Manchester United finally bagged the opening points of the season as they tamed Juergen Klopp’s Liverpool in sumptuous fashion, sinking the Reds with a clinical display of power, speed and beauty. On pen and paper, United was officially the David while Liverpool roared like the Goliath, with all the venom stored in from their last two meetings with Manchester United.
The hosts started fuming right since the word go and Liverpool struggled to keep up with their pace. Tyrell Malacia put on a show on the left win alongside Anthony Elanga who found it hard to crack down on TAA alone but as soon as he started receiving support from an overlapping Malacia, the left plank started opening up.
The story of Manchester United slaying Liverpool
United should have gone up in the tenth minute where an excellent build up resulted from McTominay’s perfectly weighted pass for a sliding Bruno Fernandes who teed up a marauding Elanga with almost the entire net gaping at him. Sadly, the resultant flyer clattered onto the woodwork before flying out to Liverpool’s reprieve.
All it took United was six more minutes of relentless invasion and Liverpool was left wide open with the searing speed of Elanga who played a swift one-two with Christian Eriksen to whip in a peach of a pass for an advancing Sancho who toyed with Milner and Alisson, taking them out of the way with a single dummy to fire home in the opposite direction, drawing first blood for the Devils.
Everything that Liverpool threw in at the mix was deflected off a solid wall that was put up by the back-four led by Raphael Varane from the back and an omnipresent Lisandor Martinez whose presence of mine thwarted a horrendous own-goal from Bruno Fernandes that could have proved to be Manchester’s undoing.
It took seven more minutes from the resumption of the play after the half-time for Manchester United to bag an insurance goal that eventually proved to be the winner. With Liverpool drawn out, Martial intercepted a Henderson pass and send Rashford scurrying forward on a counterattack. The English marksman, bombed down the center and calmly slotted the ball home past an advancing Alisson.
After incessant knocking on the United door, Liverpool finally found a way through after an excellent save from De Gea bobbled up to Salah only for the latter to head home from close range, halving the deficit with 9 minutes to go. Hoping to pump in an equalizer, Liverpool wanted to go all-out, but three substitutions at once, made Manchester United probe Liverpool again and the hosts kept their nerves, in fact dominating the last 10 minutes to hand Liverpool their first defeat of the season.
Twitter went absolutely berserk as Manchester United bagged their opening win of the season to go past the Reds in the points table, asking a question or two more to a livid Juergen Klopp whose team continues to struggle.
Entire Manchester United back four were Men Of The Match tonight ❤️
Advertisement— Jonas Hen Shrag (@JonathanShrager) August 22, 2022
His first Manchester United win, under the lights at The Theatre of Dreams against our arch nemesis.
Advertisement𝑰𝒕 𝒘𝒂𝒔 𝒎𝒆𝒂𝒏𝒕 𝒕𝒐 𝒃𝒆… 💫 pic.twitter.com/33ycgdkPiB
— centredevils. (@centredevils) August 22, 2022
Desire, Work Ethic, PASSION!
That’s the performance we’ve been looking for! @ManUtd— Rio Ferdinand (@rioferdy5) August 22, 2022
Erik ten Hag gets his first win as Manchester United manager 😎 pic.twitter.com/2S4Y6pOFHu
— GOAL (@goal) August 22, 2022
‘The greatest team in Premier League history’ vs ‘The worst ever Manchester United team’ pic.twitter.com/DogwTS12NK
— Jamie Ward (@jamie_ward84) August 22, 2022
Tyrell Malacia was every Manchester United fan watching Jadon Sancho's goal 🗣️ pic.twitter.com/IHqCtLtC2Z
— B/R Football (@brfootball) August 22, 2022
Martinez x Varane has to be Manchester United's CB partnership going forward. Both were absolutely phenomenal. Hard to see Harry Maguire get back in. pic.twitter.com/RfP5MtLes3
— UtdFaithfuls (@UtdFaithfuls) August 22, 2022
Great win @ManUtd pic.twitter.com/mmBjbmNoLx
— Twitter Sports (@TwitterSports) August 22, 2022
Have Manchester United finally found their centre-back pairing? 💪 pic.twitter.com/9AzFgolOyw
— ESPN FC (@ESPNFC) August 22, 2022
This, right here, is what playing for Manchester United Football Club means.
Unbelievable photo.. pic.twitter.com/LBrKXgze2g
— UtdFaithfuls (@UtdFaithfuls) August 22, 2022
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