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Maybe it was actually sweeter for Manchester United to win this way. To give their great rivals some hope and then snatch it away from them again.
Michael Carrick and his United team are back in the Champions League and this was quite some way to do it.
Fifteen minutes in and United were two goals up and rampant. Liverpool scored seven at Anfield against Erik ten Hag’s version of United back in 2023 and, after those early goals from Matheus Cunha and then Benjamin Sesko, Carrick’s players must have sniffed some kind of ultimate payback.
Liverpool were hopeless and hapless. Full of possession and territory but all at sea once United’s red waves of counter-attack broke on their shores.
Oblivion beckoned and United and their supporters would have given anything at this stage to be able to dish out a proper hiding. They have suffered enough at the hands of their great rivals in recent times.
But if that wasn’t to be possible then maybe this was a perfect alternative. To drag Liverpool up from their knees and then catapult them back down into the dirt.
Twice in the first eleven minutes of the second half, United coughed up the ball to give Liverpool two goals and parity. It was a comeback that came from nowhere.
Young substitute Amad Diallo was the first to err, Dominik Szoboszlai running clear to score. Then, almost immediately, goalkeeper Senne Lammens messed up a short goal kick and Cody Gakpo rolled the ball in to an empty net.
All of a sudden – and for a while – calamity looked as though it could be United’s. Liverpool were now the better team.
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Harry Maguire made a great block to deny Gakpo and then Lammens hacked a ball off his line after a scramble at a set piece.
For both teams a draw seemed palatable as the clock ran down but Carrick’s United are running hot in a way that Liverpool are not.
The defending champions’ efforts at the back end of games have been pretty woeful this season. And so when Alexis MacAllister cleared Luke Shaw’s cross to the edge of the penalty area with 13 minutes left, it was no great surprise that Kobbie Mainoo was there to drive the ball back low and hard and in to the corner.
It was an emphatic finish and it seemed appropriate. For United’s football had been this way and Liverpool’s had not. Liverpool were much better in the second half but still needed two United mistakes to get them back in to the game.
Over the piece, they were pretty limp going forward. No cleverness, no element of surprise and certainly no pace.
United remain far from the perfect team but they do know how to make things happen and here – when they needed to – they absolutely did. At times they did here what Liverpool used to do to them. Soaked up pressure, stole the ball and then sprang forward devastatingly.
Indeed, their start was breathtaking. Carrick’s team had been out of the blocks quickly against Brentford on Monday but this was Liverpool so this meant more.
United have pace to burn these days. Their opponents are not so blessed, especially with players like Mo Salah and Hugo Ekitike missing.
So we were treated to the sight of United sitting happily in their own half and watching Liverpool pass the ball around in front of them. Then, when they took possession themselves, they were able to break with menace. Liverpool couldn’t cope and were fortunate only to be two goals down by half-time.
