4-1 defeat

By Chris,
March 15 2009

The Scousers breathed new life into the title race on Saturday lifetime as United fell to a humiliating 4-1 defeat at Old Trafford. The Red Devils saw their lead at the top of the Premier League slashed to four points as Rafa Benitez’s men handed United their heaviest home defeat since 1992. It really doesn’t get much worse than this.

The afternoon actually started in excellent fashion for United. After a bright start, the hosts took the lead shortly after the twenty minute mark. Pepe Reina dragged down Ji-Sung Park, Alan Wiley awarded the penalty and Cristiano Ronaldo coolly slotted home from twelve yards.

After Ronaldo's spot-kick, it looked as if United would, at the very least, deny Liverpool maximum points that the Anfield club realistically needed to keep alive their flagging title aspirations. However, it turned out to be a very different afternoon as the Scousers fired home four goals to leave hapless United stunned and demoralised.

The defence, rock solid so often, looked particularly shaky and a howler from Nemanja Vidic helped Liverpool restore parity. He misjudged a bouncing ball before being outmuscled by Fernando Torres who used his pace to show the Serb a clean pair of heels and slot a cool finish passed Edwin van der Sar.

Liverpool had their tails up and suddenly United looked shaken. Passes were going astray, the defence looked wobbly and the Reds were showing a distinct lack of belief. The Scousers were buzzing - and the 3,000 away fans went mental moments before the break as Patrice Evra clipped Steve Gerrard just inside the box and a spot-kick was awarded. VDS guessed the right way - but Gerrard scored, kissed the badge and celebrated in front of a shell-shocked Scoreboard End.

United struggled to create many dangerous chances after the break and the Scousers were solid at the back. Fergie's changes came too late - with Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Dimitar Berbatov all thrown on from the bench on 74 minutes. Only seconds later the result was put beyond reasonable doubt as Vidic saw red and VDS was beaten again by a stunning free-kick.

Vidic, sent off at Anfield earlier in the campaign, capped a woeful display with another dismissal. He practically rugby-tackled Gerrard to the floor and was given his marching orders. Fabio Aurelio then curled home the resulting free-kick with a superb left-footed effort from 25 yards.

United struggled to even feign a late comeback as the fans streamed for the exits. The misery was complete in stoppage time The defence failed completely to deal with Reina's goal-kick and the ball fell for Andrea Dossena who drilled home a delish long-range lob. What a shambles.

A terrible result and performance for the fans on derby-day. This is up there with the 5-1 humbling at Maine Road as moments to forget in recent United history. The Reds still hold the advantage in the title race but any more performances like this afternoon and any talk of a quintuple will be quickly off the agenda.

Full Time - Manchester United 1-4 Liverpool
Attendance - 75,569