The Blues boss is preparing for one of the most high profile of games just a few weeks after arriving at City, with the draw for the Carling Cup seeing an extra two City-United games added to the fixture list.
But with a place at Wembley up for grabs over two legs, for Mancini it’s not the usual one-off derby scenario of doing well against your local rivals over every other game on the calendar.
Roberto says, “Derbies are important, but for a big club you have to think about the bigger situation. A derby is one game, but fans and players have to think further ahead. We have to look at winning trophies and doing well in the Premier League as well, that’s the mentality I want us to have.”
The boss has played his part in some intense local rivalries as both a player and a manager, so he has a good idea what to expect on Wednesday night
“In Genoa and Rome, all year long people would only talk about two games!” he laughs. “It was different in Milan, I think because both clubs had won a lot of trophies and had a lot of success, but at Sampdoria and Lazio there was so much focus on beating your local rivals.
I know what it means to supporters when City plays United, and I have seen similar things in my career already so I would love to reward them with a good result.
...Roberto Mancini...
“We need to remember that we have two games to try to get to Wembley. It’s a derby match, it’s against United but we need to be calm. If we can win at home we will be in a good position for the second leg. We know it’s a derby, but we can get to a final over these two games so we must concentrate on being on top at the end of both games.”
