Manchester U 2 Liverpool 1

Man­chester Uni­ted 2 Liver­pool 1, Old Traf­ford, Eng­lish Pre­mier Lea­gue, Feb­ruary 11, 2012. A brace from Way­ne Roo­ney gave Man­chester Uni­ted a 2-1 win over Liver­pool at ho­me. Lu­is Suarez ma­naged to score a clo­se ran­ge goal in the 81st min­ute, but Uni­ted were able to keep the vis­it­ing te­am at bay for the re­mainder of the mat­ch to se­cure the victory.

The Reds of Man­chester were look­ing to ex­tract re­venge on North West en­emies Liver­pool at Old Traf­ford af­ter suf­fer­ing an evenly con­tested 2-1 de­feat ag­ainst Ken­ny Dalglish´s men at An­field in the fourth ro­und of the FA Cup on­ly two weeks earli­er. Man­chester Uni­ted gaf­fer Sir Al­ex Fer­guson had to make do with­out with­out the ser­vices of goal­keeper An­ders Linde­gaard; de­fenders Phil Jones, Ritch­ie De Laet, Chris Small­ing, and Ne­manja Vid­ic: mid­fielder Dar­ren Fletch­er: and for­wards Lu­is Nani and Mi­chael Owen be­cause of vari­ous in­jury prob­lems, but mid­fielder Tom Clev­er­ley re­turned for the Pre­mier Lea­gue clash wi­th the Mer­sey­siders. Man­chester United´s pro­vi­sion­al squad for the fix­ture in­cluded goal­keep­ers Da­vid de Gea and Ben Amos; de­fenders Fa­bio da Silva, Ra­fael da Silva, Chris Small­ing, Rio Fer­dinand, Pat­rice Ev­ra, Jon­athan Evans, and An­tonio Va­lencia; mid­field­ers Mi­chael Car­rick, Paul Scho­les, Paul Po­gba, Tom Clev­er­ley, and Ry­an Gig­gs; and for­wards Dan­ny Wel­beck, Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov, Javi­er Her­nandez, Ash­ley Young, and Way­ne Rooney.

Al­though Man­chester Uni­ted dom­in­ated pos­ses­sion of the ball for long spells dur­ing the fir­st ha­lf, the ho­me out­fit failed to find the back of the net be­fore the sound of the ha­lf time whistle. Smooth passing mid­field play­maker Paul Scho­les, who once ag­ain en­joyed a splen­did ga­me wi­th his ex­cel­lent dis­tri­bu­tion of the ball, al­most sco­red the open­ing goal for Uni­ted in the 31st min­ute, but his fe­ro­cious clo­se ran­ge head­er was mi­ra­cu­lously saved by the agile and ac­ro­bat­ic Pepe Re­ina in the Liver­pool goal. It was Way­ne Roo­ney who would open the scor­ing, how­ever, when the Liv­er­pudli­an ham­mered ho­me an ac­cur­ate right-hand si­de flag-kick from ever­green mid­field stal­wart Ry­an Gig­gs af­ter 47 min­utes. And on­ly a couple of min­utes la­ter, the Eng­land play­er sco­red one more time as he re­ceived a de­fence split­ting pass from spring-heeled wideman An­tonio Va­lencia and slot­ted the ball un­der Re­ina to net his sec­ond goal of the af­ter­noon. Then, wi­th just min­utes left of the fix­ture, no­ne oth­er than Lu­is Suarez ev­entually sco­red for the Mer­sey­siders wi­th a power­ful ef­fort from in­side the six-yard area which gave Da­vid de Gea no chan­ce to save what­soever. The Liver­pool Reds pressed hard for the equal­ising goal once they halved the de­fi­cit, but Man­chester Uni­ted kept their cool dur­ing the clos­ing sta­ges to col­lect all three points. Man­chester Uni­ted Te­am: Da­vid de Gea, Jon­ny Evans, Ra­fael da Silva, Rio Fer­dinand, Pat­rice Ev­ra, Paul Scho­les, Ry­an Gig­gs, Mi­chael Car­rick, Way­ne Roo­ney, An­tonio Va­lencia, Dan­ny Wel­beck. Sub­stitutes: Fa­bio da Silva, Tom Clev­er­ley, Ji-Sung Park, Paul Po­gba, Di­m­it­ar Ber­batov, Javi­er Her­nandez, Ben Amos. Liver­pool Te­am: Pepe Re­ina, Dan­iel Ag­ger, Mar­tin Skr­tel, Glen John­son, Jose En­rique, Stew­art Down­ing, Ste­ven Ger­rard, Jor­dan Hen­derson, Jay Spear­ing, Dirk Kuyt, Lu­is Suarez. Sub­stitutes: Mar­tin Kel­ly, Jam­ie Car­ra­gh­er, Char­lie Ad­am, Jonjo Shel­vey, Craig Bel­lamy, Andy Car­roll, Doni.

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