With the latest clash between the city’s two football titans taking place at the Etihad Stadium today, the global focus is certainly on this ‘football mad’ metropolis.
Come derby day and the whole city is abuzz with red and blue, with excited chatter, with bitten fingernails. It is a day when Manchester looks only to Manchester, as does the world, yet this most Mancunian of fixtures has lost quite a considerable amount of its Mancunian blood.
Sports fans worldwide held their breath in horror in February when Team GB’s 19-year-old freestyle skier Rowan Cheshire crashed in halfpipe practice at the Rosa Khutor Extreme Park in Sochi.
The 20-times league champions head into the vital match on the back of a four-match unbeaten run, while City have lost their last two.
The Greater Manchester side go into the game with the second best home record in the league, with six wins from seven outings.
England’s last win over Australia was in the 1995 World Cup at Wembley Stadium, although the side did beat the Kangaroos in the 2006 Tri-Nations Series in Sydney when competing as Great Britain.
Rochdale sit ninth in the division after two impressive away victories against Yeovil and Swindon and Hill is pleased with the positive energy surrounding the club at this stage of the season.
Rosler will be locking horns with Fulham manager and ex Manchester City teammate Kit Symons at the weekend, his counterpart equally in need of a victory after his side lost 5-2 to Derby in mid-week.
Sharks have never won the Anglo-Welsh competition despite making two finals and this year’s campaign gives them the chance to blood some youngsters as well as give recovering players valuable match time, including Braid who returns after injury on day one
Man City come into Sunday’s crucial game against United on the back of three straight games without a win, the latest being a lacklustre home defeat to Newcastle United in the Capital One Cup.
The Latics have gone 13 games unbeaten in all competitions but face their sternest test of the season when they travel to Ashton Gate to take on the might of Bristol City.
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