Liverpool hoi kwa Manchester United yapigwa bao 3-1
The
19-year-old bamboozled Martin Skrtel with his footwork and simply
shrugged off the challenge of Nathaniel Clyne before firing home
With Skrtel and Clyne left reeling in the Liverpool box, Martial coolly slotted past a despairing Simon Mignolet to make it 3-1
After a turgid first half, Daley Blind
broke the deadlock at Old Traffford with a superbly-executed set-piece
move in the 49th minute
The Dutch defender guided home Juan
Mata's probing free-kick across the Liverpool goal to give his side the
lead just after the break
Blind (17) races away to celebrate in
front of the Old Trafford faithful as United midfielder Bastian
Schweinsteiger gives chase
Schweinsteiger (left) played a crucial
role in Blind's goal as his run pulled Liverpool defender Nathaniel
Clyne out of position
Reds goalkeeper Mignolet (22) vents his frustration at the Liverpool defence following Blind's sweetly-stuck opener
Things get worse for Liverpool soon after as Ander Herrera drew a clumsy challenge from Joe Gomez in the penalty area
Herrera duly steps up and makes no mistake from the penalty spot to make it 2-0 with 20 minutes of the contest remaining
The Spanish midfielder is all smiles following his emphatic spot-kick which established a two-goal cushion for the home side
It's pandemonium at Old Trafford after Herrera's 70th minute penalty against Brendan Rodgers' outfit
Christian Benteke's overhead strike with six minutes remaining was something to behold but the Belgian's strike proved in vain
PLAYER RATINGS, PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE AND MATCH ZONE STATS
Manchester United:
De Gea, Darmian, Smalling, Blind, Shaw, Carrick (Schneiderlin 72),
Schweinsteiger, Mata (Martial 65), Herrera, Depay (Young 45), Fellaini
Subs not used: Rojo, Romero, Valencia, McNair
Booked: Darmian
Goals: Blind 49, Herrera 70 (pen), Martial 86
Liverpool: Mignolet, Clyne, Skrtel, Lovren, Gomez, Milner, Lucas (Moreno 88), Can, Firmino (Ibe 65), Benteke, Ings (Origi 74)
Subs not used: K Toure, Sakho, Bogdan, Rossiter
Goal: Benteke 84
Booked: Clyne, Milner
Referee: Michael Oliver
Man of the match: Daley Blind
Daley Blind and Juan Mata combined superbly for Manchester United's opener at Old Trafford. CLICK HERE for all the stats from our Match Zone
There
will be tougher challenges ahead of course and more sceptics to
convince. But the wide-eyed glee of the 19-year-old Frenchman racing
towards the Stretford End and that roar suggested good things. Like when
an 18-year-old Portuguese youth dazzled Old Trafford on a sunny August
day 12 years ago.
For
Martial’s goal was not simply the crowning moment of a United victory.
It came at a vital moment. Two minutes earlier, Christian Benteke had
delivered a strike which will could easily be goal of the season and is
certainly one of the greatest this fixture has seen.
Eyeing
a loose clearance from Daley Blind, Benteke leapt as the ball spun
behind him and, mid-air, connected with such force that the excellent
David De Gea barely saw it. All of a sudden, until Martial’s decisive
intervention, it seemed Liverpool might pluck something from this game.
The
teenage prodigy made that impossible. And with a comfortable win
against despised local rivals and the return of De Gea to the side after
having resigned themselves to losing their keeper, it was
understandable that Old Trafford could feel a glow of contentment on
Saturday evening
Wayne
Rooney and Michael Carrick had warned United manager Louis van Gaal
that the dressing room was ‘flat’ ahead of this fixture And never has a
critique been so plainly evident as in the opening 45 minutes here, when
United patiently circulated the ball ad nauseum in the wholly
unthreatening areas.
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