Wednesday, December 26, 2007

Derby 1-2 Liverpool

Well, they say that good teams are those that can play badly and snatch wins - it's certainly an art Man Utd have perfected and it never did them much harm.

Of course, needing a 90th minute winner to see off Derby is hardly encouraging, but this was never quite going to be a walkover - Derby would obviously be highly motivated to put up a better performance after losing 6-0 at Anfield earlier in the season, and buoyed by their performance against Newcastle (a game they probably should've won).

Even so, after Torres opened the scoring on twelve minutes, it looked like it would be a relatively routine win. Sadly, it wasn't to be and, although we battered them for most of the first half, our finishing just wasn't there. Things took a turn for the worse in the second half - first Hyypia forced off injured (leaving us playing John Arne Riise as a make-shift centre back) and then an equaliser conceded from a rather dubious free-kick.

Thankfully, blushes were spared by a late Gerrard surge. Having just come close by hitting the bar, he was on hand to knock in a rebound after Torres' first effort had been saved. No doubt pundits would be inclined to say 'Gerrard, who else?' but I think it's fair to say you can't call us a one man team with Torres up front. (Beyond that, I admit no one else in our squad is at their level - but where would United be without Ronaldo?)

Anyway, we made harder work of it than I'd have liked, but it's three points and that's all that matters come May. We'll need to be sharper for Man City next though.

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