Match Review
Liverpool 0 v 1 Manchester United, Anfield, Liverpool, 12.45pm, Saturday 3rd March 2007.
Goals: Liverpool: n/a, Manchester United: O'Shea (90)
Attendance: 44,403

A late John O'Shea strike was "Mission accomplished" at Anfield as SAF served up a European snore tactic of seemingly trying to bore the opposition into a defeat in this massive fixture, after Ronaldo fizzed in a wicked free kick which Louis Saha made difficult for Liverpool's keeper, Reina not being able to hold on left John O'Shea in the right place to whack home an undeserving, but oh so sweet winner.  With no thrust up front & Rooney wide left for portions of the game United were second best to a Liverpool side who did deserve a victory if the truth be told, however with the greatest respect "who cares" United are albeit 12 points ahead of Chelsea & can now afford to drop there most difficult fixture & still hold all the cards.

Both teams with important Champions League games in midweek fielded there strongest sides and it was Liverpool who made the better of the chances, John Arne Riise had Liverpool's best chance after 25 minutes as the free scoring Norwegian left back, who indecently can strike a ball better than most in the premiership saw a set piece free kick rolled into his path striking narrowly wide of a diving EVDS.

Not particularly happy & off colour the serbanator Nemanja Vidic was being tortured by Craig Bellamy who gave Vidic a torrid time being hopelessly dragged into the space Patrice Evra was leaving Vidic played almost in a left back position & almost on the 1/2 hr Bellamy after a tangle left Vidic for dead bearing down on goal, the Welsh smug golfer simply had to square a ball to Dirk Kuyt to tap into the net, but Bellamy's pass had too much for Kuyt as United rode their luck.

In the final highlight of a chess like 1st half, Jamie Carragher showed why he is one of the top defenders in the league by producing a heroic double stop after sliding blocking a Ronaldo effort & getting quickly back to his feet to ROB (Editor: no pun intended) Wayne Rooney before the White Pele could shoot.

The second half was Liverpool's from start to finish as quickly out of the traps the man who kisses his badge on his chest, then puts in a transfer request Steven Gerrard saw an effort go over, Bellamy then made EVDS work before netting the ball only fore the linesman to rule offside.

Both Vidic & Evra were poor by their standards they have set & SAF has seen enough & replaced Evra with the more experience & larger craniumed Mikael Silvestre.

United replaced Wayne Rooney & Henrik Larrson within minutes of each other for contrasting different reasons as Saha came on for Larrson & Wayne Rooney who was harshly challenged by Carragher on the knee, left Rooney limping and having to eventually receive 8 stitches & a knee scan on Monday morning, Rooney was replaced by eventual hero JOS.

Riise then struck another effort wide from distance as Liverpool kept sustained pressure on a strangely quiet United side.

Paul Scholes was then sent off for the Reds as he swung an arm at Alonso after both players had tangled through the match, in the final portion of this one side half Peter Crouch curled an effort at EVDS which once again the big Dutchman going the wrong way, used all his height to parry the effort away from danger.

No matter which team you support nothing is sweeter than beating by your rival, deserved or underserved & we were the latter, after Giggs was awarded a free kick to the left of the Liverpool penalty box @ the Kop end, Ronaldo & Giggs debated for a while as JOS jogged into the penalty box, Ronaldo then fizzed in a wicker free kick, where Saha was quickest to react & stick a leg toward the ball, Reina in the Liverpool goal was disturbed by Saha efforts to get any sort of touch & fumbled the free kick leaving JOS with no choice but to blast the ball into the top of the net & give United all three points.

After the game JOS explained to MOTD that "I spoke to Gary & he said it was a dream of his to score the winner for UNited at the Kop end!!!!"

United Starting Line-up
Rant Ratings in parenthesis
van der sar (8); Neville (6), Ferdinand (8), Vidic (4), Evra (4); Ronaldo (7), Scholes (6), Carrick (5), Giggs (6); Rooney (5), Larsson (5).
Subs Used: Silvestre (6) for Evra (63 mins), Saha (5) for Larsson (67 mins), O'Shea (6) for Rooney (73 mins).
Subs not used: Kuszczak, Brown

United's Man of the Match
With Vidic seemingly not turning up, Rio was a monster, clearing everything that came to him, and generally being in the right place at the right time, however for the third game running EVDS produced save after save, keeping United in games well done son!!!

Keano16's Reaction
Massive and as we here at keano16 said last week "giant strides will be made toward regaining the Premiership title" The Russians are running out of games.

However Paul Scholes is now going to miss three games, 20LEGEND is out for a month, Rooney needs a scan on his knee and Larsson is leaving for Sweden!!!.
Have we got the squad to cope?

Was Our Prediction Right?
We said 2-0, United Rant 7 v 35 Wrong Predictions.

Milestones
John O'Shea's 7th Premiership goal of his United career & 10th goal overall.

Miscellaneous Info
United’s next match is on Wednesday 7th March 2007 (H) to Lille in the UCL, 19.45pm K.O.