One of the longest rivalries in English football took place on Sunday as Liverpool defeated Manchester United 2-0 at Anfield on Sunday to stay on top of the Premier League table with 16 points with one game in hand.
One of the highlights of the match was how Roberto Firmino dribbled United defender Aaron Wan-Bissaka on the touchline and sent him back to Selhurst Park. Firmino, who had the ball on the left side of the pitch, had an opportunity to cross the ball into the 18-yards but chose to dribble the United defender and turned him inside out to the delight of the Liverpool fans. The Englishman was left sliding off the pitch as Firmino beat him twice by cutting inside.
Meanwhile, the footage was shared on Reddit last night and Liverpool supporters trolled Wan-Bissaka for enduring that embarasing moment.
“AWB should be embarrassed,” one supporter said.
Another commented: “Bobby just sent him back to Crystal Palace.”
While a third held nothing back. He said: “Fortunately for Wan-Bissaka, I’ve head the shadow realm is lovely at this time of year,” they said.
With a fifth simply saying: “Banished.”
Wan-BIssaka has been one of the best right-backs since making the £50m move from Crystal Palace in the summer. Since his arrival at Old Trafford, fans of both clubs have also compared him with Trent Alexander-Arnold.
Take a watch of the video below:
Jurgen Klopp’s side produced a confident display in the first half of the match but they were wasteful in front of goal with Mane missing more than two chances to put the Reds ahead.
However, Liverpool defender Virgil van Dijk opened the scoring after 13 minutes when he nodded home from Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner. With United pressing for an equaliser, Mohamed Salah caught United on the break and made the points safe in stoppage time – with victory seeing their unbeaten league run stretch to 39 games.
Jurgen Klopp had Fabinho and Joel Matip back in his matchday squad, but elected to leave both on the bench as he stuck with the same XI that had started the win at Tottenham.
Before kick-off, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer delivered the hammer-blow news that Marcus Rashford could be out for a month with a back injury, and in the Englishman’s absence he elected to double up defensively down the left, with Brandon Williams playing ahead of Luke Shaw.
The visitors had actually started brightly, Daniel James wasting one particularly good opening with a poor cross, but from Liverpool’s first real dangerous moment they were in front: Van Dijk exploited a mismatch against Williams to get a run on Harry Maguire and head Trent Alexander-Arnold’s outswinging corner beyond David De Gea.
Firmino and Sadio Mane both went close to making it two, the former steering wide from Mo Salah’s cross before the latter took too long to get his shot away after Fred had deflected into his path.
The Reds then did have the ball in the net in a moment of huge controversy, as Firmino whipped a stunning finish home after De Gea and Van Dijk had challenged for the ball in the air. The Spaniard’s attempt to claim looked weak, but VAR decided that he had been unfairly impeded by the Liverpool centre-half and chalked the effort off.
There was nothing controversial about a second disallowed goal a few minutes later, Georginio Wijnaldum correctly flagged offside as he steered into the far corner, but a ragged United were looking increasingly unlikely to make it to half-time without conceding again.
As it turned out, they should really have been level, Andreas Pereira going with the wrong foot when trying to reach Wan-Bisakka’s ball across the face of goal and only managing to get a stud on it when any serious contact would have seen the net bulge.
Salah wasted a glorious chance immediately after half-time, scuffing onto his own foot after Robertson’s low cross had presented him with a sitter, before De Gea produced a wonderful stop to tip Jordan Henderson’s strike onto the woodwork.
But for all Liverpool’s dominance, there were still chances for United, and Anthony Martial wasted a terrific opportunity to level on the hour mark, firing wildly over after working a lovely one-two with Pereira.
Solskjaer sent on Juan Mata and Mason Greenwood in the hope of repeating their own thus far unmatched feat of taking points off Liverpool this season, but the hosts held firm as Salah netted on the break in injury time.
