Manchester derby: Wasteful City left perplexed by United’s hollow victory in Carabao Cup semi-final

So then, how will this Manchester United performance be painted? Will it be filed under “strides forward” or another example of Manchester City’s “respect” for their neighbours, to illustrate that the 20-time champions have “gone places?”

A 1-0 away victory on the night but 3-2 loss on aggregate in the Carabao Cup semi-finals will certainly be claimed as some glorious stand, the best kind of failure.

Despite securing another crack at domestic silverware, Pep Guardiola looked the more vexed manager at the Etihad, which told its own story about the conflicting standards of these rivals.

City have won just one of their last six home matches against United, who serve as kryptonite even when their displays are anaemic.

The tournament’s defending champions were better, but they were beaten in this second leg. They had the ball, they took the initiative and saw two goals rightly disallowed for offside and, at the end of it all, will contest the final against Aston Villa on 1 March.

But it was no surprise to see them concerned by the negatives following the final whistle instead of flagging the positives, such is their pursuit of perfection.

“I can’t really comprehend how we lost this game,” Kevin De Bruyne said. “For me, United had only one chance today. In front, we were way too wasteful, and we have to learn from this. But in the end it’s good that we go into the final. Now we are going to fight to win the cup.”

Ilkay Gundogan added: “We should have scored at least one or two goals today, but it was not meant to be.”

After 34 minutes that contained zero shots of any kind from United, as many corners and that same total sum of creativity, it was natural to wonder why Bruno Fernandes wasn’t already lining up under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer given the lack of depth and midfield quality at his disposal.

The club had announced an agreement with Sporting Lisbon for the 25-year-old hours before kick off at the Etihad on Wednesday night, but a deal could have been clinched much earlier in the window. By mid-January, United had made it clear they would not accede to the €80m (£68m) package wanted by the Portuguese club and yet the final figure is ultimately that.

As the clock ticked to 35, the unexpected happened. Fred curled in a free-kick from the left and Bernardo’s clearing header fell to Nemanja Matic just inside the box. The Serbian met the dropping ball first time, directing a sweet strike into the bottom right.

Claudio Bravo continued his unhealthy habit of conceding the first shot on target he faced and United – without having to construct any meaningful patterns of play and with David de Gea making a series of crucial saves – were ahead on the night and alive in the tie.

The visitors continued being largely anonymous in the final third, with Fred their biggest threat in unsettling City with his driving runs through the middle.

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Despite Solskjaer’s assertion that United “can’t just defend, we have to keep the ball and make them run after the ball”, they were only still hanging on in the semi-finals due to City’s faltering precision in front of the posts.

Raheem Sterling provided the ultimate snapshot of this after being slipped in by De Bruyne to create a one-on-one opportunity. The England international hesitated taking his shot, allowing Victor Lindelof to recover. Sterling shifted the ball inside, ousting markers before wildly blasting over the bar. Liam Gallagher summed up the scale of that missed opportunity, tweeting that he’d “have scored that on spice”.

If Guardiola’s disbelief wasn’t great enough in that moment, there was no measurement tool for it minutes later.

Harry Maguire played a horrendous pass in his own area that struck Sergio Aguero and broke for David Silva. Instead of testing De Gea, he teed up Bernardo, which gave the world’s most expensive centre-back a chance to redeem himself.

City seemed to be putting on an exhibition in how not to score when it felt the only possibility, but it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

Matic, the unlikely goalscorer reprised a more familiar role. He received a second booking for stopping a counter and headed for an early shower as United exited the competition with their heroics against Paris Saint-Germain remaining in their “memory bank” without materialising here.