Match 29: Kenny Dalgish (60) vs Sir Alex (69)

Kenny Dalgish (Liverpool manager) set to lock horns with old foe Sir Alex at Anfield

Liverpool vs Manchester United

Anfield (Scouser Land)

When: 13.30 GMT

Live on Sky Sports 1 & Sky Sports HD

After facing nuisance refereeing at the Stamford Bridge, the stage is set to know the fate of Liverpool vs Manchester United at Anfield. It promises to be an exciting fixture as United faced a defeat at the hands of Chelsea on Tuesday - 1/03/2011 and they're renowned to never lose two back-to-back games.

After games like  the one we had on Tuesday against Chelsea, every United fan hopes to have a referee like Gary Neville

This is the third time the Red Devils will face the scousers, first time at Anfield and 2nd time under the leadership of King Kenny. First Liverpool lost 2-3 to a Berbatov-run Manchester United when the Bulgarian scored three beautiful goals. Then Liverpool visited Old Trafford again to get knocked out of FA Cup (and soon Arsenal will kicked out too - 12th March that is guys!)

Wayne Rooney, who has been in a patchy form this season is glad to know that his fellow mid-fielders (Carrick and Fletcher) have signed contracts till 2015 and said "It's always nice to see players sign new contracts because it's a big boost for the team". Here's a funny fact, Wayne has scored 5 times in the last 5 premier league games where all the goals have been quite nicely scored and against difficult opponents. The question to be asked is, will Wayne make it 6 in 6 games at Anfield?

Liverpool will be obviously be without Torres who United only faced 4 days ago at Stamford Bridge, so they've already faced the music and Nemenja Vidic is already red carded! This is the first time Nemenja Vidic has been not red carded against Liverpool interesting enough! However, his scare against Torres carried on although this time, Torres played no part in getting the Serb sent off. It was a mere out-of-the frustration second booking against for fouling Ramires at the Bridge and the refeee was too kind to get him sent off.

Another cause of worry of United is that they will be without Rio Ferdinand as well as Vidic. Now everyone knows, one reason of losing so less games this season is the fantastic evergreen partnership of Vidic-Rio in the heart of United's defence. However, that won't be the case as United travel to the Mereyside team. Wes Brown is all set to partner with an impressive Chris Smalling. Evra is expected to be fit for the clash, oh well, he's a French warrior afterwards!


Ji Sung is nowhere near to make a comeback, Michael Owen remains a doubt whereas Anderson will take another couple of weeks to make a comeback

Other injury news for United is that Valencia is inching closer for a come back which may come in the 2nd leg of the Champions League clash against Marseille at Old Trafford.

From the liverpool bench, Andy Caroll is ever close to make a first appearance for Liverpool and he may not get a better opportunity to face a United squad lacking both Rio and Vidic, so all eyes on the £35 million signing from Newcastle United.

After this game, United will face Arsenal at home followed by Marseille. So tough games are to come! But a defeat in this game will definitely see United's chances decrease even though Arsenal blew up the chance of coming 3 points closer to one point after drawing to a thundrous Sunderland team! Well done Steve Bruce, you're a true Red.

To wrap up, if some one asked Sir Alex about who'se gonna win at Anfield on Sunday, then this is how he'd react: (IM SURE!)

Thanks for reading and please don't be upset about the Stamford Bridge game, this happens with big teams and there are reason to be happy as the Devils hope of lifting three trophies this season! BEL19VE!!


Glory Glory Man United.

Berbatov fires a hat-trick winner in an emphatic Liverpool derby

Manchester United 3-2 Liverpool

 Berbatov 42’, 59’, 84   vs   Gerrard 64’ (pen.), 70’

Dimitar berbatov after the amazing winning hat-trick goal!

Celebrations after the stunning 2nd goal! as Howard Webb looks on

3rd goal

The all-time best Dimitar Berbatov over-head goal! SUPERB!

Into the net, Reina doesn't move

Wonderful goal needs wonderful celebrations

Easy first goal

Emphatic, Elegant, Bulgarian Dimitar!

"Enjoying the crunchy game Roy?"

Joe Cole was a menace.

See Fletcher moving

Before Fletcher started to move away from the United wall.

Sir Alex's arrogance costs United money! Sir Alex said Fernando Torres is a cheat to get O'Shea sent off

All hail Dimitar Berbatov - the awesome Bulgarian Striker who rescued Manchester United from a yet another heart-throbbing Manchester - Liverpool derby. This one was one of the finest. Dimitar Berbatov's goals against Liverpool shall be remembered till this world ends. They were absolute stunners. Especially the second over-head goal which was absolute beauty! It relived all those Eric Cantano (the famous French striker who also featured in the film - "Looking for Eric") days which were filled with a surprise sense of play. Berbatov's game today can be compared to all those legends who spent their days at Old Trafford - Sir Matt Busby, Sir Bobby Charlton, George Best, Sir Ryan Giggs.... now may I introduce - Sir Dimitar Berbatov...

