Liverpool claim spectacular win at United
Fernando Torres was on top form for Liverpool
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Rafael Benitez has accepted that nothing less than three points at Old Trafford tomorrow will do if Liverpool are to have any chance of fulfilling their Premier League dream. |  |
Saturday, 14, Mar 2009 08:32
Liverpool reignited their fading title hopes with an impressive 4-1 win over Manchester United at Old Trafford.
United looked to be heading for potentially title clinching win when they took the lead through a Cristiano Ronaldo penalty.
But Liverpool came back in astonishing fashion and were helped along the way by a series of defensive errors from United. Fernando Torres capitalised on a mistake from Nemanja Vidic to equalise and then Steven Gerrard converted a spot-kick to give his side the lead.
The visitors added further goals from Fabio Aurelio and Andrea Dossena after United had Vidic sent-off.
Liverpool had suffered an early blow with Alvaro Arbeloa pulling out during the pre-game warm-up and this meant Jamie Carragher was forced to go into right-back with Sammi Hyppia coming in alongside Martin Skrtel in central defence.
Carragher was forced to put his body on the line early on when he blocked a Park Ji-Sung shot on the edge of the penalty area to force the ball over the bar.
Liverpool held their own in the early parts of the first-half but conceded a penalty after a clumsy challenge from Pepe Reina. Carlos Tevez had played a clever through-ball into the path of Park and he was brought down by the Liverpool keeper when the ball looked to be going out of play after a strong touch from Park.
Ronaldo thumped the penalty home to claim his 18th goal of the season and United fans were probably expecting a victory as their team have won every one of the 48 home games that Ronaldo has scored in.
But the home side gifted a goal to Liverpool after a lapse of concentration from Vidic, of all people. The Serbian has been a rock at the heart of the United defence this season, but his decision not to head clear a aimless ball into the United half led to Torres out-muscling the United defender and slotting past Edwin Van der Sar.
United looked to be rattled after conceding the goal and were unable to get control of the game. Liverpool would have been satisfied going in at half-time all square, but things got even better for them as they were awarded a penalty.
Torres played the ball into the path of Gerrard and he outpaced Patrice Evra to get in front of him and was then brought down by the United left-back to give away a definite penalty. Gerrard got himself up to convert the spot-kick.
Unsurprisingly United came out of the blocks quickly in the second-half almost had an equaliser when Ronaldo played a curling ball into the penalty area and Ronney managed to head it across goal, but Tevez seem to slip at the crucial moment and the chance was gone.
Sir Alex Ferguson put all his cards on the table in one move as he brought on Dimitar Berbatov, Ryan Giggs and Paul Scholes. But United's hopes of getting anything out of the game were blown away a couple of minutes later.
First Vidic saw his miserable day come to an early end when he was given a red card for pulling down Gerrard and stopping him from having a goal scoring opportunity. And to makes matters worse for United, Aurelio stepped up to find the back of the net with the resulting free-kick.
Liverpool should have added a fourth goal when another defensive error from Evra, gave Gerrard the chance to score from five yards out, but the Liverpool skipper fired his shot over the bar.
But United's disastrous defensive display was complete when they let a goal kick from Reina go through their entire team and land at the feet of Dossena, who chipped the ball over Van der Sar.