Jamie Carragher: Victory over Manchester Utd has been a long time coming

Sep 14 2008

Jamie Carragher

Jamie Carragher savoured Liverpool’s 2-1 win over Manchester United at Anfield and admitted: “It’s been too long”.

Substitute Ryan Babel’s mishit shot 13 minutes from time finally ended a United run of five successive league victories against Liverpool.

Carlos Tevez’s early opener was cancelled out by a Wes Brown own goal, and Liverpool dominated the second half against a United side who finished with 10 men after Nemanja Vidic was dismissed for a second yellow card offence.

“It’s great,” Carragher told Sky Sports.

“It’s been too long and it’s not just the three points. It’s also the belief and confidence it gives us, because we’ve beaten the best team in Europe. It gives us the belief that we can beat anyone in the league.

“We hope we can now push on for the rest of the season. It should spur us on, because we’ve not been playing too well up to now. That is the best we’ve played today.

“It also gives us a bit of breathing space between us and United, and top is where a club like Liverpool should be.”

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez was delighted with the way his side fought back from the early Tevez strike.

“It was good for the confidence of the players,” he said.

“At half-time we were talking about having confidence and determination going forwards - and in the second half we were the best team.

“We showed quality and character to come back, and the understanding of (Robbie) Keane and (Dirk) Kuyt was very good. Their pressing was really important for the rest of the team.”