Coutinho scores exquisite chip as Reds reach quarter-finals

Last month, Van Gaal rated winning the Europa League as United’s best chance of making Europe’s blue riband tournament next season. Even Sir Alex Ferguson is no longer sure of a top four finish in the Premier League. Now, the Europa League safety net has gone, and defeat in the derby at Manchester City on Sunday could be fatal to United’s loftiest ambitions. It wasn’t that they were bad here – just too late. 

A European tie is a 180 minute commitment, and United only started playing after half-time – the initial 90 minutes. The first leg at Anfield was a write-off.

By the time United took the game to Liverpool they were trailing 2-0 on aggregate and a single away goal at Old Trafford would as good end the tie. Philippe Coutinho got it after 45 minutes and that was United done. They were tasked with scoring three in the second-half to progress and this is not a team set-up for that kind of rapid action – not against a good team, at least. Liverpool are not Midtjylland and, unsurprisingly, the score did not change from that point.

The embarrassed scuttle for the exits had begun long before the end. 

Credit to Liverpool, though, for their application over two legs and a useful draw here. This was an opportunity to make the first big statement of the Klopp regime against their bitterest rivals, and they took it. Who knows when these teams will play in Europe again? The first meeting has ended in a 3-1 Liverpool win, Manchester United may have to live with that for decades. It will not boost the case of those who wish to give Van Gaal a third season at Old Trafford.

He would have been expected to have placed this club a considerable distance ahead of Liverpool by now.

Instead it is Klopp’s regime that is in the ascendancy. They outplayed United at Anfield, and outfoxed them here through the marvellous Coutinho. It was a big result for Liverpool, a big defeat for Van Gaal. Yes, a draw on the night, but it felt like a loss – not least because United failed in their main objective.

United were nowhere near as poor as they had been a week ago, but keeping a clean sheet was essential and for all Van Gaal’s pragmatism, they could not do it. Liverpool simply had too much for them: too much energy, too much intensity, and in Coutinho too much quality in front of goal. Left one on one with De Gea, he beat him with a Lionel Messi-like chip. There are good teams in this competition, still, but with a player of his quality in the ranks, Liverpool have a puncher’s chance against any of them – even Klopp’s old Borussia Dortmund.

United had good possession as always chasing the game, but Liverpool were comfortable – even with a makeshift defence, James Milner performing impressively in an unfamiliar detail at left-back. If anything, De Gea made the save of the second half, from another shot by Coutinho.

The bottom line for United, however, is that this tie was lost seven days ago. If United had played with half the vigour at Anfield that they did last night, they would not have been in a position where an away goal could do for them, as it did here. Indeed, their first-half performance was so different to Anfield that it made Van Gaal’s methods close to unfathomable. What is ‘his’ United? Is it the turgid plodders of a week ago, or the vibrant, ambitious group that took the game to Liverpool and were, at times, hard to control. When are they disobeying his instructions – when they play like this, or when they play like that? The identities are so conflicting.

At their best, United stretched Liverpool to the full. After 16 minutes, Marcos Rojo played a cross from the left that appeared to catch Liverpool goalkeeper Simon Mignolet in two minds. He came, thought better of it, retreated and in doing so left Jesse Lingard in the perfect position to make a fool of him.

Lingard met Rojo’s cross but failed to steer it sufficiently wide of Mignolet, who did enough to palm it round his right post. From the corner, a manic scramble, Marouane Fellaini first having a go before Juan Mata shot wide from close range.

Anthony Martial was causing Nathaniel Clyne real problems on the left and after 22 minutes he cut inside into a good position, but snatched at his shot which flew over the bar. Clyne’s difficulties, however, were to result in Manchester United’s opening goal – although some untypical carelessness from Coutinho will have infuriated Klopp even more. Liverpool had repelled a United attack down the right when Coutinho played a blind ball across the perimeter of his penalty area, intercepted and eventually fed out to Martial on the left. He sped at Clyne who, panicked, and couldn’t resist a tackle, bringing him down. Martial stepped up and put it to Mignolet’s left.

Yet while Liverpool were challenged defensively in a way they were not in the first leg, Klopp’s gameplan is too vital not to test United in turn. In the 28th minute, Rojo missed a through ball letting in Adam Lallana who played the ball back into the path of Coutinho. He hit a cracking shot, but De Gea’s save was its equal, low and with a strong hand, pushing it away to safety.

A wonderfully ambitious free-kick from Daniel Sturridge followed after 34 minutes, the England man wide on the right, seemingly in a perfect position to cross. Standing over the ball, though, he always appeared to be eyeing up something more. He whipped one in, defeating De Gea but not the crossbar behind him.

Perhaps the move of the match occurred after 40 minutes when Jordan Henderson played a beautiful ball in for Coutinho and then continued his run for the return. He got it, too, and inch-perfect, but as so often happens to Henderson, he lacked the precision in his finish and the ball flew over the bar. Coutinho, of all Liverpool’s midfielders, has the best eye for goal – and so it proved.

In what was the last attack of the first-half, he collected the ball wide and deep on the left and set off for the target. He sped past Varela as if the young man had inadvertently tied his shoelaces together and saw that De Gea was looking to save with his feet, as ever. A near post dink defeated that plan, Liverpool were level, and United were thrust even further behind than square one. The inescapable truth is that it was simply too much. They should have started playing earlier: last week, for instance.

Source: MailOnline

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