On This Day: Manchester United score twice in the last two minutes to remove Liverpool from the Cup
I’m not sure that I can affect impartiality in writing this, so I’m going to try and not bother. This was a wonderful, magnificent afternoon that has me grinning each time I think about it.
No sooner had the game begun than Liverpool were ahead, Michael Owen somehow permitted to snaffle a header in the six-yard box. “God almighty, you wouldn’t think a 5 foot 6 striker would score with a header in the first minutes at Old Trafford”, said Fergie. “I wasn’t too pleased with that.” And I “wasn’t too pleased” when you fucking well went and signed him, but that’s another nightmare.
Anyway, after that, it was pretty much attack against defence, Liverpool’s cream Spice Boy shirts pinned back inside their own half as United struggled for an equaliser. One post-hit from Keane aside, they didn’t come all that close in the first half, Harkness, Carragher and Matteo frustrating them, with both Fowler – whose shot from distance whistled wide, and Berger – almost doubling Liverpool’s advantage just before the interval.
United turned it up in the second forty-five, Giggs somehow failing to connect with a Beckham cross, Keane’s deflected shot passing just wide of the post and Matteo zetzing an attempted clearance straight at James, who valiantly managed to avoid bungling it into the net as was his wont. “I told ya…I told ya half an oor ago…this is Liverpool’s day” gushed Andy Gray, after Carragher blocked a cross and Giggs appealed forlornly for a penalty.
As United’s desperation increased, Fowler almost settled the tie, shooting wide after an Owen zoom down the left, and then again a few minutes later, Schmeichel and Stam combining to deny him. When, after seventy-nine minutes, Keane laced one against the post, it looked like Andy Gray was right, but with two minutes remaining, Redknapp fouled Johnsen to give United a free-kick, twenty-five yards from goal and levelish with the right edge of the box. Beckham curled towards the back post, Cole stooped while Heggem dreamt, and Yorke tapped in from a yard.
No sooner were minds cast towards a night game at Anfield with a Cup allocation, than United had won. Scholes seized on a loose ball on the edge of the Liverpool box, and as he set himself for a shot, it broke to fellow sub Solskjaer, who pulled a left-footed finish through some legs and inside the near post as James dived the other way – I believe the technical term is “doing him with the eyes”. Mayham.
“The game was five minutes too long for us,” sanely rationalised Gerard Houllier. “It’s a shame because the players could have written a page in the club’s history in capital letters. I feel very proud of what we did.”
Photo courtesy of Well Offside
