Key events
27 min Varane heads clear, Liverpool come again but the offside flag goes up.
26 min Liverpool are getting closer. Nunez makes a good run and wins a corner off Lindelöf.
25 min A pattern is emerging: Liverpool pass it around, United pounce and try to find Rashford, who is hovering high on the left. It doesn’t work this time as McTominay’s long ball is blocked.
24 min He goes for goal, hitting it well but finding the wrong side of the roof of the net.
23 min Fernandes wins a free kick on the left wing, possibly with his theatrical skills.
21 min McTominay has time and space but he picks the wrong ball, going left to nobody when his mates were expecting him to go right to Garnacho. He’s a great servant of the club, but not a great passer.
19 min Liverpool have some advanced possession for the first time, but United win the ball back by showing some tigerishness. Where was that when they needed it in the home games against Palace, Bournemouth and Fulham?
18 min Similar story at the other end: Robertson floats a lovely cross in, but nobody can get their head to it. The chance falls to Gomez, who skies it and maintains his immaculate record of never scoring a goal.
16 min United are still in the mood. A couple of sharp interceptions give the ball to Garnacho, who draws not one attempted foul but two. The second succeeds, so United have a free kick. The centre-backs go up and Fernandes’ long ball is a good one, apart from not having anyone on the end of it.
14 min Liverpool counter and Robertson has a good chance, but he leans back too far. Before that, Mainoo was again to be seen dancing into the Liverpool box. The Old Trafford crowd, who can be muted, are making a thunderous noise.
12 min United on the march again, led by Mainoo. Garnacho’s shot is blocked and it’s a corner. Dalot has a long shot, but it sails into Row Z.
This was made by Rashford and Garnacho. Rashford took delivery of a long ball and slipped in Garnacho in the inside-left channel. His shot was saved but the ball sat up nicely for McTominay, following up and getting a tap-in. Game on!
GOAL! Man United 1-0 Liverpool (McTominay 10)
United’s bright start pays off!
8 min Sharp work again from Mainoo, who feeds Hojlund, who can’t quite lay it off to Fernandes. And then there’s a near-miss for United as Salah pops up on the left and volleys just wide of the far post. The game has been wide open so far.
6 min United break and Garnacho would be one on one if Højlund’s through ball was better directed. United are bringing a lot of rust to the party.
5 min To add to Liverpool’s discomfort, the sun is shining, right in Kelleher’s eyes. But now his team mates get forward and it’s their turn to have a shot saved as Szoboszlai cuts in from the right and tests Onana.
4 min Shot! Garnacho plays a shrewd square ball to Rashford, whose side-footer is on target, well saved by Kelleher.
3 min United are in their usual red, Liverpool in white with black shorts and a splash of green. And so far, the team doing the pressing is United, for once.
2 min We’re underway. Before kicking off, Bruno Fernandes had a word with Kobbie Mainoo, who has a lot of responsibility on his young shoulders. Mainoo responds by winning a midfield duel and launching a sparky attack that ends with a shot from Wan-Bissaka, who is at left-back.
An odd feature of this match is that it’s Liverpool’s last away game for a while … until they come back to Old Trafford. And it’s United’s last home game until they face Liverpool again, same time, same place, three Sundays hence. If you’re a United fan, what would you prefer – a win today or a win in the league on 7 April? Or just avoiding a rout in both?
It’s a novelty to watch a big club match live on ITV. As part of the build-up they’ve just had a little interview with Tyson Fury, a United fan. What, he is asked, do United need to do to surprise Liverpool? “Just go out there and attack,” he says firmly. “Put pressure on them, get stuck right in, put your best foot forward. That usually works, it’s worked for me anyway, 35 times in a row.” Simple!
“The Paul Madeley of the 21st century!” says Phil Keegan. “Wow.” I wasn’t expecting that. “I totally got that reference but I am ancient (well, 64 soon). I have an American friend here in Vietnam where we live who has become interested in football, or soccer as he insists on calling it, and one way football has changed since I was a child is that players these days tend to be very specialised in terms of the position they play whereas when I was growing up they were expected to play any position. I actually used Paul Madeley as an example in that he is the only player to have played every outfield position in one season, so I enjoyed your comment.” Thanks Phil. Versatility ain’t what it used to be, much like nostalgia.
Casemiro hamstrung
Casemiro’s injury is the same one that kept him out for most of the autumn, according to the Manchester Evening News – a hamstring. The MEN makes it the 51st injury to hit United this season. More here.
“Half-time report from West Ham v Villa,” says Ian Sargeant, “if anyone is interested. Both sides started a little sleepily after their respective Thursday night endeavours. Villa have messed around at the back 3 or 4 times too often coughing up a couple of corners and possession that led to West Ham’s goal (Coufal crossing for an Antonio stooping header). The one time West Ham have tried to play out, consecutive rabonas from Paqueta and Alvarez and a volley from Paqueta proved far more useful. Entertaining enough …” Thanks!
