Liverpool comfortably beat fierce rivals Manchester United 2-0 at Anfield to put themselves in the driving seat for the return leg at Old Trafford.
The home side began in decisive fashion and after 20 minutes they were in front thanks to Daniel Sturridge’s penalty, following Memphis Depay’s clumsy challenge on Nathan Clyne.
Philippe Coutinho missed a guilt-edged chance just three minutes later when he fluffed his lines from two yards out and allowed David de Gea to make a desperate save on the line.
After the interval Liverpool had to withstand a mini-revival from the visitors, although for all their possession they were unable to muster any clear-cut opportunities.
The introduction of Joe Allen allowed Liverpool to regain the ascendancy and on 73 minutes they deservedly doubled their advantage.
Substitute Michael Carrick tried to play the ball out of defence, which dropped kindly to Adam Lallana who squared the ball for Roberto Firmino to calmly slot home from six yards.
Next week Manchester United must improve dramatically if they are to cause a major upset, but as it stands Liverpool are clear favourites to progress to the last eight.
Here are some of the best reactions from Twitter:
Liverpool’s title dry spell started like this….the way we are going I dont see us lifting any trophy anytime soon #mufc
— Santino Corleone (@Stemera90) March 10, 2016
Credit to Lallana – has really upped his game of late – finally looking a real threat! #LFC https://t.co/8jGWthyJ4i
— Anfield Talk (@Anfield_Talk) March 10, 2016
Scholes absolutely fuming on BT Sports. That’s we need! Some bloody passion and pride back in the way we play #MUFC
— The United Stand (@UnitedStandMUFC) March 10, 2016
Anfield was an absolute cauldron tonight. Well done to everybody here…..best atmosphere for a long long time. Get in! #lfc
— Anfield HQ (@AnfieldHQ) March 10, 2016
#mufc have an identity crisis at all levels. Self-interests, cash over glory and leeching owners has contributed to this shambles.
— Samuel Luckhurst (@samuelluckhurst) March 10, 2016
The only bigger surprise we didn’t score more is that Fellani somehow didn’t get sent off… #LFC.
— Si Steers (@sisteers) March 10, 2016
Seen people describe that as #MUFC worst performance under LVG. It wasn’t. Yes they were very poor but they’ve been worse than that.
— Oliver Kay (@OliverKayTimes) March 10, 2016
Excuse after excuse after excuse from LVG, the minute I saw his turgid press conference yesterday I knew we was in trouble today ! #MUFC
— Steve Limb (@steve_limb) March 10, 2016
Decent game, really really important second goal for us though. Firmino is coming good.
— The Redmen TV (@TheRedmenTV) March 10, 2016
‘Fellaini was one of the best players on the pitch’. If LVG is not sacked for that then something is massively wrong #mufc
— Aaron Cox (@Aaron_Cox89) March 10, 2016
Once Klopp gets a couple of lads in who can execute his style of play properly #LFC will be flying. Absolutely flying
— Chris Williams (@Chris78Williams) March 10, 2016
The way Twitter reacts when we lose a game shows we are still a big deal despite the current situation #MUFC
— Dan Aird (@dan_airdmufc) March 10, 2016
That’s interesting. The whole conversation is about what Man Utd are doing wrong, not what #lfc did right.
— Dan Pearson (@DanPear50n) March 10, 2016
Tie is nowhere near over. Laughable some of the drivvel I’m reading. #MUFC?
— Adam (@adam_crawley) March 10, 2016
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