Jose Mourinho left aggrieved by 'crucial moment' in Manchester United's derby defeat against Manchester City

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Jose Mourinho was left feeling aggrieved after his Manchester United side were denied a late penalty in their 2-1 derby defeat to Manchester City at Old Trafford.

The United manager saw his side beaten by what he described as two “disgraceful” David Silva and Nicolas Otamendi goals, with Marcus Rashford responding for the hosts.

United needed to win to prevent the leaders City from opening up an 11-point gap at the top of the Premier League table, but were second-best for long periods against their neighbours.

With the score at 2-1 in the 79th minute, Ander Herrera went to ground in the penalty area under a challenge from Nicolas Otamendi but Oliver judged the midfielder to have dived.

“You can speak about anything you want,” Mourinho said in his post-match press conference. “You can bring any football theory, you can bring stats, ball possession, bring everything you want, but like last season it's a huge penalty in a crucial moment of the game.

“I have also to say I feel sorry for Michael Oliver because I think he had a good game, very good game, we come with intention to make the perfect work which they almost did.”

When asked whether he believed there was much between the two sides, Mourinho praised his players for limiting City’s much-praised attack to two “disgraceful” goals.

Both were scored following the breakdown of set-pieces, with Silva bundling in a first-half corner and Otamendi scoring after Lukaku failed with an attempted clearance.

“Depends on the way you analyse it,” Mourinho said of his side’s performance. “Depends on what we want to let them do and what we didn’t want to let them do.

“I think when you see City play you expect them to score great goals, not to score two disgraceful goals. [They] are the last goals you expect to concede against a team like City.”