When Ian Rush scored the opener after just eleven minutes, the ground exploded. Late on, Mark Walters added a second and the title was gone to Leeds.
The crowd was jubilant, lovingly joining in on ‘You’ll Never Win The League’. But, as always, there was an edge.
As they slouched in the visitors’ dressing room and drowned their sorrows, they could hear the Liverpool players shouting ‘Fuck you’ through the walls.
Afterwards, as United made their way to the team bus, Ryan Giggs was asked for his autograph. He obliged and scrawled his name on a piece of paper. Wrong move. The Liverpool fan gleefully ripped it up.
It just had to be on Merseyside where United came to terms with their cross-Pennine enemies sitting at home, toasting a championship success.
The ultimate insult.
Neal Simpson / EMPICS Sport
Neal Simpson / EMPICS Sport / EMPICS Sport
And in spite of United exorcising 26 years’ worth of demons and lifting the Premier League trophy in 1993, Liverpool cared little. They had, after all, accumulated quite an impressive trophy room of their own.
So, when United came to Anfield again in January 1994 – for the first time since being anointed as the best team in England – the Liverpool support were more than ready for their noisy neighbours.
The Kop unfurled a memorable banner in keeping with their general feelings on the matter.
“Come back and sing ‘Ooh Aah Cantona’ when you’ve won 18″.
United were in irresistible form. They had lost just one league game so far – to Chelsea in September. From 24 top-flight assignments, they had won seventeen. There was talk of an unprecedented treble and it didn’t seem at all fanciful.
United led nearest-challengers Blackburn by twelve points. There was a 21-point difference between them and 8th-place Liverpool.
Under Graeme Souness, the club was struggling. From the end of November onwards, victories were rare and there were sobering defeats to Newcastle and Sheffield Wednesday.
In the League Cup, there was a penalty shootout defeat to Wimbledon which led to a month-long hangover. In December, Liverpool won just once and the build-up to Christmas was demoralising with a spate of draws, including setbacks against Sheffield United and Swindon – two sides that would eventually be relegated.
On New Year’s Day, there was some brief respite in the shape of a 2-1 win at Ipswich though United strode into town, intent on turning the screw.
Neal Simpson / EMPICS Sport
Neal Simpson / EMPICS Sport / EMPICS Sport
It was a blistering opening.
Within minutes, 18-year-old Robbie Fowler missed a magnificent chance, blazing high into the Kop, as Liverpool began brightly.
United were nervous and lacked composure, the intensity of everything seemingly affecting them.
Peter Schmeichel cut an increasingly-frazzled persona, shrieking at Brian McClair and Gary Pallister – displeased at the defensive lapses shown by both.
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But they were in front after nine minutes. The home side failed to properly clear a corner and when Eric Cantona floated a perfect cross to the far post, Steve Bruce got between John Barnes and Julian Dicks to power home.
CROFT MALCOLM CROFT / PA Archive/Press Association Images
CROFT MALCOLM CROFT / PA Archive/Press Association Images / PA Archive/Press Association Images
They were still far from being in control though. Moments later, Ince mis-kicked and Fowler was presented with another great chance. This time, he put a feeble strike straight at Schmeichel and United escaped again.
But as much as they were having issues at the back, Liverpool seemed disoriented. When a Schmeichel clearance was allowed bounce straight into the opposing area, Giggs couldn’t quite believe his luck, evidenced by just how poor his finish was.
Taking your eyes off the game for just a second was a risk, as the TV director learned to his cost when cutting to a shot of Alex Ferguson alongside then-chairman Martin Edwards.
He returned to the action just as Giggs intercepted a loose Jamie Redknapp pass, shook off the close attentions of Mark Wright before deftly chipping Grobbelaar with an infectious impudence.
The attitude continued with the nonchalant celebration. Marching towards the United support, he merely stuck a solitary index finger in the air.
As Redknapp walked back towards the centre circle. his reaction said it all.
To no-one in particular he screamed “Fuck off”.
Asphyxiated on their own turf, Liverpool needed to catch a breath but couldn’t.
Three minutes later, it was 3-0.
Keane, hungry and snarling and snapping at the heels of John Barnes, bulldozed towards the area before Ruddock unceremoniously sent him tumbling with a reducer across the shins.
Denis Irwin fancied the free-kick and he received little complaint from his team-mates. No United player entered the penalty area. There was little point.
Irwin whipped a superb strike to the top corner. The pinpoint accuracy of the shot was reflected in the clank heard on the microphone inside the goal. It was the sweet spot and United were in dreamland.
