Torres breathes new life into Liverpool

ANFIELD has played host to more than its fair share of drama in recent weeks, and not all of it to the Kop’s pleasure.

But not yesterday.

In front of a feverish crowd determined to prove that there are faint signs of life in this season’s title race, Fernando Torres and David Ngog ensured Liverpool denied Manchester United a return to the Premier League summit and resuscitated their own season in the process.

Having been floored by a late sucker punch from Lyon five days earlier, there was a sense of poetic justice in Ngog’s injury-time clincher, which also buys Benitez precious time in his battle to prove he really is the man to restore Liverpool back to their former glories.

While Benitez’s reputation appears secure, for now at least, Michael Owen’s took another battering yesterday. The striker was roundly jeered as he made a miserable return to the ground where he was once hailed a hero.

Owen was taunted with chants of “Once A Manc, Never A Red” as Liverpool supporters saluted Torres, the man who has supplanted Owen in their affections. The Spaniard was the inspiration for this victory, notching the first goal with a typically brutal finish midway through the second half.

It set Liverpool on the path to victory, a route which was not disturbed by the dismissals of Nemanja Vidic and Javier Mascherano, who were both shown second yellow cards in the dying seconds.

In the circumstances, they were a virtual irrelevance.

“Before the game we were talking about how this could be the perfect match for us given our circumstances,” said Benitez. “It was a fantastic performance by my players,”

“We were on top of them from the beginning. The team worked really hard and all the fans supported the team from the beginning to the end.

“We needed to win for the confidence. I think it will be a big booster for the team and the fans.”

It was hard to disagree. Before kick-off, Anfield’s latest state of emergency had been brought to a strident pitch by the records that this Liverpool team have been working their way through.

They are the first team to lose four in a row since 1987 and the arrival of a vengeful Manchester United side promised still greater shame.

Despite the best efforts of Benitez and his players to play it down, the fixture had taken on extra significance. Not only were United looking to make a quick-fire return to the summit following Chelsea’s five-goal demolition of Blackburn the previous day, Liverpool knew that three points against their bitter rivals from the other end of the East Lancs Road would help null the pain of their previous four outings.

Thousands of fans, from the Spirit of Shankly protest group, marched on Anfield before the game in protest at the American owners, but some had also jeered Benitez in the midweek defeat to Lyon, which had left Liverpool’s Champions League ambitions in tatters.

There were no boos yesterday, with United finding themselves on the back foot almost immediately.

Fabio Aurelio, one of Liverpool’s better performers against Lyon on a bad night for the five-times European champions, carried on from where he left off in midweek as he forced Edwin van der Sar into an excellent save from a 16th-minute free kick.

Buoyed by that, Liverpool took the game to United. Wayne Rooney, back in the side after injury, had hardly made his presence felt when a lightning break by the hosts saw Lucas tee-up Dirk Kuyt, the Dutch forward firing the best chance of the half wide.

United were clearly missing Darren Fletcher’s presence in midfield yet Paul Scholes has enjoyed. Rooney did see a header saved by Pepe Reina, but for the most part they were neutered, swamped in midfield and strangely lacklustre in attack.

They were fortunate to reach half-time still level, Aurelio having missed a free header in the 37th minute, but if Alex Ferguson was hoping the break would reinvigorate his team, he was sadly mistaken.

Instead, Torres took the re-start as his cue to spark into life. One glimpse of goal is all that this supreme centre-forward requires and that is all he got as he shrugged off Rio Ferdinand to fire into the roof of the net following Yossi Benayoun’s pass in the 65th minute.

Anfield exploded. Suddenly, the taunts from the United fans were cut short and the beachballs which had been flung around by the away fans shoehorned into a corner of the stadium fell flat.

United lost their shape and their discipline. They were infuriated when, with 20 minutes left, Jamie Carragher hauled down Owen just when the striker appeared to be about to break clear on goal.

Andre Marriner, whose appointment as referee for this high-profile affair was something of a surprise, took the view that it was not a clear scoring opportunity for Owen, perhaps basing his opinion on the forward’s performances in 2009, rather than 1999.

Vidic, however, could not contain his frustration. He had already been booked for a 15th-minute foul on Torres and, having flirted with trouble all afternoon, his patience finally snapped in the final minute of normal time when he was shown a second yellow card for a cynical foul on Kuyt.

There is something about this fixture that brings out the very worst in Vidic: the Serbian defender has now been dismissed in each of the last three meetings between the two sides.

But that was not the end of it. Liverpool also ended the match with 10 men after Mascherano received his marching orders after clattering into van der Sar.

With both sides a man down and five minutes of added time to play, the drama was not over.

United, desperately seeking to claw back an equaliser, left themselves exposed at the back and Ngog, whose career has yet to take off at Anfield, doubled the lead.

Benitez, and Liverpool, could breathe again.

REFEREE: Andre Marriner (Birmingham) 6: A rare experience of a big four game for an official who handled it with assurance and got all the big decisions right, although Alex Ferguson did not agree.

MATCH RATING: *** The pace and aggression of a typically frantic clash between these two teams cancelled out their undoubted quality – apart from a gem of a finish by Torres.