Liverpool passion delivers win over Manchester Utd

Liverpool 2 Manchester United 0. Rafa Benitez was bought some useful breathing space by a vastly improved performance from Liverpool yesterday, as the Merseysiders played with passion and skill to defeat their age-old rivals United.

United boss Alex Ferguson graciously ceded after the match that Liverpool had deserved to win, but had his usual complaints about refereeing decisions: "Liverpool were the better team, they deserved to win, but there were so many controversial things that happened we have to feel aggrieved at some of them."

After all the injury worries leading into the game, Liverpool came with both Glen Johnson and Fernando Torres starting, but with no Steven Gerrard. In the England midfielder's stead, Benitez chose to play the much-derided Brazilian Leiva Lucas in an advanced position in the centre of the park, with Javier Mascherano covering behind him.

From the outset the home team attacked, backed by fervent support from the Kop. Three early fouls by Patrice Evra eventually resulted in a yellow card and a dangerous free kick from Fabio Aurelio that Edwin Van der Sar did extremely well to palm out. Dirk Kuyt should have opened the scoring minutes later, but couldn't get his radar working to get the ball on target.

Wayne Rooney then headed straight at Pepe Reina after being played in by a perfect cross from Antonio Valencia, who kept Emiliano Insua stretched all afternoon down the left flank. Aurelio later in the half similarly put the ball straight at the Man Utd keeper when it would have seemed simpler to head past him, and so both sides went in level with the hosts leading on points.

After the interval Liverpool kept up the pressure, and Kuyt again misjudged a good chance to break the deadlock when he opted to play in livewire Yossi Benayoun rather than go for goal himself. But the hosts would not be denied, and just after the hour mark Spanish hotshot Torres struck, shrugging off Rio Ferdinand to place a drive beyond the despairing dive of Van der Sar.

Ferguson responded by bringing on former Anfield favourite Michael Owen, who has booed to the rafters, and the England international was involved in the game's biggest moment of controversy when he was brought down by a full-blooded tackle from Jamie Carragher with ten minutes remaining that could easily have seen the Liverpool man dismissed but eventually only merited a caution from Andre Marriner.

The final minutes capped a dramatic afternoon, as both sides lost a man - Javier Mascherano for Liverpool, Nemanja Vidic sent off for the third consecutive game against these opponents for Manchester United - and saw substitute David Ngog break deep into injury time to make the scoreline more emphatic. Anfield erupted in happiness and relief at the end, and the wheels are back on for Rafa Benitez. ·