Maguire’s late goal stuns Liverpool

LIVERPOOL, England (AP):

After nine painful years, and at the 11th time of asking, Manchester United ended their Anfield hoodoo with a 2-1 win against Premier League defending champions Liverpool yesterday.

Harry Maguire’s header in the 84th minute sealed one of United’s most significant wins under coach Ruben Amorim and consigned Liverpool to a fourth straight defeat in all competitions.

The frustration of so many miserable experiences on Merseyside appeared to pour out of Maguire as the defender celebrated in front of United’s travelling fans.

“It means everything. They’ve had the better of us over the last few years and we know that, and it hasn’t been good enough for our club,” Maguire said. “The old cliche is that it is only three points, but it definitely isn’t. It means a lot more than that for the club, the boys and the fans.”

Maguire’s goal came late in another frenetic and thrilling match involving Liverpool, in a season of so many dramatic finales for Arne Slot’s team.

That’s three league games in a row in which Liverpool have been beaten by a goal scored in the last 10 minutes of regulation time or beyond. Before that, they had scraped to late wins of their own in six of the first seven games.

Biggest surprise

So while Maguire’s headed goal maintained the trend of late goals, perhaps the biggest surprise was that there wasn’t another twist in the tale.

There might have been when Cody Gakpo headed wide with an open goal to aim at and the fourth official indicated there would be eight minutes of added time.

The Dutch forward had already got Liverpool back on level terms in the 78th - poking in from close range after Bryan Mbeumo had fired United ahead inside two minutes.

United’s last win at Anfield came back in 2016 when Wayne Rooney scored the only goal of the match. Since then there have been some humiliating defeats, notably the 7-0 rout in 2023 and a 4-0 loss a year earlier.

Not only has Amorim ended that bitter run, but he also collected back-to-back wins in the league for the first time since taking over at United last November.

“It was really important for our fans because they are struggling,” Amorim said. “Today they saw a different thing, and that is really important to come here to the stadium of the champions, our biggest rivals, and to sing during the game; that is massive for us, so this win is for them.”

In another match played yesterday, Aston Villa came from behind to clip Tottenham Hotspur 2-1.