Manchester Utd v Liverpool

A rivalry born in defeat; Newton Heath lost their top-flight place to Liverpool before the two clubs even had a name for their enmity.

On 28 April 1894, Liverpool and Newton Heath (Manchester United's predecessor) met for the first time in a Football League test match at Ewood Park, Blackburn. The stakes were stark: the winner would play in the First Division the following season. Liverpool won 2-0, condemning Newton Heath to the Second Division. The rivalry had its first wound before it even had a name.

Old Trafford opened in 1910 and handed the fixture a permanent address worthy of its ambitions.

Manchester United, having changed their name from Newton Heath in 1902, opened Old Trafford on 19 February 1910. The ground gave the fixture a stage befitting its growing intensity. By this point both clubs were established First Division sides, and the 35-mile journey between the two cities made it one of the most accessible away days in the league.

Two rival Scots, Shankly and Busby, turned a northern grudge match into the defining fixture of English football.

The 1960s transformed the rivalry from a regional grudge match into the biggest fixture in English football. Bill Shankly's Liverpool won the league title in 1964, ending a 17-year wait, while Matt Busby's United were rebuilding after the Munich air disaster of 1958. Both managers were larger-than-life Scots who understood the theatre of football. Their personal respect for each other only sharpened the competitive edge between the two clubs.

United denied Liverpool a historic Treble at the first Wembley meeting between the clubs, with Pearson and Greenhoff turning the tie in a celebrated 2-1 win.

The 1977 FA Cup final was the first time the two sides met at Wembley. Liverpool were chasing the Treble, having already won the league. Jimmy Case gave them the lead, but Stuart Pearson and Jimmy Greenhoff turned the match for United, winning 2-1. It denied Liverpool a historic clean sweep and remains one of the most celebrated FA Cup finals in United's history. The fixture had proven it could deliver on the biggest stage.

Even United's own supporters stood back and applauded; that is how complete Liverpool's performance was.

On 4 April 1988, Liverpool arrived at Old Trafford and produced one of the finest away performances in the rivalry's history. Goals from Peter Beardsley, Gary Gillespie, and John Barnes sealed a 3-1 win that effectively clinched the league title. The performance was so complete that even United supporters acknowledged its quality. It was the high-water mark of Liverpool's dominance in the 1980s, a decade in which they won six league titles.

Twenty-seven years would pass before Liverpool reclaimed their perch; Ferguson made sure of that.

Alex Ferguson's Manchester United won the inaugural Premier League title in 1992-93, ending a 26-year wait. It marked the beginning of a seismic shift. Liverpool, who had dominated English football throughout the 1970s and 1980s, would not win another league title until 2020. Ferguson had famously declared his intention to "knock Liverpool right off their perch", and the Premier League era became the vehicle for that ambition.

Trailing with minutes left, United still found a way; the story of an entire Treble season in one FA Cup match.

In the fourth round of the 1998-99 FA Cup, United trailed Liverpool 1-0 at Old Trafford with minutes remaining. Dwight Yorke equalised in the 88th minute, and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer scored the winner in stoppage time. It was a microcosm of United's entire Treble-winning season: never beaten, always finding a way. That campaign ended with the Premier League, FA Cup, and Champions League, cementing Ferguson's side as one of the greatest in European football history.

Liverpool's biggest league win at Old Trafford in decades, sealed with a chipped stoppage-time finish for good measure.

On 14 March 2009, Rafael Benitez's Liverpool produced a devastating display at Old Trafford, winning 4-1. Fernando Torres scored early, Nemanja Vidic was sent off, and Steven Gerrard ran the match from midfield. Andrea Dossena's chipped finish in stoppage time was the final indignity. It was Liverpool's biggest league win at Old Trafford in decades and a reminder that, even during United's era of dominance, this fixture could still produce shocks.

Thirty years of taunting silenced by a 33-point margin; the rivalry finally had two modern champions.

Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool won the 2019-20 Premier League title, their first league championship in 30 years. They finished 33 points ahead of United. The long wait had been a source of relentless mockery from United supporters, and its ending recalibrated the rivalry. Both clubs now had modern-era titles to point to, and the fixture regained a competitive edge that had been somewhat one-sided during Ferguson's reign.

Two hundred competitive meetings, and the head-to-head record still refuses to separate them.

The two clubs have now met over 200 times in competitive fixtures, making it one of the most played rivalries in English football. The head-to-head record remains remarkably close. With United exploring plans for a redeveloped Old Trafford and Liverpool settled into the Arne Slot era, the fixture continues to evolve. What never changes is the atmosphere: 75,000 at Old Trafford, the away section tucked into the corner, and the knowledge that nothing else in the English football calendar quite matches this.