Old Trafford's best games: Liverpool (1999)
The second instalment in our series of Old Trafford's greatest matches covers familiar opponents, this time during the Treble-winning campaign.
United 2 Liverpool 1
Date: 24 January 1999
Competition: FA Cup fourth round
Pre-match context: Firmly involved in the shake-up for the Premier League and Champions League, United’s hopes of also progressing in the FA Cup faced a stern test in the form of Gerard Houllier’s Merseysiders. Ahead of the Old Trafford showdown, pre-match preamble centred on the opposing strike forces: Dwight Yorke and Andy Cole having already notched 31 goals in the campaign, just one more than the 30 shared by the visitors’ Michael Owen and Robbie Fowler.
Rivalry: You don’t need telling.
Atmosphere: With 8,000 tickets given over to visiting supporters occupying the Scoreboard End, a lively, back-and-forth soundtrack was assured. It was the away contingent who were making all the early noise as Owen found space in the box to notch an unmarked third-minute header (“I wasn’t happy about that,” Alex Ferguson later growled), but United’s swift and sustained efforts to hit back kept the home support in fine fettle throughout the remaining 90 minutes.
United’s performance: A study in patience and calculated gambling unfolded, with Ferguson making all the right moves on the sidelines as his side heaved away. Roy Keane came within a whisker of a hat-trick, seeing efforts rebound off a post in each half, while another second-period shot was deflected inches wide of David James’s upright. The exasperated skipper characterised United’s building irritation as the visitors defended manfully, threatened on the break and looked set to hold firm. Nevertheless, the Reds never gave up…
Plot twists: Two minutes from time, just when it appeared certain to be an afternoon of total frustration, Yorke tapped in a Cole centre from David Beckham’s free-kick to seemingly tee up an Anfield replay. Instead, United rode the momentum all the way into the fifth round. Ole Gunnar Solskjaer had been overlooked in all the pre-match chatter about the opposing strikeforces, but the Norwegian – thrown on in place of Denis Irwin on 80 minutes – settled a pulsating encounter with his only three touches of the game. Nabbing the ball off Paul Scholes, deep inside the Stretford End penalty area, Solskjaer set himself and arrowed a low, disguised effort through Jamie Carragher’s legs and inside James’s post to ignite utter pandemonium around Old Trafford.
“It’s the best feeling you can imagine, there and then,” he grinned. “It’s pure euphoria. You could see how much it meant in the celebrations.”
Significance: Over to Gary Neville, to assess the role of that afternoon on United’s Treble campaign. “That season really started with the Liverpool game,” said the former Reds skipper. “Coming back against them in the last minute in the FA Cup was massive. That was the game which started everything. From then on, everybody was right and everybody was at it.”