Liverpool 2-0 Man United (Worthington Cup Final)
Liverpool claimed a record seventh league cup win, with a win over their fiercest rivals in Cardiff.
Gerard Houllier fielded what was arguably his strongest possible line up, though Danny Murphy was forced to play on the left of midfield, with Hamann starting alongside Gerrard in the centre of midfield for the first time since mid-December. Owen and Heskey was the chosen strike force, with Baros on the bench.
For Man United, all three players who looked set to miss the game were included in the starting line up, with Wes Brown, Paul Scholes and Ryan Giggs all recovering from injuries.
It was a rather slow start to the game by both teams, with a number of the players taking a short while to settle into the match, though Ryan Giggs, playing in his home national stadium, was not one, and was twice involved in early chances for United. The Welshman first went for goal himself, after 15 minutes though saw Dudek make a comfortable catch. And then 10 minutes later, Giggs turned provider as he crossed a dangerous ball into the box which Van Nistelrooy flicked goalwards but with Dudek helpless to do anything to keep the shot out, the Reds' keeper breathed a huge sigh of relief to see the ball roll an inch wide of the far post.
Man United continued to enjoy slightly more of the posession without really being able to find a way through Liverpool's extremely well organised defence, and were almost behind after 34 minutes, when a brilliant counter attacking move by Liverpool ended with Michael Owen breaking into the United penalty area before easily beating Rio Ferdinand and forcing Barthez into a save.
Danny Murphy came close to opening the scoring in spectacular fashion on 37 minutes, when he brought the ball under control before turning quickly past Keane, but in attempting to curl a shot into the top corner of the goal, Murphy put a little too much power behind the ball, which flew a couple of foot over the bar.
Liverpool were enjoying their best spell of the game, and went ahead with six minutes of the game to go. The build up started in Liverpool's own half, with Murphy bringing the ball forward and playing in Owen out wide on the left of the United penalty area. John Arne Riise took over from Owen and rather than crossing into the area, Riise played a shot pass inside to Gerrard, who stuck a shot from 30 yards out which took a slight deflection off the leg of Beckham and flew into the top corner of the goal.
United were determined not to go into half time trailing by a goal to nil though, and were close to equalising in the dying minutes of the half, as Giggs made a dangerous run into the Liverpool box, which Steven Gerrard sprinted 40 yards to help defend, but after Gerrard's initial sliding challenge to take the ball off the United man, Giggs picked up the loose ball to set up Veron for a shot, which Dudek could only parry into the path of Scholes, who picked his spot in the bottom corner of the goal only to be denied by Stephane Henchoz, with the Swiss centre back somehow sidefooting the ball behind him and over the bar.
Attacking the North End of the stadium, where the 30,000 Liverpool supporters were located, Michael Owen looked set to have the first shot at goal in the second half after only 25 seconds of the kick off, but caught the ball under his feet as he got inside the United penalty area and lost possesion.
Just two minutes later, Emile Heskey could have doubled the score as he looked certain to get a shot on goal himself, though as he swung his leg back to striker the ball, Heskey was caught by Roy Keane, who took the ball away from him and prevented his United team from being faced with an almost impossible task of having to recover a two goal deficit.
Danny Murphy was next in line to try his luck at goal and, unlike the previous two opportunities which fell Liverpool's way at the start of the second half, Murphy did actually send the ball goalwards and test Barthez, though his first time shot after a neat one-two with Owen was close to the United 'keeper, who held the ball well.
Man United began to enjoy a dominant period of the game though, starting with a shot by Van Nistelrooy after he spun away from Gerrard in the area, and Dudek had to be at his best to make the save and punch the ball away from goal.
A quick break by Liverpool almost saw the Reds' get a second goal from a quick break led by Baros, who stormed into the United half and kept going until he was in the 18 yards area, when Gerrard arrived in support, and after Baros had moved slightly nearer to the centre of goal, taking two defenders with him, he flicked the ball to Gerrard and he attempted to pass the ball into the near corner, though Barthez had just enough time to get down and make the save.
It was the keeper at the other end though, who was finding himself with more to do, and Dudek was forced into saves from a shot through a crowded area by Scholes, and then a close range strike by Van Nistelrooy minutes later.
United were getting desperate, and Paul Scholes attempted to win a penalty with a blatant dive just inside the area, which left Hyypia and Hamann furious, though referee Paul Durkin was well placed to see that the United midfielder had gone down without any contact by Hamann.
The pressure by Man United continued though and Jerzy Dudek made the best of all his saves with only 8 minutes to go, after a sliced clearance by Riise had sent the ball behind him, which Van Nistelrooy picked up and powered a fierce low drive towards the far corner of the goal which looked to be heading just inside the far post until Dudek got down to make a fine save.
That save, along with all of Dudek's previous stops during the afternoon proved to be vital, as Michael Owen scored Liverpool's second goal and made sure of the win, with little more than three minutes of the 90 remaining.
Michael Silvestre made a mess of a short pass to Rio Ferdinand in the middle of the Cardiff pitch, and Dietmar Hamann was quick to put Ferdinand under pressure and won the ball before spotting the run of Michael Owen to his right, and Owen took the ball on and burst into the United area before smashing a shot across Barthez and into the same net as that where he scored his dramatic winner against Arsenal almost two years ago.
The cup on that occasion was different, but the outcome was the same and Liverpool were the team who would be collecting the cup.
A late chance missed by Smicer after an excellent run by Murphy mattered not, and after a final couple of minutes of stoppage time, Liverpool were able to celebrate a sixth trophy in the space of three seasons.
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