Tribute to Dimitar Berbatov

It can be fully agreed that the second goal was one of the best one has ever witnessed in the history of football. The second was a blind goal with marvellous sense of class and perfection. It was the DIMITAR BERBATOV's goal. The goalkeeper Pepe Reina didn't get a chance to move. There was a sudden roar in the stadium after that goal - one could have anticipated the hat-trick goal as well sometime soon. Thanks to John O'Shea, who was otherwise sluggish in the whole game and produced a silly 2nd goal opportunity for Liverpool, for the lovely cross right in front of Dimitar Berbatov. Dimitar fired his 3rd which meant United were in front. This hat-trick was the first one in a Liverpool-Manchester derby in 64 years since 1946. Only magicians like Dimitar berbatov can do this job and he's no less than a Karate Kid. It was a very athletic over-head kick which landed perfectly in the net, a goal Yoga masters around the world would be very happy of. This is to say the least - the Bulgarian really puts in a lot of effort.

The crowd gave a standing applause to the Bulgarian - he had closed his eyes as if he was still dreaming. It's a dream come true for him. He's done something none other player could achieve in over 6 decades! Dimitar Berbatov is the name, remember it! Today's goal were every penny of the massive £30 million spent on him 2 years ago to buy him from Tottenham Hotspurs where he scored many such similar Hat-tricks.

Berbatov's second goal was the pick of the scoring, an overhead kick which went in off the bar, and after the Bulgarian had become the first United player to score a hat-trick against Liverpool in more than 60 years, Ferguson added on Sky Sports: "It was unexpected, a surprise attempt. Not many of those go in the net but fortunately it did this time.

Match Review

Apart from Berbatov's impressive hat-trick the game was equally poised. Both teams played well but thanks to Dimitar for producing United with regular break throughs.. United started off with numerous corner kicks,  in fact the first goal came from the 7th corner kick in the first half right before the half time at 42'.

The match was full of dirty tackles, a few injuries to Ryan Giggs and Luis Nani who were substituted later on. Nani's performance was brilliant. His strike came in the 56th minute which got hit on the woodwork from the edge of the bos. It was a yet another superb hit from the Portugese. There plenty of yellow cards for United. Rooney, John O'Shea, Evans. For liverpool it was N'Gog who had a striker's chellenge at Darren Fletcher.

From Liverpol's end it was only Steven Gerrards who scored from two set-pieces, thanks to Darren Fletcher for moving away from the wall and inviting Gerrard - the Liverpool demon, to make it 2-2. It was a mesmirizing moment for the sparkling Liverpool.

Desperate situations need desperate measures! United were on full attack. Rooney did a marvellous job in stretching the play to the wings, but it was Dimitar Berbatov who scored a fantastic hat-trick goal from the his 2nd header of the game. The winning goal came in the 84th minute and Old Trafford was buzzing.

Evans gave away a silly penalty! Will he learn?

Ryan Giggs picked up a minor hamstring injury and had to be substituted for late winning striker - Federico Macheda. Anderson came on for his Portugese counterpart- Nani and and Darron Gibson - the awesome Irish "shooter" came on for the hat-trick hero.

Player ratings

Van Der Sar 6 - litte he could do really

Evra - 7.5 - good dribbling and defending

Vidic - 9  - avoided the "Liverpool scare" and did marvellous defending. CAPTAIN! Maintained his strong siberian character.

Evans - 4 - Johnny needs to learn. He can't give away penalties like this. Wake up Johny!

O Shea - 7- despite the poor free-kick give away to Torres, did well with lovely crossing

Fletcher - 6 - average

Scholes - 5.5 - below average

Nani - 7 - super wing display

Giggs - 6.5 - looked just fine, not the best

Rooney - 6.5 - Is he really a striker? Rooney was a shadow of his own reflection, was literally dead. Rooney only long and short passes with no effort to score goals for Manchester United. Rooney is not scoring goals!

Berbatov - 10 - AWESOME! He has started to score goals for Manchester United. Scored 3 goals today against Liverpool. Deserves to be Man of the Match. This was his 7th goal of the season. His performance is on the rise after he quit from the Bulgaria national team.

EDIT (11.00 PM BST) 

Match Highlights
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Catch us for the Carling Cup game against Scunthorpe United on Wednesday. 22/09/2010