Premier League - Liverpool roar past limp United

Eurosport - Sun, 14 Sep 11:56:00 2008

Liverpool claimed their first Premier League victory over Manchester United under Rafa Benitez, coming from behind to win 2-1 at Anfield.

2008-2009 Liverpool-Manchester United Robbie Keane Ryan Babel - 0

Substitute Ryan Babel scuffed the winner 13 minutes from time to spoil record signing Dimitar Berbatov's United debut.

Carlos Tevez gave United a third-minute lead, assisted by Berbatov, before a defensive mix-up brought Liverpool level via a Wes Brown own-goal.

Liverpool dominated the second half, with Steven Gerrard and Babel coming off the bench, and went provisionally top of the table with Chelsea playing later on Saturday.

A dreadful afternoon for the champions was capped off when referee Howard Webb showed Nemanja Vidic a red card late on for a second bookable offence.

The afternoon began brightly for United, who received a boost before kick-off with the news that Gerrard and Fernando Torres both lacked sufficient fitness to start.

Reports emerged on Friday that the pair had received a green light to play 90 minutes but found themselves restricted to the bench.

Berbatov was immediately placed at the spearhead of a formidable attacking force with Tevez and Wayne Rooney.

Having returned to goalscoring form for England in Croatia, Rooney found himself shoved onto the right flank, with Tevez and Berbatov up front in a 4-4-2 formation.

It took less than three minutes for the two front men to combine to devastating effect.

Berbatov dribbled towards the right byline before cutting a low ball back behind Jamie Carragher.

With Javier Mascherano out of position, there was no Liverpool player to cut out the pass, and the ball travelled a long way to Tevez, who placed a cool right-foot shot beyond Jose Reina from 15 yards.

With their two main men watching on, Liverpool struggled to create moments of genuine quality, but Dirk Kuyt fired a warning shot when he sent a dipping 25-yarder wide on six minutes.

Many of the home side's best openings came from left winger Albert Riera, himself making a debut appearance, whose close control and tricky footwork caused constant problems for Brown.

The equaliser came when Patrice Evra blocked Xabi Alonso's shot with his head, sending the ball into the ground and looping towards the lurking Riera on the left side of the box.

Edwin van der Sar hesitated before racing out to intercept the ball. He succeeded only in patting the ball onto the shins of Brown, and the ball trickled back into the United goal.

While Brown was charged with the own-goal, the fault lay with Van der Sar, whose shaky start to the season continued.

The goalkeeper had already survived one sticky moment, when he flapped weakly at a corner and paddled the ball to Kuyt, but recovered well to stop his volley.

At 37, the big Dutchman's best days look to be behind him, and Ferguson could soon think about replacing him permanently with Tomasz Kuszczak or Ben Foster.

Liverpool dominated much of the second half without really testing Van der Sar. Striker Robbie Keane has not yet scored for his new club and looked desperately out of sorts, twice missing the ball altogether when shooting for goal.

Ferguson's clever mind games in the week, publicly questioning Keane's £20m price tag, cannot have helped either.

But the home side's persistence paid off when Javier Mascherano kept the ball in play by the right byline, Kuyt crossed low and Babel enjoyed a slice of luck with his shot, which was hit into the ground before bouncing over two defenders on the line.

Alex Chick / Eurosport

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  1. bbbbbbbboooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!! man u!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!11

    From ChunLin, on Wed 28 Jan 5:50AM

  2. ggggggggooooooooooo­ lllllllllliiiiiiiiiivvvvvvvveeeeeeeeeerrrrrrrrrrppppppp­ ppoooooooooooooolllllllllll­ !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

    From ChunLin, on Wed 28 Jan 5:50AM

  3. Who the @#$% are man united?! who the @#$% are man­ united?!

    From damnsoldja, on Mon 15 Sep 12:19PM

  4. fair enough ye bet us fair and square i'll admit it­ but seriously ye'll do nothin wit robbie keane.....­ he does nothin for our national team and is probably­ doin nothin 4 his missus in bed..... waste of time­ robbie they call him....

    From zigzigziggyzig, on Mon 15 Sep 10:32AM

  5. to man u season ticket holder, get ur facts rite pal,­ we had a spell when gerrard houllier was there and beat­ u four games in a row and if i remember correctly 2­ were in the prem, this is our 1st win since benitez­ took over and how sweet it was!!!!

    From neileastw, on Mon 15 Sep 9:39AM

  6. COMMENT 199 WILL B - ITS THE FIRST TIME LIVERPOOL HAVE­ BEATEN MAN UTD IN THE PREMIERSHIP WHICH HAS BEEN ON THE­ GO FOR 18 YEARS NOW, YOU KNOW THE TITLE THAT YOU LOT­ HAVEN'T WON AND WON'T WIN THIS SEASON?

    YOU LOT­ JUST RAISED YOUR GAME YESTERDAY BECAUSE THE BIG BOYS­ WERE IN TOWN.

    WILL SEE YOU BACK AT THE TOD NEXT YEAR­ AND WE WILL SEE THE LEAGUE POSITIONS THEN.

