The first half between Manchester United and Liverpool at Old Trafford on Sunday afternoon was absolute chaos.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer’s side could have taken the lead in the third minute when the ball fell to Bruno Fernandes inside the Liverpool penalty area. The Portuguese midfielder spurned the opportunity to score and it proved a costly miss because Liverpool were 1-0 up moments later.
United, who have been defensively unconvincing all season so far, then found themselves 2-0 down following a horrible mix-up between Shaw and Harry Maguire. A lack of communication between the two England internationals led to Trent Alexander-Arnold picking out Diogo Jota to tap home. Salah almost made it 3-0 in the 32nd minute but was denied by De Gea, who was looking increasingly frustrated with his teammates’ defensive efforts. But the in-form Egyptian wasn’t denied five minutes later. He was the quickest to react when the ball fell kindly to Keita inside the box.
When the teams entered their dressing rooms for the interval, the scoreline read 4-0 to the visiting side. Liverpool took advantage of an abject defensive display by Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's team, with Mohamed Salah wreaking havoc once again. The Egyptian netted a brilliant brace and assisted Naby Keita's opening goal. Diogo Jota was the other man to get on the scoresheet in the opening 45 minutes.
Liverpool players were fuming with the 36-year-old's reckless actions and it looked for all the world that VAR would review the incident and deem it worthy of a red card. But Ronaldo somehow got away with just a yellow. Ronaldo simply lost his head and then endangered an opponent (Curtis Jones) by kicking the ball onto his belly as he lay down, which is more than enough to warrant being dismissed from the field of play.
The former Real Madrid and Juventus player is certainly no stranger to a red card. Ronaldo has been sent off 11 times in his career and he's mighty lucky that number 12 didn't come at Old Trafford on Sunday.
United Coach Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, speaking after the final whistle at Old Trafford and, although thanking the fans for staying with his side in the most trying of circumstances, he admitted the performance simply was not good enough.
“It's not easy to say something apart from it's the darkest day I've had leading these players and we weren't good enough, individually and as a team. You can't give a team like Liverpool those chances, unfortunately we did. The whole performance wasn't good enough, that's for sure. We've created openings, they've had chances and they've been clinical. We didn't take our chances early on and the third goal is the one that decided the game," said Ole Gunnar.