Torres (21 page)
Manchester United 1 Liverpool 4
14 March 2008
Good afternoon and welcome to Old Trafford …
The stadium is full and we have just been informed that there is a crowd of 75,569. This match tops the bill for the 29th day of action in the Premier League. The meeting is due to kick off shortly, at 12.45pm. Top of the table Manchester United are playing host to the Reds, who are joint third in the overall standings along with Guus Hiddink’s Chelsea on 58 points, seven adrift of United, who have a game in hand (Portsmouth). If Sir Alex Ferguson’s men win today, they move ten points ahead of Liverpool and could wrap up the league, or almost. They are clear favourites. They have had a run of eleven wins on the trot, let in only two goals in the last sixteen games and have booked their place in the semi-finals of the Champions League without too much trouble by seeing off Inter Milan in the quarter-finals. The Reds come into this vital match with their morale running very high following a convincing Champions League victory on Tuesday against Real Madrid. Here their last chances for a tilt at the league are at stake. If they manage to cut the distance from the leaders they could open up the fight for the title again. Will the effort from the match against the men in white weigh against them? It may well do, but Benítez’s wards will give it their best shot to come out on top at a ground where Liverpool has not won since 2004,
when Gérard Houllier was on the bench. Rafa has never walked away as the winner from the Theatre of Dreams.
The bad news for the Merseyside team is the absence of Xabi Alonso, who won’t be able to lay down the law in midfield. He is replaced by Lucas Leiva. For the other side Dimitar Berbatov settles into the dugout, while ‘The Apache’ Tévez starts. Let’s have a look at the line-ups announced:
Manchester United: Van der Sar, O’Shea, Ferdinand, Vidic, Evra, Ronaldo, Carrick, Anderson, Park, Rooney, Tévez. Subs: Foster, Berbatov, Giggs, Nani, Scholes, Evans, Fletcher.
Liverpool: Reina, Arbeloa, Carragher, Skrtel, Aurelio, Mascherano, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Riera, Torres. Subs: Cavalieri, Dossena, Hyypia, Babel, Insúa, Ngog, El Zhar.
Referee: Alan Wiley
The players are coming out onto the pitch now, Manchester in their traditional red shirts and Liverpool in grey.
Álvaro Aberloa isn’t there among the Reds. He has had physical problems in the warm-up. Sami Hyypia takes his position and Carragher will play in the right back berth. A position he doesn’t really take to, if the truth be told.
The game gets underway.
Wayne Rooney seems to be all fired up. He is dangerous in the Red Devils’ first couple of attacks. Carragher looks uneasy opposite ‘Bad Boy’.
From over on the right Cristiano Ronaldo feeds a ball in for Ji-Sung Park but the Korean’s shot is cut out by Carragher – corner. Manchester United is producing some good football and playing well.
Liverpool make inroads for the first time, Torres chasing up an extremely long ball. Rio Ferdinand checks on the edge of Manchester’s box.
Torres swerves brilliantly with one touch and gets away from Ferdinand on the edge of the penalty area – a touch of genius. For a moment it looks like a goal, but Vidic and O’Shea don’t let him finish off the move.
A penalty to Manchester. Park chases a ball down the inside-left channel and into the box. Reina races out and slides towards Park’s feet. Park runs into the prone keeper and tumbles over.
GOAL, CRISTIANO RONALDO! MANCHESTER UNITED 1 LIVERPOOL 0
The man from Portugal is unforgiving from the spot. He shoots right-footed and low, just inside the left post. Reina guesses right but doesn’t get there.
GOAL, TORRES! MANCHESTER UNITED 1 LIVERPOOL 1
Liverpool seem punch-drunk after the goal and unable to respond to the moves made by the Red Devils. It would be
fair to say they haven’t put a foot right for five minutes and then the most amazing thing happens. Martin Skrtel frees things up in his area and hits a really long ball forward. Vidic scampers towards his goalmouth, allows the ball to bounce, and lets Fernando steal it off him – El Niño is off. Van der Sar rushes out to close up the angle but Torres keeps an extremely cool head and beats him on the run with an accurate finish into the left-hand corner of the Dutchman’s goal. Fantastic work from The Kid. Game on.
Torres once more against the unfortunate Vidic, who appears not to have a clue how to handle the fair-haired Spanish striker. First he forces him to clear for a corner and next up he heads past him (cross from Fabio Aurelio), slips into the penalty area and the Serbian defender stops him by stretching the rule-book to the limit.
Cristiano Ronaldo blasts a free-kick from miles out and Reina almost makes a howler. He manages to get his hands round the ball after fumbling, just before Tévez arrives …
Yellow card for Jamie Carragher for going in dangerously.
Rio Ferdinand goes yellow for a dangerous tackle.
Torres releases Riera on the left into the Manchester 6-yard box. Ferdinand gets there in the nick of time to sweep clear.
Penalty to Liverpool. The Kid takes the ball outside the penalty area and when the United central defenders come out to get him he does a half-turn and slides in a perfect pass between the lines for Gerrard who is in the area. It is all Evra can do to stop the captain by fouling him.
Yellow card for Edwin Van der Sar for protesting.
GOAL, GERRARD! MANCHESTER UNITED 1 LIVERPOOL 2
Van der Sar just manages to touch the ball but the shot from the Reds’ captain is well-placed and struck hard.
Gerrard again. His thunderbolt is cleared by O’Shea. Manchester United reply in the shape of Tévez, who wins a corner. Nothing actually happens as the referee blows for half-time.
An exciting game with no let up in play. Liverpool are deservedly ahead and have read the game well.
The second half gets under way.
Cross by Ronaldo and the ball squirms away from Reina and hits the post.
Torres collides with Tévez and has damaged his already injured ankle, but he seems able to play on.
