Do you hear it? No? Listen closely. Can't you hear it? "All I hear is silence" I hear you say. That, Ladies and Gentlemen, is the sweet sound of silence when Alex Ferguson refuses to speak to the media whenever things don't go his way. So, how did such a joyful event come to pass? Well for starters, Liverpool beat Manchester United 3-1 on Sunday keeping the title race very much open.
Both Liverpool and Manchester United came into this match on the back of defeats to West Ham and Chelsea respectively. Arsenal had drawn with Sunderland the previous day. This was a great chance for the league leaders to consolidate their lead at the top. Well, that is if they won the match. For the match Liverpool lined up with Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Gerrard, Lucas, Kuyt, Meireles, Maxi, Suarez. Manchester United had 11 players on the pitch and Phil Dowd.
The game started off in quite a lively fashion with Liverpool dominating. Luis Suarez, who really is looking like a great buy by Liverpool, had a half-chance to score but failed to control Raul Meireles' pass. This was just a taste of the things to come. At the other end, Berbatov had a shot glance off the post with Reina beaten. But the breakthrough came at the 34th min with Suarez producing a moment of magic, skipping past 3 players and passed the ball to Dirk Kuyt who had no trouble tapping it in at less than 2 yards from the goal. Five minutes later it was Nani who was the provider with a bizarre header back to Kuyt from Suarez's cross. Kuyt headed the ball in, again from less than 3 yards from the goal. 2-0 to Liverpool.
You could sense the frustration coming out from the Man Utd camp. Things reached a boiling point when Jamie Carragher tackled Nani harshly with his studs making contact with Nani's shin. The referee Phil Dowd, who had a decent game so far, reached for the yellow card to be shown to Carragher. But Nani (who was seriously injured. Apparently.), clearly not satisfied with this, walked around to face the referee showed him the wound. Dowd didn't appear too impressed with the theatrics. But Nani isn't someone who gives up so easily. When Gerrard placed his hand on his shoulder, he somehow felt extreme pain and fell down again. Now just to be clear, the tackle was really rash. Carragher should have been more careful and in my opinion, it was a straight red card. But when I saw Nani prance around like a tearful ballerina trying to get players sent off, all I could think about was the story of the boy who cried wolf. You deserve what you get, You reap what you sow, are some other phrases that spring to mind.
Play resumed after Nani was stretchered off to well deserved boos. Shortly after that Rafael, a graduate of the Paul Scholes Tackling School, flew in two footed on Lucas which caused another ruckus with Martin Skrtel losing his cool and shoving the defender away. Suarez endeared himself to the Liverpool fans even more with his cheeky tug of Rafael's hair during the fracas. Phil Dowd finally blew the whistle bringing an entertaining 1st half to an end.
The second half started with Manchester United dominating and Liverpool sat deeper inviting the pressure. Compared to the first half, the second was fairly subdued. Liverpool were close to scoring a couple of times, but somehow couldn't find the breakthrough. It finally came in the 65th min. Luis Suarez's freekick was saved by Van Der Sar, but Dirk Kuyt was there to put in the rebound into the net to complete his hat-trick. Liverpool 3-0 Manchester United. Game Over.
Hernandez got a late consolation for the away team with a header from Berbatov's cross denying the hosts a clean sheet. But overall, a good day for Liverpool.
Mr.Ferguson showed the world(again) that he's a sore loser with a self imposed media blackout. The only reaction to come out of the Man. Utd camp was Rio Ferdinand's tweet - "Bad result, no excuses." For someone who's been in the game for so long, behaving so petulantly is disrespectful to the fans of his team.
But everyone else is enjoying the sweet sound of silence.
So here's hoping the blackout continues for a very long time!
The game started off in quite a lively fashion with Liverpool dominating. Luis Suarez, who really is looking like a great buy by Liverpool, had a half-chance to score but failed to control Raul Meireles' pass. This was just a taste of the things to come. At the other end, Berbatov had a shot glance off the post with Reina beaten. But the breakthrough came at the 34th min with Suarez producing a moment of magic, skipping past 3 players and passed the ball to Dirk Kuyt who had no trouble tapping it in at less than 2 yards from the goal. Five minutes later it was Nani who was the provider with a bizarre header back to Kuyt from Suarez's cross. Kuyt headed the ball in, again from less than 3 yards from the goal. 2-0 to Liverpool.
You could sense the frustration coming out from the Man Utd camp. Things reached a boiling point when Jamie Carragher tackled Nani harshly with his studs making contact with Nani's shin. The referee Phil Dowd, who had a decent game so far, reached for the yellow card to be shown to Carragher. But Nani (who was seriously injured. Apparently.), clearly not satisfied with this, walked around to face the referee showed him the wound. Dowd didn't appear too impressed with the theatrics. But Nani isn't someone who gives up so easily. When Gerrard placed his hand on his shoulder, he somehow felt extreme pain and fell down again. Now just to be clear, the tackle was really rash. Carragher should have been more careful and in my opinion, it was a straight red card. But when I saw Nani prance around like a tearful ballerina trying to get players sent off, all I could think about was the story of the boy who cried wolf. You deserve what you get, You reap what you sow, are some other phrases that spring to mind.
Play resumed after Nani was stretchered off to well deserved boos. Shortly after that Rafael, a graduate of the Paul Scholes Tackling School, flew in two footed on Lucas which caused another ruckus with Martin Skrtel losing his cool and shoving the defender away. Suarez endeared himself to the Liverpool fans even more with his cheeky tug of Rafael's hair during the fracas. Phil Dowd finally blew the whistle bringing an entertaining 1st half to an end.
The second half started with Manchester United dominating and Liverpool sat deeper inviting the pressure. Compared to the first half, the second was fairly subdued. Liverpool were close to scoring a couple of times, but somehow couldn't find the breakthrough. It finally came in the 65th min. Luis Suarez's freekick was saved by Van Der Sar, but Dirk Kuyt was there to put in the rebound into the net to complete his hat-trick. Liverpool 3-0 Manchester United. Game Over.
Hernandez got a late consolation for the away team with a header from Berbatov's cross denying the hosts a clean sheet. But overall, a good day for Liverpool.
Mr.Ferguson showed the world(again) that he's a sore loser with a self imposed media blackout. The only reaction to come out of the Man. Utd camp was Rio Ferdinand's tweet - "Bad result, no excuses." For someone who's been in the game for so long, behaving so petulantly is disrespectful to the fans of his team.
But everyone else is enjoying the sweet sound of silence.
So here's hoping the blackout continues for a very long time!
gr8 win by LFC.:):)
ReplyDeleteOne thing I don't agree is that Phil Dowd was on ManU's side.. He should have sent off Carragher. Two goals up, and there wasn't any need for Carragher to commit to such a silly tackle. Maybe he didn't send off Rafael to compensate for his earlier mistake thus adding two mistakes to his book.
ReplyDeleteManU is as good as that man in goal. This guy has saved their skins umpteen number of times. 2 of the 3 goals were scored right under his nose. Waiting for him to retire so that neutrals can enjoy seeing teams win agaisnt ManU.
@ Brave JT - That 11 players+Phil Dowd comment was a joke. But he had a bad game. He also missed Scholes' kung fu kick on Lucas.
ReplyDelete