Manchester United will be back in the Champions League next season. Their return was secured in Sunday’s thriller, which you can re-live with our Man Utd vs Liverpool stats page.
It’s mission accomplished for Michael Carrick as Manchester United secured qualification for next season’s Champions League with a 3-2 win over bitter rivals Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday, though United’s ‘Jekyll & Hyde’ performance will surely have their manager confused.
A point would have been enough for United to confirm their Champions League spot, so in some ways the result would’ve been irrelevant if they’d only been able to take a draw.
But the manner of their performance in the first half suggested something special – a day to remember – was on the cards for United.
As it happened, Liverpool managed to peg them back from 2-0 down and, for a while, looked the likelier to go on and win at Old Trafford. Such a result could have taken them above Carrick’s side.
However, Kobbie Mainoo struck 13 minutes from time to earn United all three points and a first Premier League double over Liverpool since 2015-16, with the gap between the two sides now six points with three games to play.
The result also means Carrick has beaten all of the other so-called ‘Big Six’ since taking over at United until the end of the season, a fact that surely can’t hurt his chances of earning the job beyond 2025-26.
The first half offered precious few hints of the exertion victory would require for United. There was an unmistakable sense of belief – maybe arrogance – coursing through them from the start. The occasion didn’t appear to be weighing heavy, and as such the hosts looked in control whether trying to play intricately or more direct in the first half.
Of course, the extent of Liverpool’s absences cannot be overstated. Hugo Ekitike, Mohamed Salah, Alisson, Giorgi Mamardashvili and Alexander Isak were among those not involved, and there’s every reason to suggest this might have aided United’s early confidence.
But Arne Slot was still able to name a starting XI full of expensive recruits and experience, and yet they barely laid a glove on United in the first half.
United can’t say they didn’t benefit from a hint of fortune and the odd helping hand, so to speak, however.
The opening goal saw Matheus Cunha find the bottom-right corner thanks to a kind deflection off Alexis Mac Allister; their second may have featured the ball slightly brushing Benjamin Sesko’s hand after it had rather fortuitously been knocked onto the Slovenian by Liverpool’s third-choice goalkeeper, Freddie Woodman.
On another day, Mac Allister blocks Cunha’s attempt and Woodman catches the ball or diverts it away from Sesko – but football is full of these ifs and buts.
The key thing is, though, United will argue they created such luck through their purposeful, positive football, which saw them on the front foot early on.
They allowed Liverpool to dictate possession and that played into United’s apparent strategy of hitting their visitors on the break – and that brought plenty of joy, especially down the right flank. In fact, their second goal – Sesko bundling over the line – came from such a scenario.
United may have only had 38.2% of the ball in the first half, but their 2-0 lead looked practically unassailable. After all, they’d never lost a Premier League game when leading by two or more goals at the break.
However, that belief – or, as suggested earlier, maybe it was arrogance – was ultimately proven to be somewhat fragile.
Carrick was, presumably, forced into half-time change that saw Amad Diallo brought on for Sesko, and the Ivorian’s first involvement was to gift the possession to Dominik Szoboszlai in the middle of the park, the Liverpool midfielder going on to slot home after running almost half the length of the pitch.
One error, one concession. Hardly the end of the world, right?
But a second error quickly followed, and with it a second Liverpool goal.
Senne Lammens attempted to play out from the back, only for his attempted pass to Casemiro to be cut out by Mac Allister, who nudged the ball forward to Szoboszlai to square to Cody Gakpo for the simplest of finishes.
United’s lead was gone in the first 10 minutes of the second half, their performance levels dropping to a mystifying degree.
The two teams’ performances swapped almost perfectly; suddenly, Liverpool were the ones breaking forward with impetus, threatening to score nearly every time they reached the final third.
It was difficult to ignore the role of United’s midfield pairing in Liverpool’s successful quest to restore parity.
Casemiro and Kobbie Mainoo each appeared overly adamant about getting forward, and so United’s backline became increasingly exposed. Having had such a well-defined shape in the first half, the hosts had nothing of the sort after the break, especially up to the 66th minute.
Eventually, though, United managed to settle a little more, and Mainoo – fresh from signing a new contract this week – will have been a popular matchwinner among supporters.
Liverpool made a mess of clearing their lines after Amad headed a cross back into the danger zone, and Mainoo arrived on the edge of the box to pick out the bottom-left corner, that his first Premier League goal since May 2024.
There’s certainly an argument United were deserved winners, and they showed admirable resilience to eventually respond to those two setbacks early in the second half.
The Jekyll & Hyde nature of the performance should worry Carrick to some extent, but purely from a short-term perspective, this was a notable victory.
It gives Carrick another notch on his belt and victory makes Champions League qualification confirmation appear a little more eye-catching even if a draw would’ve been enough.
Our Opta match centre delivers you all the Man Utd vs Liverpool stats from their Premier League meeting at Old Trafford on Sunday.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own match analysis.
Underneath the match centre you can find the official Opta stats on the game as well.
Man Utd vs Liverpool Post-Match Facts
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