A Thursday night collision in the Europa League between the teams placed sixth and seventh in the Premier League is not the way a romantic would have scripted the first ever European encounter between the two rivals.
Advertisement
“We were really good from the first second, everything was there but we could have scored more”, Klopp said.
Liverpool’s football in the first half was played primarily in United’s half as they dominated the midfield battle with a front four of Sturridge, Firmino, Adam Lallana and Philippe Coutinho rotating positions with bewildering regularity.
United fell behind when Memphis Depay was adjudged to have pulled back Nathaniel Clyne for the penalty – a decision Van Gaal disagreed with. [But] there wasn’t really a lot, so that’s one of the best things about this game.
“We’re all disappointed, but knowing we’ve now got two home games, it’s up to us to take the game to West Ham and then Liverpool”. “At 2-0, they’re still in the game, don’t get me wrong, but when you’re at Manchester United, I think there’s certain standards you have to live up to that and they’ve fallen well short”.
Wayne Rooney’s continued absence with a knee injury means that 18-year-old striker Marcus Rashford, who shot to prominence with a debut brace against Midtjylland in last month’s 5-1 second-leg win, stands to get his first taste of the Anfield atmosphere.
With regular penalty-taker James Milner absent with illness, Sturridge – criticised for not taking a spot-kick in the Capital One Cup final shoot-out last month – stepped up to beat De Gea for his fourth goal in six appearances against United.
Manchester United Manager Louis van Gaal won all four of his previous meetings against Liverpool.
The only reason United still have a chance of advancing to the Europa League quarterfinals is because their Spanish goalkeeper David De Gea stood on his head.
Talking about the second goal, Van Gaal said: “The guy who plays the pass for the second goal [Adam Lallana] was already offside”.
“I have to say that Liverpool created an atmosphere that was fantastic”, said the Dutchman in a BT Sport interview. When we were playing we were reaching them.
The mood around Upton Park could scarcely be better given their recent performances, but manager Slaven Bilic has warned that United will offer a far sterner test than they did against Liverpool this week.
“We lost a little bit of control in midfield so we changed system and that’s why we brought Joe Allen on”, he said.
United boss Van Gaal will be counting on a strong showing from a side which were unable to secure an away loss against West Brom at the weekend.
Daniel Sturridge has scored five times and assisted another goal in his last seven games against Manchester United.
Advertisement
“It’s hard because 2-0 is a very hard result for us”.
