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MOTD: Manchester United 1-1 Liverpool (agg 1-3)

By on March 17, 2016

Liverpool expanded their unbeaten run to six matches in all competitions as Philippe Coutinho’s lovely equalizer shut down Manchester United’s attempted comeback in their Europa League second leg tie.  With resounding victories over United and their cross-town rivals Manchester City, Jürgen Klopp’s men have showcased the incisiveness which served the basis for the German manager’s appointment at the club.

The derby had the makings to be the turnaround that Van Gaal vied for and Anthony Martial’s first-half penalty threatened Liverpool’s 2-0 lead from the first left.  The spark was there, but in the end, the gumption wasn’t.  A goal for Liverpool was always likely to be decisive and Coutinho’s “perfect” equalizer snuffed out United’s fire.

The Brazilian’s delicacy highlighted United’s disappointingly blunt performance in the second period. With as the Red’s initiative left them, the fans began to line up at the exit gates well before the final whistle.

This was not the result to rejuvenate United’s season and Van Gaal was left to piece together the positives in a half-hearted manner.

Marcus Rashford returned to a No9 role after a frustrating foray out wide last weekend but was almost invisible tonight and their lack of creativity in the midfield was in stark contrast to Liverpool’s free-flowing attacking force.

Simon Mignolet tipped Jesse Lingard’s far-post header from a looping cross just wide at full-stretch and United began promisingly enough.

Martial gained a yard of Nathaniel Clyne down the left with a delicious feint and won a penalty as Clyne stuck a late boot across in a last-ditch attempt to block the Frenchman.  He coolly buried it into the side netting, sending Mignolet flying the wrong way.

Van Gaal was being very generous, verging on naive, to assert that they “played like Liverpool did in the first game.”

If not for De Gea, they could easily have gone down early on when Coutinho drove a powerful low effort towards the bottom right corner of the net.  However, De Gea got down well to make a smart stop to his left.

Daniel Sturridge whipped a free-kick from the right onto the crossbar thirty-five minutes in and Coutinho pulled Liverpool back on level terms right on the brink of the half.  A shimmy down the right put Guillermo Varela on his heels and the midfielder rounded the full-back down the byline.  From a seemingly impossible angle, he clipped a gorgeous, almost nonchalant effort over De Gea and into the back of the net.  Without breaking stride, he wheeled away to celebrate.

“It was brilliant what he did. It was the most unexpected thing you could do in a situation like that – it was a perfect goal,” marveled Klopp, per Liverpool’s official website.

Fellaini scooped Marcus Rashford’s lay-off over the crossbar from fifteen yards out in the seventy-second minute, but the tie was already over.

United face Manchester City at the weekend and Van Gaal has billed it as the catalyst of their season. Currently, the tide is nipping at his heels.

Homepage photo credit: By Dean Jones (Flickr: Coutinho Goal) [CC BY 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.