Fans Respect Silence For Munich

Fans at Sunday's Manchester derby immaculately observed a minute's silence to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Munich air crash.

There had been fears some Manchester City fans would disrupt the silence before the game - in which the visitors beat rivals Manchester United 2-1.

But both sets of supporters inside Old Trafford stood for the full minute without any interruption.

However, several loud bangs appeared to come from outside the stadium.

City boss Sven-Goran Eriksson said: "I would like to say a big thank you to our fans. They were absolutely fantastic before the game during the minute's silence and of course during the game."

And the visitors captain Richard Dunne added: "Our fans were fantastic - everyone within the club knew they would be.

"We are very proud of them and hopefully they are very proud of our performance."

Inside the ground, United and City supporters held up special commemorative scarves that had been handed out before the game.

Banners around Old Trafford paid tribute to the 23 people, including eight United players, who died in the disaster on 6 February 1958.

A lone piper led the United and City players out on to the pitch, where they were greeted by a guard of honour of United's youth and reserve players, and mascots wearing shirts bearing the names of the victims, which included former City keeper Frank Swift.

United boss Sir Alex Ferguson and his City counterpart Eriksson laid wreaths in their club colours on either side of the centre circle before embracing.

Thousands of supporters had arrived early at Old Trafford early to leave flowers at a temporary shrine opposite the statue of Sir Matt Busby, the legendary manager in charge of United at the time of the crash.

There were tributes left from all over the world, with one shirt emblazoned with the message 'Busby Babes, forever champions in heaven'.

A new, permanent exhibition about the tragedy was open for the first time, built into the walls of the South Terrace at Old Trafford, which has been renamed the Munich Tunnel.

Sir Alex Ferguson and Sven-Goran Eriksson embraced before the game