Man Utd 3-2 Liverpool: Red Devils qualify for the Champions League

Maybe it was sweeter for Manchester United to win this way. To give their great rivals hope and then snatch it away again. To drag them from their knees and then shove them back down in the dirt.

Fifteen minutes in and United were two goals up and rampant. Fantasy beckoned and so did payback. Liverpool scored seven at Anfield against United back in 2023 and it has not been forgotten at either end of the East Lancs Road. After those goals from Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, Carrick’s players must have sniffed proper revenge.

Liverpool were hopeless and hapless. Full of possession and territory but sluggish on the ball and all at sea once United’s red waves of counter-attack broke on their shores.

United and their supporters craved a proper hiding. You could feel it. They have suffered at the hands of their great rivals in recent times. But if that wasn’t to be possible then maybe this was the perfect alternative. An afternoon of drama and suspense and, at the end of it, the 10th victory of Carrick’s remarkable 14-game reign.

Twice in the first eleven minutes of the second half, United coughed up the ball to give Liverpool two goals and parity they had not deserved. 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.

Kobbie Mainoo’s superb late strike handed Man United a 3-2 win over bitter rivals Liverpool

It was the perfect start for United as Matheus Cunha struck inside six minutes at Old Trafford

Benjamin Sesko bundled Manchester United’s second over the line just eight minutes later

All of a sudden calamity beckoned for United. Liverpool were the better team for a while. Harry Maguire made a 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. Frankly, a draw is always okay in this fixture. Pride intact and all that. But Carrick’s United are running hot in a way that Liverpool aren’t 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 into 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 into the game. Over the piece, they were pretty limp. 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 to Liverpool what their fiercest opponents 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 deadly.

United’s first goal came from a corner in the sixth minute. Liverpool only half cleared the ball to the edge of the penalty area and when Cunha’s first shot came back to him off Ryan Gravenberch, his second struck MacAllister and bobbled into the corner past Freddie Woodman in the visitors’ goal.

Eight minutes later they scored again. This one came after a long VAR check but was correctly awarded. Liverpool may have thought they had seen off the danger as Woodman blocked from Sesko but when the ball was recycled and Shaw crossed to the far post, Bruno Fernandes’ header across goal was pawed out by the Liverpool keeper and that enabled Sesko to bundle it in. The VAR check was for a handball against the scorer but was inconclusive.

It had been a frantic start but the game settled into a rhythm for a while. Liverpool had plenty of the ball but United were the better team and Fernandes should have done better than drill a first-time shot wide of the near post from twelve yards around the half hour. Had that one gone in to make it 3-0, we would have been spared all the subsequent excitement.

Dominik Szoboszlai halved the deficit for Liverpool after Amad’s error early in the second half

Cody Gakpo then levelled terms after a wayward pass out from goalkeeper Serge Lammens

Liverpool’s comeback was freakish but all the more watchable for it. Amad had replaced Sesko at half-time and one of the young forward’s first contributions was to pass the ball straight to Szoboszlai who advanced into space, turned past Maguire too comfortably and pulled his left-foot shot across Lammens.

One mistake was careless. The second, in the 56th minute, was unforgivable. This one came from the modern obsession with short goal kicks and blew up in United’s face as Lammens passed straight to MacAllister and he worked the ball to Szobozslai who squared calmly for Gakpo to score.

Utter embarrassment suddenly beckoned for United. Liverpool were the better team for twenty minutes and half chances were theirs. That that they didn’t take one eventually cost them. Mainoo’s finish really was fabulous.

Liverpool pushed again at the end but a cameo from young winger Rio Ngumoah wasn’t enough. This was league defeat number eleven for Slot’s team. Sunderland and Leeds have lost only one more each.

Both United and Liverpool will in all likelihood play Champions League next season but how they feel about that will be quite different.