“Bad hair day,” says Jeremy Boyce. “This may turn into one for Leicester. Dumped out of the Cup by a Premier League shambles team, player sent off, and possibly knocked off top spot after ‘N’ weeks up there depending on what goes on at Elland Road in the next 2 hours. FFP accusations flying around them too. As they say, it never rains…. Hope you’ll keep us posted on the Leeds-Millwall action.” That I can’t promise, unfortunately – I’ll be typing like the clappers as it is. And shambles, like billion-pound bottle jobs, seems a bit harsh. For all the slapstick in the boardroom, Chelsea have won every cup tie this season apart from the one they lost in the 118th minute.
United, living in the past? As if.
Nostalgic programme cover. Fortunate to have been at a few of the games.
Ten Hag: ‘When you are a child watching football, these are the games that make you fall in love with the sport; how could anybody not be excited to be a part of this spectacle?’ #mufc pic.twitter.com/NQV21ZBOOI— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) March 17, 2024
Chelsea are through
Facing Leicester in today’s other quarter-final, Chelsea scored two, then conceded two, then scored two more. Do join the great Rob Smyth for the details.
Those teams in full
Manchester United (probably 4-2-3-1) Onana; Wan-Bissaka, Varane, Lindelof, Dalot; Mainoo, McTominay; Garnacho, Fernandes, Rashford; Hojlund.
Subs: Heaton, Kambwala, Maguire, Amrabat, Eriksen, Mount, Antony, Amad, Forson.
Liverpool (reliably 4-3-3) Kelleher; Gomez, Quansah, Van Dijk, Robertson; Endo, Mac Allister, Szoboszlai; Salah, Nunez, Diaz.
Subs: Adrian, Bradley, Tsimikas, Gravenberch, Clark, McConnell, Elliott, Gakpo, Danns.
Liverpool team: no Bradley
Jürgen Klopp picks the XI you might have predicted, except that Conor Bradley is on the bench. Joe Gomez, the Paul Madeley of the 21st century, fills in at right-back, with Jarell Quansah between him and Virgil van Dijk. Bradley is on the bench.
United team: Wan-Bissaka and Højlund in, Casemiro out
Rasmus Højlund, who turned into a talisman with his hot spell after Christmas, is back from a four-match lay-off. Aaron Wan-Bissaka returns at right-back with Diogo Dalot switching to the left. Casemiro is unfit, confirming the news that was leaked by the Brazil manager, so either Scott McTominay or Bruno Fernandes will drop back to form a rickety pivot with Kobbie Mainoo. Harry Maguire and Mason Mount are fit enough to make the bench.
Preamble
Afternoon everyone and welcome to the latest gig on Jürgen Klopp’s farewell tour. It’s the last of this year’s FA Cup quarter-finals, it’s the tie of the round, and yet it feels as if it could be horribly one-sided. Erik ten Hag’s Manchester United keep being over-run and there’s no team better at over-running than Klopp’s Liverpool. At the bookies, United are rated more likely to lose 4-1 than they are to win 1-0. And that’s with home advantage.
Still, this is the FA Cup, which always offers some hope to the plucky little outsider. United managed to scrape a 0-0 draw at Anfield in December, when their injuries were worse than Liverpool’s, and now the reverse is true. Marcus Rashford has a habit of scoring in big games, Rasmus Højlund should be back to lead the line, and if Aaron Wan-Bissaka returns too, United will actually have two full-backs who know what they’re doing.
Klopp, though, is in a different league from Ten Hag, and was even before he began this victory march. He has built a machine that runs the same way regardless of the names that happen to be on the team sheet. And now he has turned an injury crisis into an opportunity, grabbing the chance to bring on a crop of young players who can’t be called promising because they’re already delivering.
If Rashford doesn’t put in a defensive shift, Conor Bradley is going to have a party. If Joe Gomez is needed at left-back, Jarell Quansah will step up and be Virgil van Dijk’s mini-me. If Diogo Dalot is at all uncomfortable on the left, Mo Salah will add to his stash of goals against United. If Harry Maguire comes back and shows signs of rust, Darwin Nunez will run rings round him.
United, so hot and cold at home this season, are going to have to be on fire today. But, of all the competitions they’ve taken part in under Klopp, this is the one that Liverpool have found the trickiest. This is only the second time Klopp has ever been involved in an FA Cup quarter-final, after 2022, when Liverpool won at Nottingham Forest. That worked out all right: they beat Man City in a memorable semi-final and then Chelsea, on penalties, in a less memorable final. One person who may remember it is Mason Mount, yet another United player in contention for a comeback today. He took Chelsea’s last penalty and saw it saved.
Meanwhile, back in the present, kick-off is at 3.30pm GMT and the team news will be here shortly.