Tevez earns Utd victory

Carlos Tevez got the better of Liverpool at Anfield today as Man Utd put Liverpool to the sword with a fantastic 1-0 win. The derby itself was frenetic and fast paced, it took one moment of luck to send the ball home past Reina.

Liverpool began brightly as Sami Hyypia sent his shot in the 3rd minute narrowly over the United crossbar after Gerrard’s curling free-kick from right side was headed out by Nemanja Vidic but only as far as Fernando Torres, who acrobatically got the ball back into the box for the defender to bring up the Reds’ first look of the rival goal.

In the 14th minute, a good piece of play from United saw skipper Ryan Giggs keep the ball around the left channel as Patrice Evra darted past him and sent in a cross with Wayne Rooney attacking the rival box. However, the England striker could not get any contact with the low cross and Jamie Carragher brought off the clearance.

Anderson turned out to the saviour for United in the 28th minute as he made a goalline block off a shot from Harry Kewell after a goalmouth melee following Steven Gerrard’s corner-kick and a poor defensive header from Rio Ferdinand seeing keeper Van der Sar stranded.

But Torres from a close range, surprisingly failed to direct his header on the target off the rebound of Anderson.

Van der Sar was again saved from embarrassment as the Dutch international unnecessarily came out and Ferdinand’s touch seemed to take the ball into their own net but Evra made a timely clearance.

Liverpool had a chance to open the scoring in the 38th minute but an unmarked Torres failed to decide whether to go for the goal or cross it after Gerrard’s free-kick had hit the wall and made its way to the Spain ace on the right side of the penalty area.

Although the Reds did all the attacking, the visitors were the first to open the scoring as Tevez scored his first away goal for United in the 43rd minute.

Giggs sent in a corner-kick all along the ground to Rooney at the edge of the box and the England international drilled a shot that made its way through a host of bodies and an unmarked Tevez just deflected the ball home.

Both sides began the second half in right earnest and Gerrard saw his long range shot heading straight into Van der Sar. At the other end, Hyypia made an important interception after Rooney set up Cristiano Ronaldo on the right side.

The home side pressed forward as the time passed, chasing the equaliser and Kuyt’s effort after a patient build-up however lacked power and placement as Van der Sar was untroubled.

In the 72nd minute, United attacked on the counter with Ronaldo initiating the move but Hargreaves’ shot from 20 yards missed the target.

Dutch international Ryan Babel, who replaced Kewell on 65 minutes, came agonisingly close to finding the equaliser when his low shot from the left side went narrowly wide of Van der Sar’s far post in the 77th minute.

Rooney missed United’s best chance in the second half when he failed to beat Reina one on one in the 79th minute after Ronaldo had brilliantly sent in an adroit cross inside the 18-yard box.

United defended well in the closing stages of the game despite intense pressure from the Reds with skipper Gerrard’s injury time free-kick just sailing over the cross bar.