Full Control and Full Throttle

The Redmen took full control and played at full throttle throughout their Europa League last-16 performance against The Red Devils last Thursday night, when they produced a self-assured 2-0 first-leg victory at Anfield.

Ahead of kick-off, both teams made changes to their previous games starting line-ups. For The Redmen, the most notable changes being the resurgent Sturridge and the Magician, Philippe Coutinho. They both returned, along with Nathaniel Clyne, to inject some fresh energy and effort at looking to end United’s run of four straight wins over them.

For the Red Devil’s, Varela, Schneiderlin, Fellaini and Depay were brought in for Darmian, Carrick, Herrera and the suspended Lingard. These four changes were an attempt at increasing that four straight wins to five because as Louis van Gaal put it “When I beat teams like Liverpool, then the appreciation of the fans is higher and bigger.”.

Initially, van Gaal seemed to have got it right when young Marcus Rashford kneed Depay’s cross wide in the opening seconds. This came about due to an Alberto Moreno error when he underestimated the flight of the ball.

After that early scare, Liverpool reacted well by playing their natural passing and pressing game. They did this by getting themselves into numerous attacking positions, this made the thousands of Kopites, within Anfield, rise to their feet and produce an awe inspiring interpretation of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. This managed to spur the team to attack even more, something that hasn’t been seen at Anfield for some time.

After this positive reaction from the Redmen, the Devils looked as though they might find a way back into the game until a contentious 20th-minute foul by Memphis Depay on Nathaniel Clyne were noticed by both referee Carlos Velasco Carballo and his assistant. As expected, Daniel Sturridge converted the penalty, sending the ball into the bottom left-corner despite De Gea nearly saving it.

This may have decided the direction the Redmen were going to play but David De Gea had other ideas. He decided to pull off a number of top class saves over the next twenty minutes, until half-time, when attempts on goal were made namely by Daniel Sturridge, Philippe Coutinho and Jordan Henderson.

Roberto Firmino finally doubled Liverpool’s lead in the 2nd half on the 73rd minute, this broke the camel’s back which at the time, handed the Merseysiders the possibility of travelling to the so-called “Theatre of Dreams” with a mouth-watering two-goal lead.

This were an historic 1st European clash of titans’ match for two of Europe’s most-decorated clubs which is why I’d like to point out that this tie is far from over. You may think that by Liverpool being 2-0 up, they have managed to completely extinguish any thoughts United had of winning this last sixteen tie over the two legs and you’d be half right. It has left the Devils needing to score a minimum of three goals at Old Trafford which is not impossible to accomplish but it will need something special from all the United players to carry it out.

Anyway, let’s wait and see if Manchester United can turn it around this Thursday at 8pm GMT.