Mata Happy After Manchester Derby Win

Each Monday, Manchester United forward Juan Mata reflects on his experiences on and off the pitch in his personal blog. This week, the Spaniard looks back on United’s superb 1-0 victory in the Manchester derby and the disappointing Europa League exit to Liverpool…

Hi everyone,

I'm happy today, it's just a few hours after a very special win. These three points are very important for all of us. The Manchester derby is one of the games shown in red in our calendar, and when you win at your rival's stadium it leaves a very good taste, but especially for the millions of fans that Manchester United has all over the world.

The game was very intense and we took advantage of our best moments of play to seal the victory. I think we looked more experienced than in previous occasions.

In the first half, the game was even but, after good play, Marcus showed again that he is a great player in the making. We all believe in him, although we must remember that he's still very young and he's just arrived in the first team. In the second half, we had some good minutes but, at the end, as we expected, City pushed hard trying to level the score. However, we were able to keep the advantage and finally took the three points that put a smile on our faces before the international break. I think all of us should enjoy the good moments...

I don't want to overlook last Thursday’s game in the Europa League, our farewell to this competition. I honestly think that we gave everything we got and we believed in the comeback, but being 1-1 at half-time made things very difficult. It was a pity because we had to pay for our bad game in the first leg, but there is nothing we can do now. It’s better to look ahead, try to win as many games as we can and have the feeling we have right now after every match. These last three points offers us an opportunity to fight for a Champions League place. Hugs, and have a nice week!

Juan

Read Juan's blog in full at kicca.com/juanmata8.

Credit: Manutd.com