Manchester United manager Sir Alex Ferguson has hit out at refereeing decisions made in the 3-2 win over rivals Liverpool.
The Red Devils led 2-0 after two Dimitar Berbatov goals but surrendered that lead by conceding a penalty and a free-kick which were both scored by Steven Gerrard before Berbatov secured the win for United late on
Jonny Evans gave away a penalty after fouling Fernando Torres moments after Berbatov had given the hosts a second goal lead, before Torres won a free-kick on the edge of the area after being pulled back by John O’Shea.
Speaking to Sky Sports, Ferguson said his side should have won by a more convincing margin before launching an attack on the officials.
“From the game we [thought] it’s going to be 10 but it ends up 2-2 [after the refereeing decisions]. It was a travesty of a scoreline but a great result at the end of the day,” he said.
“They didn’t offer anything, they depended on decisions from the linesman. Edwin [Van der Sar] didn’t have a save to make, [Paul] Scholes controlled the midfield and we looked dangerous through Nani and Berbatov.”
Berbatov controlled the ball well in the area before executing a terrific overhead kick to put United 2-0 ahead, and Ferguson praised the striker, who became the first man to score a hat-trick against Liverpool for the Red Devils since Stan Pearson 64 years ago.
“The second goal was unexpected really, a surprise attempt and fortunately - not many of those overhead kicks go in the net - but it did today,” he said.
“There was a lot of criticism. It happens when we buy a player for a lot of money but he started pre-season very good and he’s carried that one but there has never been any doubt of the quality of the man.”
Liverpool’s defeat leaves them low in the bottom half of the table, and Ferguson admits criticism will have been served to whoever lost the game.
He said: “It was always going to be that sort of a test. If one doesn’t win, it will be a catastrophe and that’s what they will be talking about and it will have been the same if we didn’t win but fortunately we did win.”
The Red Devils boss also confirmed that the decision to substitute Ryan Giggs was down to illness.
“He was ill at half-time, feeling really queasy. Rio Ferdinand was last night also,” he concluded.
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