United dominate play and buzz the Liverpool penalty area, but they aren’t creating too much danger.
A yellow for Javier Mascherano.
Yellow card for Skrtel for fouling Tévez.
Gerrard leads the first attacking move from Liverpool in the second half. It ends with a shot by Leiva from the edge of the box. Van der Sar fields it.
A Liverpool change – Andrea Dossena comes on for Albert Riera.
Great chance for United – Tévez almost manufactures a goal out of a dead ball in the area.
Triple substitution by Manchester United. Anderson, Ji-Sung Park and Michael Carrick are replaced by Ryan Giggs, Paul Scholes and Dimitar Berbatov.
Vidic is red-carded. As with the Torres goal, the United defender is beaten by the ball. Gerrard breaks away on his own and the Serbian has no choice but to grab him and throw him to the ground. There’s no arguing about the referee’s decision.
GOAL, AURELIO! MANCHESTER UNITED 1 LIVERPOOL 3
A sweet shot from Fabio Aurelio that goes right in the block-hole. That’s how to shoot free-kicks! The Brazilian master-fully converts the foul given away by Vidic for pulling.
Torres tries a deep pass to his skipper. But Gerrard is caught offside.
Torres tries to catch Van der Sar out from the centre of the pitch, but the shot strays very high and to the left.
Second change by Liverpool. Fernando Torres goes off and Ryan Babel comes on.
Nine minutes later, Fernando smiles and celebrates Liverpool’s fourth on the bench – a masterly effort by Andrea Dossena. As he did against Madrid, the Italian brings the Reds’ cracking game to a close. The score-line is 1-4. Amazing – the statistics say as much.
The last time United let in four goals at home was New Year’s Day 1992 against Queens Park Rangers. Liverpool’s 4-1 win is the second biggest since November 1936, when the Reds won 5-2. And while we’re on the subject of statistics, it should be remembered that this is Rafa Benítez’s 100th win since he arrived in the Premier. But the main thing is that the league is still open.
‘They think it’s all over … it isn’t now’ runs the headline in the
Sunday Times
, above a huge photo of Torres battling it out with Vidic. Torres, together with Gerrard, is the hero of Old Trafford – the star of Liverpool’s big week. Two
wins and eight goals scored in five days. The Reds’ captain pays tribute to his team-mate: ‘He’s magic. He’s the world’s greatest striker and a lot of people probably agree with me.’ And he’s right. Plaudits from all sides are fantastic. Let’s leave the English and the Spanish to one side, as they are too closely involved here, and see what Giancarlo Galavotti writes in
La Gazzetta dello Sport
: ‘The lethal weapon is always the same: Fernando Torres. Simply wonderful, El Niño surprises and wipes out the opposition with an undeniable show of class and power. After Madrid he also humiliates Manchester. The panel of the Golden Ball should be alert to this.’ Nothing more to say. Steve Gerrard, though, does chime in with something: ‘Liverpool can win the Premier League. If we carry on like this from now on, we’ve got a chance to walk away with the title, and Fernando Torres is the key to doing it.’
It wouldn’t be the first time. March 1998 – United has an eleven-point lead over Blackburn and twelve over Arsenal and Liverpool. It seems they’ve got the League title in the bag. Final standings: Arsenal 78, Manchester United 77. The Gunners win ten games on the trot and crown themselves champions with two games in hand. This time there are nine games to go, but it seems there’s a chance. Even more so when, a week on, United lose to Fulham. Two defeats in a row – something that hasn’t happened since 2005. At Liverpool, who have just given Aston Villa a 5-0 thrashing, they are convinced the Red Devils are feeling the heat. But after their two routs, Ferguson’s men hit the accelerator and don’t let up right to the end.
On Saturday, 16 May, United win their third League in a row, their 18th. They draw level with Liverpool in number of trophies won and leave the Merseyside team with a bad taste in their mouths. They’ve lost fewer times than the Red Devils (two versus four times), have netted more goals
(72 versus 67), but in the end they are second in the overall standings, and four points adrift of the champions. Their high draw-rate has cost them dear. It is nineteen years since the Reds have lifted the league trophy. Another season over without silverware. In the Champions League Liverpool came up against Chelsea in the semis, in a duel that, in England over the last few years, has become as much a custom as tea or rain. They were eliminated in a night to remember, an eight-goal thriller – an unbelievable game, as the English press wrote, following the 4-4
dénouement
at Stamford Bridge. They praised the pluck and pride of the Reds, one step away from changing history, one step away from turning round a 1-3 result from the home match, one step away from winning the mother of all battles, as the
Guardian
wrote. But in the end the Champions’ dream faded away.
Fernando has scored two goals in Europe’s team championship. In the league he has netted fourteen goals, five less than top-scorer Nicolas Anelka of Chelsea. Whenever on the pitch he has been decisive. It’s just a shame that bad luck hasn’t given him a better strike-rate. This is something Gerrard also sees as an unhappy circumstance: ‘The frustrating thing for both of us is that we haven’t been together more times on the pitch this season.’ It’s true. The awesome partnership (28 goals) has only been together on the pitch for twelve out of 36 Premier matches. ‘Let’s hope,’ says Stevie G. on the club’s official web-site, ‘that next season we are ready to give Liverpool the best chance of success. We both feel that if we are both clicking, we can cause defences loads of problems. We both enjoy playing with each other and we can both either score goals or set them up for each other.’ Fernando is also hopeful about next season: ‘Winning the Premier League will be our big objective again. We will fight for the title again by looking to win at home more regularly
against the teams that are more winnable in theory. As we have seen this season, they choked us. I reckon Manchester United and Chelsea will be our main rivals, though we can’t rule out Arsenal either, or Manchester City. I hope that this year we will achieve what all the fans expect from us’.
