The Masters from Liverpool and Manchester United clashed at the National Stadium on Saturday evening and it was Merseyside that emerged victorious.
Goals from Luis Garcia in the first half and a Didi Hamann strike in the second were enough to see off the Red Devils.
The game began, as expected, with a slow pace much likened to what fans might call ‘walking football’.
Both teams’ anthems were blasted through the stadium’s speakers as the legends battled it out in midfield for most of the opening 10 minutes.
The Liverpool Masters almost scored in the 14th minute when Vladimir Smicer found acres of space on the left flank. He dashed into the six-yard box to cross but his effort was parried for a corner.
Two minutes later, it was the Merseyside faithful who opened the scoring. Garcia was totally unmarked near the top of the box when Smicer released a cross towards the centre. Garcia met the ball with a looping header that left Nick Culkin stranded.
The score could have been levelled in the 20th minute, but Bojan Djordjic couldn’t keep his shot from 30 yards on target.
Five minutes after the water break, the Red Devils’ legends were pressing forward again, this time via a free kick. Quinton Fortune stepped up to take it, but he was nowhere near the target–clearly exhibiting game rust.
Several close calls, slow sprints and shirt-pulling later, Jesper Blomqvist came close to equalising. One minute from the break, he cut in from the right to beat his marker and fired a low drive towards the right post. He shot was inches wide, but Jerzy Dudek looked like he had it covered.
At the end of the 40-minute half, the Reds from Merseyside were up 1-0.
In the second period, Louis Saha was the man of the hour for Manchester United. Two minutes in, he displayed excellent dribbling by going past three Liverpool defenders. However, when it mattered, he couldn’t pull of the shot.
Seven minutes later, the Frenchman was in the thick of the action again with another magnificent show of skill, skipping past the Liverpool Masters from midfield all the way to the final third. Again, he was denied at the 11th hour when Lee Martin timed his tackle perfectly.
It wasn’t all United in the second half. Liverpool pressed forward via David Thompson. Despite his bulk, he unleashed a sudden burst of energy for a darting run down the right flank. He lined up a cracking shot, but Culkin was equal to it.
Both sides took turns to try their luck at goal, with Karel Poborsky, Saha, Patrik Berger and Robbie Fowler missing the mark. The former England forward was the closest in the 65th minute when he latched on to a through pass, before firing a shot at goal. However, a challenge from Ben Thornley was enough to put him off.
Liverpool dominated the proceedings from this point, stringing together slick passes to breakthrough the United defence.
Their tenacity finally paid off in the 71st minute when Hamann found the net with a trademark rocket of a shot out of nothing, which broke through a wall of players leaving Culkin rooted.
The Red Devils had to endure several attacking forays whipped up by the Merseyside team before losing out 2-0 at the end of 80 minutes.
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