“It was probably my favourite kit as well – the black one”, he later said.
I knocked it over the wall. The thing that wasn’t so nice about that was that they came back and drew 3-3. So it was good and bad memories. The fact that I scored and we didn’t win.”
A cantankerous, moody figure for much of the game’s beginning, a camera caught Schmeichel in buoyant mood, joking and smiling with his defenders.
As Irwin returned to his left-back zone, he looked straight down the lens of a sideline camera, mid-jog. Preposterously, it seemed a knowing glance. Of course it wasn’t but just at that exact time, even Denis Irwin seemed like an effortlessly-cool rock star.
But within two minutes, Liverpool were back in it and an equally left-of-field player stepped forward to grab some headlines of his own.
Souness signed Nigel Clough from Nottingham Forest for the tidy sum of £2.2m the previous June, making him one of the most expensive players in England.
He scored twice on his top-flight debut and managed four in his first four games overall. But then, as his side struggled, so did he.
His first strike against United seem to carry with it a degree of frustration. It was a furious, thumping hit that bent brilliantly outside of Schmeichel’s left hand and smacked the inside of the upright before nestling in the net.
Clough popped up again before the break as United fumbled and bumbled on the edge of the box.
Bruce’s prodded an interception straight at Keane and as the ball broke free, Clough raced onto it and planted it to the bottom corner.
The reaction was deafening. Game on.
Giggs had a magnificent chance to make it 4-2 but missed his kick with the goal at his mercy and it was Liverpool who went to the interval in better spirits. After 23 minutes, it had looked all over.
In the Sky studios, George Best and Phil Thompson stewed over the furious first period.
“This game could end up 6-6 the way it’s going”, said Best.
There wasn’t a hint of hyperbole about the statement.
Everything carried on as normal after the restart though United sat back and played more on the counter.
Neal Simpson / EMPICS Sport
Neal Simpson / EMPICS Sport / EMPICS Sport
Both teams bombarded forward and Cantona saw a shot deflected just wide after Keane and Andrei Kanchelskis combined on the right side and it was more of the same not long after.
Keane threaded a magnificent pass through for Giggs who ignored Cantona and blasted a shot towards the near post. Grobbelaar made a terrific stop to keep his side in it. Later, he flung himself low to his right after Cantona had teed up Keane with a gorgeous cross.
At the other end, Redknapp saw a right-foot curler excellently beaten away by Schmeichel while he pulled off an acrobatic save to deny Dicks’ long-ranger.
Ultimately, the game-changing moment came when Stig Inge Bjørnebye replaced Steve McManaman.
Slotting in on the left side, the Norwegian had an instant impact.
Finding space with ten minutes to go, he measured a teasing cross that Ruddock threw himself at. Getting above Pallister, he thundered the header past Schmeichel and Liverpool had their equaliser.
Cantona had one more chance – a header that dropped just wide of the upright after McClair whipped in a sumptuous delivery – but a magnificent, draining, devastatingly-entertaining clash failed to deliver a winner.
Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of the season. It just illustrated the contrast between both clubs at the time.
United were angry, furious, bitter. Once again, as they had done in the incredibly-costly Champions League qualifier against Galatasaray, lost a comprehensive lead and paid the penalty.
There were recriminations, particularly between Schmeichel and Ferguson.
“There was nothing I could do about the goals and I played really well”, the goalkeeper said years later.
But after the game he [Ferguson] came straight at me because my goal-kicks had been straight up the middle and Neil Ruddock had been heading them straight back. I didn’t think that was fair. We ended up having a massive, massive row. The more we said to each other the worse it got.
Obviously I stepped over the line. The next day he [Ferguson] was in the office. I was called in and he said, `Listen, I have to sack you. I can’t tolerate my players speaking to me like that. It goes against my authority’.”
History shows that Schmeichel stayed and United’s response to the Liverpool draw was a good one. They went unbeaten in their next eleven games, winning ten of them.
There was League Cup final disappointment against Aston Villa but walked off with the Premier League and FA Cup, fueling their domestic dominance.
The last time an English team managed the feat was 1986. The team that did it? Liverpool.
The ultimate insult.
Ross Kinnaird / EMPICS Sport
Ross Kinnaird / EMPICS Sport / EMPICS Sport
Things turned out differently at Anfield.
Following the 3-3 draw, Souness was only in charge for two more games. The FA Cup defeat to Bristol City proved the final straw and he quickly resigned.
What followed was instability though Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez would bring a smattering of success.
There was a defining postscript though.