    CHEERS

    MAN­ UTD SEASON TICKET HOLDER

    FTL :-)

    From GOGS, on Sun 14 Sep 9:14PM

  7. Talk about commitment, talk about determination, talk­ about belief, Liverpool had and showed all those and­ even more against Man U. These have been the same pills­ that have seen Utd win the Prem in the last two terms;­ ditto Chelsea the two years previously. So if­ Rafa's charges have perfected the art of serving­ their bitter rivals some portions of their own­ medicines, then the Merseysiders are looking every inch­ potential Champions. The key would be focus and in­ Benitez the Reds have a cool-headed masterstroke.­ Forget about BIG money summer transfers, Riera is the­ real deal. To show the flashes and promising class as­ he did thereby becoming the ONLY foriegn player to­ record consecutive debut BIG derby wins over Utd is­ proof of the rarity of his breed. Liverpool will be­ thanking Heavens for acting WISELY, not burging to­ agent and media pressure to sign Barry for 18m. Albert­ for a paltry 5.5m is BARGAIN GOLDMINE. With him I think­ it's Rafa who truly has found the missing perfect­ piece in his jid-saw. No doubt this Liverpool squad is­ STRONG in character. They may not be PRETTY yet but the­ would surely be a HARD nut to crack. Best of LUCK to­ hardworking KOPITES.

    From Nice N, on Sun 14 Sep 6:07PM

  8. Fair do"s liverpool best team on the day but dont­ forget its a marathon not a sprint(some big club fans­ always said that in the 70s)

    From anthony h, on Sun 14 Sep 4:40PM

  9. stranglelostboy: nice to read something where there is­ substance behind ones opinion, not just simply­ 'liverpool r the best'. Again, I didn't­ watch the game but I'll take your word for Berba­ being lazy, but as a united fan I'd have to say­ it's someone like that we need. Someone to just­ hang around the box and poach goals. Both Tevez &­ Rooney have been criticised for doing a lot of donkey­ work but not being on the ball where it matters, the­ opponents 6 yard box. If Berba did not do half the work­ of the other pair do but get the goals in week in week­ out I'd be pretty happy.

    From Nicholas G, on Sun 14 Sep 4:34PM

  10. davidthrower, why are you chatting such @#$%.
    We won­ the game, accept it like a man, be gracious in defeat,­ then crawl back inside your hole you belsniff.

    From ALI J, on Sun 14 Sep 4:27PM

  11. On the day Liverpool were better, they hustled better,­ showed better recovery from the goal being scored, and­ simply outplayed Man U. All the @#$% and moaning­ won't change a thing, all the the "he's a­ better player...bhah blah blah..." won't­ change the fact that Liverpool pressure resulted in an­ own goal. Riera was all over Brown and made him make­ teh mistake - Simple!
    As for the Keane vs Berba debate­ - yes Berba set up the goal. No, Keane hasn't­ scored yet. BUT..... who did teh most work for his team­ on the pitch??? That's an easy answer... Keane by a­ mile. He's committed to doing whatever it takes.­ Where was Berba after that opening 10mins???? I­ didn't see much of him. Did he track back and put­ pressure on the Liverpool players? NO. Did he cross the­ halfway line in order to serve his team? HARDLY.
    Wouls­ I rather see Keane or Berba in my team? Easy question­ to answer... The guy with the commitment, please,­ Keane.
    Well done Liverpool, it's a great base to­ kick on for the season, but there's a damn sight­ more work to be done before we can start shouting about­ being Champions.

    But one thing is for sure. I'm­ as pleased as can be that Rafa has that monkey off his­ back, and teh lads now have the belief that they can­ beat ANY team on ANY day.

    That's all I have to­ say.

    From strangelostboy, on Sun 14 Sep 2:57PM

  12. I missed the game due to work and I couldn't bear­ bring myself to watch MOTD (typical I know) but was the­ game actually that good? Did Liverpool deserve their­ victory? i don't mind losing to be honest, it­ happens but I really can't stand when people start­ saying Liverpool will win this and do that/ united are­ @#$% and won\t win a thing this season etc. Still­ to early to be calling the shots on who'll be­ champion at the end of it. Just generally seems to be a­ lack of grace from both sets of supporters to be­ honest. Well done the 'pool for now anyway &­ please don't write off united, it's far to­ early for any of that ^_^
    Nick

    From Nicholas G, on Sun 14 Sep 2:26PM

  13. to nlwarberton i bet you wouldent have bean saying­ that if the mancs hade won axcept it the best team on­ the day won b

    From lesley-ann, on Sun 14 Sep 2:19PM

  14. typical pool fan. theres a differance between wanting­ and getting. we didnt want him.

    From alfa147x, on Sun 14 Sep 1:15PM

  15. We have got someone you could'nt get torres torres­ what a win you will never be better than our great club­ never!

    From ste.seng, on Sun 14 Sep 12:48PM

  16. i'm not a man utd fan but i have to agree,­ liverpool to win the premiership!!!!!!!!!
    that should­ go down in some good joke book.

    From barriew, on Sun 14 Sep 12:21PM

  17. it hard work and a bit of luck that make a champions

    From Cool, on Sun 14 Sep 12:15PM
  18. Comment hidden due to its low rating. Show

    liverpool have the record as the best team man u are­ trying to match what liverpool have done

    man u are­ like a @#$% chasing after you saying gonna get ya when­ they do get us they will still be retards

    From blueprinthiphopproductions, on Sun 14 Sep 12:12PM

  19. an own goal and a miskick don't make champions­ ,scfc

    From nlwarburton, on Sun 14 Sep 12:09PM

  20. This is to all the man u fans.
    U guys are guys a bunch­ of loser....................

    From Cool, on Sun 14 Sep 12:07PM
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