Soccer/ FA Premiership: "We lost a game that we were controlling," Rafael Benitez said after watching Liverpool's 12-match-long unbeaten run come to an end in the last minute of normal time when Rio Ferdinand popped up to head in from a corner for the game's lone goal.
Manchester United had picked a dramatic moment in which to rediscover their old ability to make every second of a match count, thereby upsetting comfortable assumptions of a new order of precedence just below the summit of the Premiership.
Coming on the day when Chelsea dropped their first home points since last April, this was a good opportunity to take advantage, if only in psychological terms. Manchester United's gap to the champions is down to 14 points, whereas Liverpool are now 18 points behind, albeit with two games in hand. Neither is likely to be racing Chelsea for the line at the beginning of May, but yesterday's match was about momentum in the chase for second place.
"We did the right things," Benitez lamented. "It's always difficult to lose, but to lose a match like this in the last minute is even harder. To concede a goal like that is not normal. But we were playing against a good team and as always a small detail can make the difference."
His side could fairly claim to have dominated the first half, creating the best chance enjoyed by either side after 35 minutes when Peter Crouch took a second to arrange his long limbs before striking a bouncing ball, allowing Wes Brown to slide in and make the interception.
A lead at the interval would certainly not have flattered the visitors, who might also have scored after only five minutes when Djibril Cisse muffed a chance after Ferdinand, making his now familiar dozy start, had sliced a simple clearance.
But how Liverpool made their hosts suffer in the first half, mostly by doing the simple things with passable efficiency.
The changes made by Alex Ferguson at half-time, bringing Louis Saha into the attack alongside Rooney and Ruud van Nistelrooy and asking Giggs to run at Liverpool's defenders, were so slow to take effect that Benitez may have sensed no alteration in the balance of play. Until the hour mark the visitors were still in charge of the game, and after 63 minutes Cisse again spurned a wonderful opportunity to give them the lead when he reacted slowly to a loose ball on the edge of the six-yard box after Edwin van der Sar had parried Harry Kewell's long-range drive.
Liverpool suddenly found themselves under attack on a consistent basis for the first time in the afternoon. Saha's mobility was causing problems and Giggs and Rooney were starting to carry the ball into the heart of the Liverpool rearguard. As the clock ran down, Liverpool were hanging on by their fingernails.