In October 2009, United supporters arrived at Anfield with a banner of their own.
'A masterpiece of a match': when Anfield hosted an exhausting, exhilarating classic
THOUGH THEIR PEAK had passed, Liverpool could still irritate Manchester United.
By the end of the 1991/92 season, Alex Ferguson’s side had turned a corner and finished ten points ahead of their bitter rivals.
And still, it was at Anfield where their bigger dreams died.
On 26th April, United needed to win to keep alive their rapidly-fading championship aspirations.
But after back-to-back defeats to Nottingham Forest and West Ham – suffered over the course of 72, energy-sapping hours, everything was flat.
United were unsteady on their feet and Liverpool, the aging heavyweight, wanted nothing more than one, final devastating blow.
When Ian Rush scored the opener after just eleven minutes, the ground exploded. Late on, Mark Walters added a second and the title was gone to Leeds.
The crowd was jubilant, lovingly joining in on ‘You’ll Never Win The League’. But, as always, there was an edge.
As they slouched in the visitors’ dressing room and drowned their sorrows, they could hear the Liverpool players shouting ‘Fuck you’ through the walls.
Afterwards, as United made their way to the team bus, Ryan Giggs was asked for his autograph. He obliged and scrawled his name on a piece of paper. Wrong move. The Liverpool fan gleefully ripped it up.
It just had to be on Merseyside where United came to terms with their cross-Pennine enemies sitting at home, toasting a championship success.
The ultimate insult.
And in spite of United exorcising 26 years’ worth of demons and lifting the Premier League trophy in 1993, Liverpool cared little. They had, after all, accumulated quite an impressive trophy room of their own.
So, when United came to Anfield again in January 1994 – for the first time since being anointed as the best team in England – the Liverpool support were more than ready for their noisy neighbours.
The Kop unfurled a memorable banner in keeping with their general feelings on the matter.
“Come back and sing ‘Ooh Aah Cantona’ when you’ve won 18″.
There was more than a degree of face-saving.
United were in irresistible form. They had lost just one league game so far – to Chelsea in September. From 24 top-flight assignments, they had won seventeen. There was talk of an unprecedented treble and it didn’t seem at all fanciful.
United led nearest-challengers Blackburn by twelve points. There was a 21-point difference between them and 8th-place Liverpool.
Under Graeme Souness, the club was struggling. From the end of November onwards, victories were rare and there were sobering defeats to Newcastle and Sheffield Wednesday.
In the League Cup, there was a penalty shootout defeat to Wimbledon which led to a month-long hangover. In December, Liverpool won just once and the build-up to Christmas was demoralising with a spate of draws, including setbacks against Sheffield United and Swindon – two sides that would eventually be relegated.
On New Year’s Day, there was some brief respite in the shape of a 2-1 win at Ipswich though United strode into town, intent on turning the screw.
It was a blistering opening.
Within minutes, 18-year-old Robbie Fowler missed a magnificent chance, blazing high into the Kop, as Liverpool began brightly.
United were nervous and lacked composure, the intensity of everything seemingly affecting them.
Peter Schmeichel cut an increasingly-frazzled persona, shrieking at Brian McClair and Gary Pallister – displeased at the defensive lapses shown by both.
But they were in front after nine minutes. The home side failed to properly clear a corner and when Eric Cantona floated a perfect cross to the far post, Steve Bruce got between John Barnes and Julian Dicks to power home.
They were still far from being in control though. Moments later, Ince mis-kicked and Fowler was presented with another great chance. This time, he put a feeble strike straight at Schmeichel and United escaped again.
But as much as they were having issues at the back, Liverpool seemed disoriented. When a Schmeichel clearance was allowed bounce straight into the opposing area, Giggs couldn’t quite believe his luck, evidenced by just how poor his finish was.
Taking your eyes off the game for just a second was a risk, as the TV director learned to his cost when cutting to a shot of Alex Ferguson alongside then-chairman Martin Edwards.
He returned to the action just as Giggs intercepted a loose Jamie Redknapp pass, shook off the close attentions of Mark Wright before deftly chipping Grobbelaar with an infectious impudence.
The attitude continued with the nonchalant celebration. Marching towards the United support, he merely stuck a solitary index finger in the air.
As Redknapp walked back towards the centre circle. his reaction said it all.
To no-one in particular he screamed “Fuck off”.
Asphyxiated on their own turf, Liverpool needed to catch a breath but couldn’t.
Three minutes later, it was 3-0.
