It's fair to say that very few would have seen Sunday's FA Cup thriller between Manchester United and Liverpool coming.
The two sides have been having dramatically different seasons thus far. United have struggled to keep in touch with the top four race amid an injury crisis and question marks over their manager Erik Ten Hag, while Liverpool have already won the League Cup and are in a strong position to go all the way in both the Premier League and Europa League.
Given the nature of their two seasons, few would have predicted that not only would United win, but that they would fight back to do so in one of the most memorable FA Cup games this century.
Liverpool entered the closing stages at Old Trafford 2-1 up before a dramatic late equaliser from Antony. The away side once again took the lead in extra-time through Harvey Elliott and that looked to be that before Marcus Rashford's equaliser in the second period. From a Liverpool corner in injury-time, United youngsters Alejandro Garnacho and Amad Diallo broke free to claim a famous victory.
Though United deserve to be commended for the exceptional spirit and tenacity shown in their fightback, Irish football legend John Giles believes that their winning goal exposed a serious flaw in Liverpool's approach to the game.
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John Giles on Manchester United v Liverpool
Giles appeared on The Stand podcast this week alongside his old punditry partner-in-crime Eamon Dunphy, and the pair dissected Sunday's thriller in Manchester.
Former United player Giles was asked if he felt that Liverpool had been complacent in their approach to the closing stages. He felt that, with the game finely poised at 3-3 in injury-time of extra-time, Jurgen Klopp's side had thrown caution to the wind and allowed their opponents an (admittedly unlikely) path to victory by committing so many men forward for a corner:
When you get into a situation like that, when there's an awful lot happening...they were in front, they looked like they were going to win a game, and this was an opportunity to win it. The Liverpool players wouldn't think that Manchester United would score from this position. Nobody would!
[But] if you look at the mentality of it, when you go out and there's no score at the start the manager will say, 'now, be careful from corner kicks. Don't overdo it, make sure you've got somebody standing back to defend.' When it got to the situation there [at the end], the attitude was, 'we've got a chance of winning it!'
There was nobody defending. Once United made the break, they were on their own. There was nothing going through the head of anyone on the Liverpool team to say, 'we still have to defend this.'
It's hard to argue with Giles' point. Committing so many men forward would be understandable if Liverpool had been in a losing position but there was always a chance - however slim - that United could have broken away and created a chance of their own. Their setup left Northern Irishman Conor Bradley to deal with the break of Garnacho and Amad all alone.
Giles also said that he felt Liverpool had been too brazen in presuming they would go on to win once they went 2-1 up just before half-time.
Liverpool were by far and away the better team in the first-half. When you come out in the second-half, the mentality is the same, 'oh, we're winning 2-1, we're the better team, it's no problem.' The only way that there's 'no problem' is if you go and get another one, and another one.
That didn't happen...we don't know what happened in the dressing room at half-time.
You're so much on top, it's all a mental thing on the pitch Eamon. You do get players or the manager who can say at half-time, 'look, we've been on top, but we're only a goal up. Don't get ahead of yourselves, let's get another goal.'
Ideally, that is the thing to say: 'We're 2-1 up, we haven't won the game by a long way yet.'
This is obviously an exceptional Liverpool team, but they certainly seemed to make some uncharacteristic errors in their defeat to Manchester United.
Jurgen Klopp's side still have two trophies to play for and will have a chance for revenge when they visit Old Trafford in the Premier League on April 7.
Meanwhile, Ten Hag's Manchester United will face Coventry City in the FA Cup semi-finals two weeks later.
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