Babel winner ends United run

Substitute Ryan Babel's second-half strike ended Manchester United's run of five successive league wins over Liverpool and gave the Reds a 2-1 victory at Anfield.

It also gave Reds boss Rafael Benitez his first victory over the Old Trafford men in 9 Premier League attempts.

United took the lead early on through Carlos Tevez, but Liverpool forced their way back into the game with a bizarre Wes Brown own goal, before dominating the second period - which saw Nemanja Vidic sent off.

The champions were ahead after just three minutes when debutant Dimitar Berbatov was allowed to get to the line by some sloppy marking and covering, and Liverpool's defence was nowhere to be seen when his pulled back cross was lashed home by Tevez.

But Benitez's Reds were level after 26 minutes when Xabi Alonso's curling, low shot into the area deflected off Patrice Evra and Van der Sar hurled himself forward only to push the ball on to the hapless Brown, who could do nothing about it cannoning off him and over the line.

Liverpool started the second period in much sharper form, Benayoun almost saw a flicked effort evade Van der Sar and Alonso fired over from 20 yards.

Keane narrowly missed breaking his scoring duck when he failed by inches to connect with a Javier Mascherano cross-shot. United's reply came from Paul Scholes who drove wide.

On 77 minutes, Liverpool's relentless second half pressure paid off. Mascherano battled his way down the right and to the line, Kuyt took up possession and played the ball across for Babel to crack home.

United hurled Nemanja Vidic up front in a desperate late ploy to salvage a point but the Serbian was then sent off for crashing his arm into Alonso's face after 89 minutes, a second yellow card swiftly followed by a red. He will now miss the visit to Chelsea on September 21.