Keane, hungry and snarling and snapping at the heels of John Barnes, bulldozed towards the area before Ruddock unceremoniously sent him tumbling with a reducer across the shins.
Denis Irwin fancied the free-kick and he received little complaint from his team-mates. No United player entered the penalty area. There was little point.
Irwin whipped a superb strike to the top corner. The pinpoint accuracy of the shot was reflected in the clank heard on the microphone inside the goal. It was the sweet spot and United were in dreamland.
“It was probably my favourite kit as well – the black one”, he later said.
A cantankerous, moody figure for much of the game’s beginning, a camera caught Schmeichel in buoyant mood, joking and smiling with his defenders.
As Irwin returned to his left-back zone, he looked straight down the lens of a sideline camera, mid-jog. Preposterously, it seemed a knowing glance. Of course it wasn’t but just at that exact time, even Denis Irwin seemed like an effortlessly-cool rock star.
But within two minutes, Liverpool were back in it and an equally left-of-field player stepped forward to grab some headlines of his own.
Souness signed Nigel Clough from Nottingham Forest for the tidy sum of £2.2m the previous June, making him one of the most expensive players in England.
He scored twice on his top-flight debut and managed four in his first four games overall. But then, as his side struggled, so did he.
His first strike against United seem to carry with it a degree of frustration. It was a furious, thumping hit that bent brilliantly outside of Schmeichel’s left hand and smacked the inside of the upright before nestling in the net.
Four goals in seventeen, breathless minutes.
Clough popped up again before the break as United fumbled and bumbled on the edge of the box.
Bruce’s prodded an interception straight at Keane and as the ball broke free, Clough raced onto it and planted it to the bottom corner.
The reaction was deafening. Game on.
Giggs had a magnificent chance to make it 4-2 but missed his kick with the goal at his mercy and it was Liverpool who went to the interval in better spirits. After 23 minutes, it had looked all over.
In the Sky studios, George Best and Phil Thompson stewed over the furious first period.
“This game could end up 6-6 the way it’s going”, said Best.
There wasn’t a hint of hyperbole about the statement.
Everything carried on as normal after the restart though United sat back and played more on the counter.
Both teams bombarded forward and Cantona saw a shot deflected just wide after Keane and Andrei Kanchelskis combined on the right side and it was more of the same not long after.
Keane threaded a magnificent pass through for Giggs who ignored Cantona and blasted a shot towards the near post. Grobbelaar made a terrific stop to keep his side in it. Later, he flung himself low to his right after Cantona had teed up Keane with a gorgeous cross.
At the other end, Redknapp saw a right-foot curler excellently beaten away by Schmeichel while he pulled off an acrobatic save to deny Dicks’ long-ranger.
Ultimately, the game-changing moment came when Stig Inge Bjørnebye replaced Steve McManaman.
Slotting in on the left side, the Norwegian had an instant impact.
Finding space with ten minutes to go, he measured a teasing cross that Ruddock threw himself at. Getting above Pallister, he thundered the header past Schmeichel and Liverpool had their equaliser.
Cantona had one more chance – a header that dropped just wide of the upright after McClair whipped in a sumptuous delivery – but a magnificent, draining, devastatingly-entertaining clash failed to deliver a winner.
Not that it mattered in the grand scheme of the season. It just illustrated the contrast between both clubs at the time.
United were angry, furious, bitter. Once again, as they had done in the incredibly-costly Champions League qualifier against Galatasaray, lost a comprehensive lead and paid the penalty.
There were recriminations, particularly between Schmeichel and Ferguson.
“There was nothing I could do about the goals and I played really well”, the goalkeeper said years later.
Obviously I stepped over the line. The next day he [Ferguson] was in the office. I was called in and he said, `Listen, I have to sack you. I can’t tolerate my players speaking to me like that. It goes against my authority’.”
History shows that Schmeichel stayed and United’s response to the Liverpool draw was a good one. They went unbeaten in their next eleven games, winning ten of them.
There was League Cup final disappointment against Aston Villa but walked off with the Premier League and FA Cup, fueling their domestic dominance.
The last time an English team managed the feat was 1986. The team that did it? Liverpool.
The ultimate insult.
Things turned out differently at Anfield.
Following the 3-3 draw, Souness was only in charge for two more games. The FA Cup defeat to Bristol City proved the final straw and he quickly resigned.
What followed was instability though Gerard Houllier and Rafael Benitez would bring a smattering of success.
There was a defining postscript though.
In October 2009, United supporters arrived at Anfield with a banner of their own.
A version of this piece was originally published on 9 March, 2016
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