On a day in which Manchester United dared to repeat history at Anfield it was a baby faced Brazilian who shock the Anfield crowd to secure the mini Red-Devils the victory and pathway to the end of season final.
Liverpool went into the game at Anfield with a busy Kop crowd hoping to see a different result than last season. When both sides met in the end of season semi final play offs last year the Merseysiders succumbed to a loss by the by of a Larnell Cole hat-trick. This year though, it was a much tighter affair.
Both sides put out strong teams, though notably Liverpool were missing their Scouse midfield lynchpin Jordan Rossiter who suffered a slight knee ligament injury on Thursday’s training session.
All eyes were on Manchester United’s James Wilson. Their young forward is mooted to be the next youngster off the Manchester United conveyor belt of talent to follow Adnan Januzai who exploded onto The Premier League scene this season.
The game began with Manchester United on top and in truth it stayed that way for the majority of the game. While Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers and assistant manager Colin Pascoe were in attendance, not to forget Kenny Dalglish, it was Man United legends Paul Scholes and *cough* Nicky Butt who were also in attendance at Anfeld who would have been impressed by the constant dominance Manchester United showed. With Scholes and Butt now working alongside Giggs at the helm of Man United – for now – surely some messages of who impressed will be passed on.
The early stages of the game, also watched by Liverpool manager Brendan Rodgers, assistant Colin Pascoe and club icon Kenny Dalglish, were marred by a number of offensive chants – most notably ‘Murderers’.
For all of Man United’s dominance of possession of the ball in the game’s early stages few clear cut chances were made. One chance, very early on, fell to the aforementioned James Wilson, following a poor pass by Liverpool’s Aussie full-back Brad Smith. Wilson latched onto the ball and stuck toward the Kop end goal, but could only hit the post.
Joe Rothwell also missed an early chance for Man United, after being set up by Saidy Janko’s cross, but the youngster blasted his effort over the crossbar.
Liverpool then began to grips with the game as the first-half drew on, although United keeper Ben Amos was untroubled by off-target efforts from Jordan Lussey and Kristoffer Pearson.
The goal came by the way of an out of the blue wonder goal by the Brazilian playmaker Andreas Pereira just before the stroke of half time. Joe Rothwell and Tom Lawrence exchanged passes before Pereria took advantage of Smith’s error by turning and hitting a stunning curler into the top corner at the Kop End. And with that Manchester United deservedly went into the break with a 1-0 lead that would ultimately be enough to send Manchester United to the end of season finals vs. Chelsea.
Nevertheless towards the end of the second half Liverpool belatedly woke up and troubled Ben Amos’ net on a couple of occasions. The Canadian Bijev missed a brilliant chance for Liverpool late on.
