In Rain, Sleet & Snow, Barclays Delivers
Liverpool 2-2 Manchester United: English football's grandest rivalry produced a stunner at Anfield.
Joshua Zirkzee latched onto a through ball in the box in the 96th minute and played a bouncing square ball across to Harry Maguire, the once-pilloried giant of a center back who had just days before secured a vote-of-confidence contract extension. The script was written: he would tuck home the chance first time and wheel away to celebrate at the away end.
Except it was not a good ball to hit, and Maguire did not quite have the technique to meet the challenge, and he popped it over the bar. The slightest tweak to his contact would have snagged a signature victory for Manchester United away at Anfield over the seemingly unstoppable Reds of Liverpool. In the end, a game that nearly never kicked off at all due to a dense blanket of snow that descended on the north of England overnight, a game which ultimately was played in blustery, soaked conditions, was something like the game of the season.
It all started well. Liverpool controlled proceedings and crept continually into the Manchester United penalty area, occasionally peppering a shot at goal that was blocked or skewed wide. But United were also more than capable of breaking out and scampering into the space in behind Liverpool’s advanced position.
After 19 minutes, left wingback Diogo Dalot drifted over towards the sideline and hovered for a moment in front of Trent Alexander-Arnold, who was caught square for a second as Dalot accelerated and looped around him. Bruno Fernandes sliced an outside-of-the-boot chipped through ball and found him in behind. Dalot was away, clean through, not needing a touch to find himself on the edge of the box. He zipped in a cross that curled just behind Amad Diallo as the young Ivorian flew in, stretching his head for it near the center circle.
The match slid into halftime 0-0, but both teams had threatened, and in the 52nd minute, breakthrough. Fernandes was again involved for United as he drifted inside on the dribble at the top of the box, attracting defenders and waiting until Alexis Mac Allister jumped out to pressure him. The Argentine midfielder left a gap between him and Ryan Gravenberch, and Lisandro Martínez was lurking behind them after drifting back onside after a forward run. Fernandes found him with a brilliant scooped through ball and he was in. The diminutive center back ran onto it and smashed the ball in off the crossbar of Alison’s goal, beating the Brazilian all ends up to make it 1-0. He did the pregnancy cele—which is perhaps a bit too ubiquitous at the moment—and United were on top of the world at Anfield.
The goal unsettled Liverpool, and all of a sudden the high balls in weren’t calmly cleared. The ball bounced in the Liverpool penalty area and Kobbie Mainoo latched onto the loose ball and had a shot. He revved up the away end, which was roaring with approval. Finally, a performance worthy of the shirt. But just a couple of minutes later, their lead was erased.
Cody Gakpo exploited some space down the outside behind United’s back three-slash-five and Mac Allister found him with a fine through ball. Matthijs de Ligt was on the mad dash to cover and Gakpo chopped the ball cleverly to send him sliding out of the picture. With another touch, Liverpool’s Dutchman buried it high in the net, and Liverpool were right back in the game. The title march was set to continue.
And so it was in the 67th minute, when it looked like Manchester United Comedy Club was back in session. Michael Oliver missed De Ligt’s handball on first assessment, perhaps because of the frankly bizarre upward angle of the defender’s arm, but a VAR review dealt out justice and a penalty it would be. Mo Salah put away the penalty to pull even with Thierry Henry on 175 Premier League goals and give the home side the lead, but could Andre Onana have done better? The location was savable, but the goalkeeper somehow dove above the ball (which was, in fairness, laced by the Egyptian).
From there, it felt safe enough to believe Liverpool were going eight points clear at the top of the table. They continued to control things, particularly in the middle of the park, but United never lost that sense that they could break out and get the home team defending on the back foot, running back towards their own goal. In the 80th minute, substitute Alejandro Garnacho picked up the ball in just those conditions and ran at Ibrahima Konaté, shifting the ball to his left foot and squaring a low cross beneath the defender’s stride in a compound motion. It rolled across the box towards the Liverpool penalty spot, splitting the Red shirts and their lunging legs to find that man, Amad, running onto it. The Ivorian tucked the ball away low to even the score, 2-2, and flip the script again.
These two old heavyweights of English football slugged it out for another 16 minutes after that, throwing haymakers that grazed or whiffed their opponent. United caused havoc with a couple of set pieces and the pinball chaos that ensued, though Liverpool broke out from one of them and got down to United’s defensive third in two passes. Salah’s ball through to another substitute, Darwin Nunez, was snuffed out with a genius sliding intervention from young Lenny Yoro. Conor Bradley slinked around Fernandes’s challenge out wide and tried to sneak one in Onana’s near post, but the keeper avoided embarrassment, palming it away.
And then there was Harry Maguire. Or, I’d argue, Joshua Zirkzee. These are the moments where you write your name into a rivalry and become part of a club, but the summer signing came up short. He asked too much of his center back with a lack of concentration when hitting the pass, and the chance to seize all three points at the home of their great enemies went up in smoke, but manager Ruben Amorim was chuffed speaking with the press after the game. This was proof he can get fire from a dull stone.
For Liverpool, it will be a disappointment to surrender two points after storming back from 1-0 down into the lead, but it’s as you were with regard to the Premier League title they chase. Another matchweek is gone, and they’re six points clear at the top of the table with a game in hand. Barring injury to one or two key players, they don’t look like anyone’s catching them.⚽︎