Babel Scores Winner as Liverpool Win over Manchester United

Liverpool won Rafa Benitez's first win over their North-west rivals Manchester United in seven years thanks to a Wes Brown own goal and a Ryan Babel winner with the reds winning 2-1.

With a protest before the game against the club's owners a part of the build up to the game, there was a lot of attention focused on club owner George Gillette in the crowd. Both last minute transfer window signings of Alberto Riera and Dmitar Berbatov from Liverpool and Manchester United respectively made their Premier League debuts, and Michael Carrick made a return from injury. Reds Star duo Steven Gerrard and Fernando Torres were kept to a spot on the bench.

United started with a 4-3-3 with their expensive front trident of Carlos Tevez, Berbatov, and Wayne Rooney, and the money seemed to pay dividends in just the 3rd minute, when Berbatov collected a Tevez pass and put the ball into space for Tevez to curl in a cool and composed goal past Pepe Reina. Liverpool were scrappy in the opening 10 minutes, while United looked comfortable on the ball, with Berbatov looking the goods as a 30 million pound striker. Even Reds Captain Steven Gerrard, who had previously ruled himslef out of the match saying that it "had come too soon", had started to warm up.

Dirk Kuyt should have scored in the 13th minute when an error for Van Der Sar at the back post gave Kuyt a great chance, but mistimed his opportunity and Van Der Sar made a good save.

Tevez was then given a yellow card by Referee Howard Webb for a bad challenge on Reds right back Alvaro Arbeloa. Tevez had put the ball over the goalpost in the same period of the match from a nice pass from Anderson, and should have done better. It all went downhill for Manchester United from there, as Liverpool chased, and gained a foothold into the match, gaining possesion and holding the ball.

The Reds 2nd ever goal under Benitez's tenure came from another own goal, just like the 1st ever goal when instead of John O'Shea placing the ball into the back of the net, it was the unfortunate Wes Brown.

A deflected shot from Xabi Alonso bobbled its way across the box, and Van Der Sar made a mistake of Charging out, and palmed the ball onto Wes Brown. The ball dribbled into the back of the net, and the Kop went back to full voice.

From then on, Liverpool dominated the match, as Keane and Kuyt worked extremely hard to place pressure onto United's four defenders in holding the ball, and they were restricted to Van Der Sar belting the ball for the forwards. Mascherano and Alonso worked hard in constricting the midfield, and Manchester United midfielder Anderson had a quiet second half. Alberto Riera and Fabio Aurelio looked dangerous on the left side, as Riera looked to consolidate a first team spot at Anfield. Things went from bad to worse as Carrick limped off from a previous injury and 34 year old Ryan Giggs had to come on.

Riera then came off to a standing ovation from Red's fans, and Dutch winger Ryan Babel came on. Gerrard later also came on for Benayoun, who had a solid game. Babel then had an immediate impact by scoring a goal off a Dirk Kuyt assist in the 77th minute. Benitez's reaction was to immediately check his watch.

It came from a Mascherano run deep into the box, drawing Giggs and Vidic with him, the ball bobbled out to a hopeful Dirk Kuyt who placed a short pass reminiscent of United's first goal, to Ryan Babel who clipped the ball onto the ground over Ferdinand and Brown, and more importantly, Van Der Sar.

Liverpool did not stop there, as they attacked United and still dominated the game. Ryan Giggs gave United one of their very few chances for a goal, with a well struck volley that in turn produced a fine save from Reina. Dirk Kuyt should've scored again, when he was put through by a team-mate but chose the wrong post, and Van Der Sar was forced to save.

Vidic should have been sent off when he tackled Robbie Keane from behind when he was through on goal, but he was later sent off with a bad challenge on Xabi Alonso in the air. Liverpool held on in the end with a famous victory which asserts Liverpool as genuine title contenders this year, and also gives a huge physcological boost to Reds players, as the game was one without their stars Fernando Torres, and Steven Gerrard, who only played 23 minutes.

Sir Alex Ferguson admitted that United were second best on the day, and they will have to be at their best when they meet Chelsea at Stamford Bridge next week.

"Overall they were the far better team. We didn't have one performance, except possibly Rio Ferdinand. The defending was very, very poor for both goals. We started excellently with a wonderful ball from Berbatov for our goal but Liverpool produced a performance of tackling, hassling and forcing us into mistakes. We should be coping better with it than that."

Reds manager Rafa Benitez was glowing for his team, as Liverpool go into their next match against Marseille in a Champions League group phase game with plenty of confidence.

"The players were really good," he said. "We know now we can beat anyone."