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Liverpool march towards title as Virgil van Dijk and Mo Salah sink Manchester United at Anfield

AP
AP

Liverpool extended their lead at the top of the Premier League to 16 points thanks to a 2-0 win over rivals Manchester United in a thrilling encounter at Anfield.

Virgil Van Dijk’s first-half header and Mohamed Salah's injury-time goal proved decisive in a game that Liverpool should have won far more comfortably - but might just as easily have drawn - with victory seeing their unbeaten league run stretch to 39 games.

Jurgen Klopp had Fabinho and Joel Matip back in his matchday squad, but elected to leave both on the bench as he stuck with the same XI that had started the win at Tottenham.

Before kick-off, Ole Gunnar Solskjaer delivered the hammer-blow news that Marcus Rashford could be out for a month with a back injury, and in the Englishman’s absence he elected to double up defensively down the left, with Brandon Williams playing ahead of Luke Shaw.

The visitors had actually started brightly, Daniel James wasting one particularly good opening with a poor cross, but from Liverpool’s first real dangerous moment they were in front: Van Dijk exploited a mismatch against Williams to get a run on Harry Maguire and head Trent Alexander-Arnold’s outswinging corner beyond David De Gea.

(AP)
(AP)

Roberto Firmino and Sadio Mane both went close to making it two, the former steering wide from Mo Salah’s cross before the latter took too long to get his shot away after Fred had deflected into his path.

The Reds then did have the ball in the net in a moment of huge controversy, as Firmino whipped a stunning finish home after De Gea and Van Dijk had challenged for the ball in the air. The Spaniard’s attempt to claim looked weak, but VAR decided that he had been unfairly impeded by the Liverpool centre-half and chalked the effort off.

(Action Images via Reuters)
(Action Images via Reuters)

There was nothing controversial about a second disallowed goal a few minutes later, Georginio Wijnaldum correctly flagged offside as he steered into the far corner, but a ragged United were looking increasingly unlikely to make it to half-time without conceding again.

As it turned out, they should really have been level, Andreas Pereira going with the wrong foot when trying to reach Wan-Bisakka’s ball across the face of goal and only managing to get a stud on it when any serious contact would have seen the net bulge.

(Manchester United via Getty Images)
(Manchester United via Getty Images)

Salah wasted a glorious chance immediately after half-time, scuffing onto his own foot after Robertson’s low cross had presented him with a sitter, before De Gea produced a wonderful stop to tip Jordan Henderson’s strike onto the woodwork.

But for all Liverpool’s dominance, there were still chances for United, and Anthony Martial wasted a terrific opportunity to level on the hour mark, firing wildly over after working a lovely one-two with Pereira.

(REUTERS)
(REUTERS)

Solskjaer sent on Juan Mata and Mason Greenwood in the hope of repeating their own thus far unmatched feat of taking points off Liverpool this season, but the hosts held firm as Salah netted on the break in injury time.

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