Liverpool have beaten Manchester United 2 – 1 at Anfield in the forth round of the FA cup; just three days after defeating Manchester City 3 – 2 on aggregate to reach the Carling Cup final. As a Liverpool fan, this has been a great week after last Saturday’s disappointment of being beaten 3 – 1 by Bolton, knocking both the blue and red sides of Manchester out of cup competitions!
I was unable to watch the game live so my words will be based upon reports from others; and from what I have read, it was hardly a classic, but it’s a win, a huge boost for Kenny Dalglish’s side beating both City and United in a week; the Premier League title is gone for Liverpool but there’s still a chance of a good haul of silverware and maybe European football if they can continue to win!
The visitors had the lions share of the possession but failed to create many clear cut chances in front of goal, Liverpool made better use of their possession of the ball, creating many more goal scoring chances. It was Liverpool that drew first blood, Daniel Agger heading in from close range in the 21st minute as United keeper David de Gea was kept busy by Andy Carroll while Steven Gerrard swung the ball into the 6 yard box! Ji-Sung Park levelled the scores with a power shot from inside the 18 yard box in the 39th minutes, Manchester United ending the first half on top!
Despite ending the first half on a high, the visitors were second best in the second half, Liverpool pushed forward as the United keeper made a series to goalkeeping errors, being bailed out by the United back four and playmaker Paul Scholes was taken off by Sir Alex Ferguson. All the pressure resulted in the Reds finding the back of the net in the 88th minute with 63rd minute substitute Dirk Kuyt ending his recent goal drought with a massively important goal for the home side.
It seems that Kenny Dalglish’s scathing attack on his squad after the Bolton game had the desired effect, Liverpool have played much better, knuckled down and put 100% effort on the field. Dalglish was right, against Bolton the Liverpool XI only put in a half assed effort, and were disrespectful to their opponents, Liverpool have to do more than just turn up on match day!
Moving onto Plymouth Argyle; the Pilgrims were denied a point at Port Vale by a late goal from Tom Pope, who unleashed a shot from 16 yards out to break down Argyle’s defiant defence. Vale were definitely the better side by some way, limiting Argyle to only two shots on goal and one of those was off target, which highlights Argyle’s need for a couple of strikers before the window closes.
Port Vale were better in every third of the field, so it’s a deserved hard earned victory, but as an Argyle fan it’s disappointing to lose a game after defending so hard for 86 minutes, but that’s the way it goes in football some time. Argyle drop back into the relegation zone because Dagenham & Redbridge claimed three points against mid table Rotherham. The season run in looks like it will be a titanic relegation battle between Hereford United, Dagenham & Redbridge, Plymouth Argyle and Northampton Town, I just hope that the Pilgrims on are top of that pile come May 5th 2012!
Liverpool lost to Bolton 3-1, just to clear that up mate, apart from that it’s quite a good read as always
Thanks mate, I knew is was a two goal cushion, just got the numbers wrong!