Fernandes tells him at the last minute he's not in an offside position and can take the ball. Obviously Rashford distracts me and Kyle [Walker], preventing us from taking the ball. He's like five metres in front of me. He's clearly in an offside position. I understand he doesn't touch the ball but he's interfering. He's chasing the ball for 30 metres. He's clearly offside."
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