Ferdinand fireworks ignite United
Sunday, January 22, 2006
Article summary
Rio Ferdinand headed a late winning goal as Manchester United FC defeated Liverpool FC to trim Chelsea FC's lead to 14 points following their home draw.
Article body
A thumping Rio Ferdinand header on the stroke of 90 minutes handed Manchester United FC a 1-0 win against rivals Liverpool FC at Old Trafford.
Giggs delivery
The centre-back lost his marker and headed past goalkeeper José Manuel Reina from a Ryan Giggs free-kick, after Patrice Evra was fouled by Steve Finnan. Ferdinand did not score in his first three seasons at Manchester United, but now has three in the present Premiership campaign. Until then the two sides appeared to have nullified each other in a match of great passion but few clear opportunities. Liverpool enjoyed the better of what chances there were; Ferdinand cleared a Djibril Cissé effort off the line, before Cissé fired a rebound over with United goalkeeper Edwin van der Sar stricken.
'Great header'
United manager Sir Alex Ferguson praised Ferdinand and backed the defender to continue his fine goalscoring form. "There's no reason why he can't," he said. "Hopefully scoring again in this game will give him the confidence and encouragement to attack the ball as he did for the goal. It was a marvellous leap and a great header."
Chelsea stutter
Sir Alex's team tighten their grip on second place, moving four points ahead of Liverpool in third. They have trimmed Chelsea FC's lead to 14 points, after the champions dropped their first home points of the season in a 1-1 draw against Charlton Athletic FC. Chelsea had won each of their previous eleven home games this season, and had not been held at Stamford Bridge since a 0-0 draw against Arsenal FC in April 2005.
Debut delight
Eidur Gudjohnsen opened the scoring in the 18th minute when his shot was adjudged to have crossed the line before being cleared by Charlton's Radostin Kishishev. However, new Charlton signing Marcus Bent came off the bench for his debut and wasted no time making an impact, flicking in a header two minutes before the hour mark. Both sides had chances to win the match following the dismissal of Chelsea defender Ricardo Carvalho, although a draw was a fair result.
