thrilling 3-2 victory<\/a> over old rivals Liverpool.<\/p>\nUnited were 2-0 up inside 15 minutes on Sunday through Matheus Cunha and Benjamin Sesko, but imploded after the break to allow Arne Slot\u2019s men to level with goals from Dominik Szoboszlai and Cody Gakpo before Mainoo secured the win.<\/p>\n
Recommended Stories list of 4 itemsend of list<\/p>\n
A return to Europe\u2019s elite competition after a two-year absence and another big game win furthers Michael Carrick\u2019s case to continue as United boss next season.<\/p>\n
Mainoo has embodied the upturn in United\u2019s fortunes since Carrick took charge in January.<\/p>\n
Overlooked by Ruben Amorim, the England midfielder earned a new five-year contract this week and celebrated in style with a cool finish from the edge of the box to edge a wild encounter.<\/p>\n
Third-placed United open up a six-point lead over Liverpool and are guaranteed to finish in the top five.<\/p>\n
Despite an 11th league defeat of the season, Liverpool likely need only three points from their three remaining games to also secure a place in the Champions League.<\/p>\n
Slot\u2019s side arrived at Old Trafford depleted without the forward trio of Mohamed Salah, Hugo Ekitike and Alexander Isak through injury.<\/p>\n
United sensed blood and were well worthy of their early two-goal lead.<\/p>\n
Cunha was afforded two chances to find his range from the edge of the box to open the scoring.<\/p>\n
The Brazilian\u2019s strike flicked off Alexis Mac Allister to give Liverpool\u2019s third-choice goalkeeper Freddie Woodman no chance.<\/p>\n
The waves of United attack kept coming, and Sesko appealed for a penalty after failing to beat Woodman from Bruno Fernandes\u2019s precise pass.<\/p>\n
Seconds later, the Slovenian bundled the ball over the line from Fernandes\u2019s header back across goal.<\/p>\n
Fernandes was inches away from a third when he blasted Bryan Mbeumo\u2019s cross wide.<\/p>\n
But the warning signs of what was to come in the second half for United were also there before the break.<\/p>\n
Gakpo curled wide on one of the many occasions Liverpool were able to pierce the heart of the Red Devils\u2019 midfield.<\/p>\n
Sesko was replaced by Amad Diallo at half-time, and the Ivorian almost immediately gifted Liverpool a route back into the game.<\/p>\n
Szoboszlai pounced on Amad\u2019s loose pass and ran from inside his own half unopposed before slotting into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
United were architects of their own downfall again for the equaliser.<\/p>\n
This time, goalkeeper Senne Lammens\u2019s pass was picked off by Mac Allister, who fed Szoboszlai, and the Hungarian coolly teed up Gakpo for a tap-in.<\/p>\n
The unusually low stakes for a game between these clubs showed as both threw caution to the wind in search of a winner.<\/p>\n
The home side got it when a poor clearance from Mac Allister broke kindly for the charging Mainoo to steer into the bottom corner.<\/p>\n
United\u2019s first league double over Liverpool since the 2015-16 season completes a remarkable turnaround in the two sides\u2019 fortunes from a year ago.<\/p>\n
Liverpool finished 14 places and 42 points ahead of their rivals on their way to equalling United\u2019s record of 20 English top-flight titles last season.<\/p>\n
Carrick has also beaten Arsenal, Manchester City and Chelsea in his short reign and now delivered his primary goal with the riches of the Champions League to make his case hard to ignore.<\/p>\n
Mainoo, who was named the man of the match, said Carrick had played a \u201chuge part\u201d in his and the team\u2019s turnaround in form.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe confidence in not just me, but all the players. You want to follow him and fight for him,\u201d Mainoo told Sky Sports after the match. \u201cThat\u2019s what we showed today.\u201d<\/p>\n
In-form Bournemouth trounce Palace<\/p>\n
In Sunday\u2019s earlier game, Bournemouth boosted their European hopes with a thumping 3-0 Premier League win over woeful Crystal Palace.<\/p>\n
A calamitous own goal from former Cherries midfielder Jefferson Lerma and Junior Kroupi\u2019s 32nd-minute penalty set the in-form hosts on course to climb to sixth place in the table.<\/p>\n
Brazilian winger Rayan completed the scoring 13 minutes from time as Andoni Iraola\u2019s side stretched their remarkable unbeaten run to 15 top-flight games in convincing fashion.<\/p>\n
Palace\u2019s visit to the Vitality Stadium was sandwiched between their two-legged Conference League semifinal against Shakhtar Donetsk, which they lead 3-1 on aggregate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Kobbie Mainoo’s late strike earns a thrilling victory after bitter rivals Liverpool had fought back from two goals…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":647486,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,2057,596,44,588,85,3586],"class_list":["post-647485","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-europe","tag-football","tag-news","tag-sport","tag-sports","tag-united-kingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647485","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=647485"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/647485\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/647486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=647485"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=647485"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=647485"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}