Mourinho had said that Liverpool were fortunate to come out victorious in some of their recent games but there was no fortune involved in Liverpool's win over Manchester United the other day. It was a gibberish statement made by Mourinho as everyone knows that Liverpool have played excellent football in Premier League this year. Liverpool started attacking Manchester United right from the start and one could see the intensity in their efforts. As many as nine chances were created by Liverpool in the first twenty minutes of the game. The goal from Liverpool seemed to be coming and it was the finest of chips from Fabinho which found Sadio Mane and a nice touch from Mane saw the ball behind David De Gea into the nets. United were guilty of letting Faninho have some free space as no player was close to him which provided him an excellent opportunity to take control of the ball and send it goal hungry Mane.
The joy of Liverpool was short-lived though as the scores were levelled only after the gap of nine minutes. Jesse Lingard was the man for United who was able to pounce on an opportunity gifted to him by Alisson Becker. Romelu Lukaku first hit a low cross towards the Liverpool's goal area which should have been a regulation take for Alisson but he wasn't able to grab the ball clearly and ended up pushing it forward with his knee towards Lingard who was able to hit the ball past Alisson into the net. This was an error made by Alisson and I won't call it as an opportunity created by Manchester United. United showed a more defensive approach after that goal from Lingard and added an extra defender in the back line. Firmino was able to create a chance as he single handedly battled three United players and executed a shot at the goal but with no power at all. De Gea pushed the ball away from the nets and that created another opportunity for Keilta pounce on but Bailly did well to block the shot from Keilta.
Jurgen Klopp brought his man of the night, Xherdan Shaqiri into the play in the 70th minute of the game for Naby Keilta. It took only three minutes for Shaqiri to make an impact as he unleashed a bullet of a shot which deflected off Ashley Young and rebounded off the woodwork into the net. Klopp was delighted and so was Anfield as victory looked obvious now. Xherdan Shaqiri wasn't finished here, there was more to come and after only seven minutes of scoring the first, Shaqiri scored his second goal of the night ending any chances of comback from Red Devils. Shaqiri passed the ball towards Roberto Firmino who wanted to play it towards Salah but it came back to Shaqiri who again unleashed a super shot which deflected off Bailly only to find the back of the United net. Shaqiri was on the moon and Anfield was on their feet appluading the man.
The match ended with Liverpool holding their heads high and moving back to the first place on the points table which was taken by Manchester City for a while. Liverpool looked to be a dominant side throughout the game unlike in their past encounters where United have had better of Liverpool. Liverpool are now nineteen points ahead of Machester United and it seems less likely for United to finish in top four now. Liverpool took as many as thirty six shots compared to a mere six shots taken by Manchester United. Liverpool had more possession of the game, made more passes, had more pass accuracy and looked in total control of the game.
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