As dawn broke in Central America, a metaphorical Stetson was being tipped. Tom Hicks, the Texan who co-owns Liverpool, watched the game in Mexico where his son, Alex, got married yesterday. Kick-off was at 5.45am local time and Hicks followed events at Old Trafford on television blearily and gleefully. It felt like Rafael Benitez had come up with the perfect wedding present. After all, Alex, on a visit to Merseyside, had proposed to his bride-to-be out on the Anfield pitch.

The latter detail is unlikely to melt the hearts of the many Koppites who dislike the Hicks family. But every Liverpool supporter on the planet could agree to celebrate a marriage. Fernando Torres and Steven Gerrard only got together 19 months ago but theirs has been a whirlwind relationship. Romance, of a football sort, seems in the air whenever they take the pitch together and Gerrard, after putting Liverpool 2-1 ahead from the penalty spot, even planted a smacker on a TV camera lens.

His partnership with Torres already looks as if it might one day be worthy of talking about in the same breath as those between Kenny Dalglish and Ian Rush, and John Toshack and Kevin Keegan. El Nino and El Capitan plunged stilettos into a soft underbelly of Manchester United none knew existed, puncturing the reputation of one of the world’s top defenders in the process. As footballers of supreme strength and energy, fine technique and powerful spirit, and fearsome speed of foot and mind, playing against one of them must be bad enough, two a waking nightmare. There were no complaints when Gerrard handed Torres the champagne as man of the match but it could just as easily have been the other way around.

Liverpool’s problem has been not getting their fearsome twosome on the field together often enough. Injuries have blighted Torres’ campaign in particular and yesterday was only the ninth time in this season’s Premier League that the pair have started a game together. Their side’s record in those matches reads won six, drawn three, lost none and the two have scored 12 goals — Torres eight, Gerrard four.

Benitez might be in charge of a team leading the league rather than — for all yesterday’s efforts — one chasing a familiar foe had he been able to use the tandem more often.

It was he who saw Gerrard and Torres as an attacking combination in the first place, moving Gerrard to a second-striker position at the start of the 2007-08 season and signing Torres for a club record £26m to play in front of him. It is he who should feel Liverpool being deprived of them most keenly, although he refused to make any grand statements about what might have been. “Clearly the two are key players and when they are on the pitch the rest of the team has more confidence. We know they can score goals and change games,” he said. “We have other good players in our team but if we don’t have either one of them it’s a big loss.”

Torres, in particular, was responsible for the fall of Nemanja Vidic, something which for the multitude of strikers who have suffered against the Serbian must have felt like the Berlin Wall coming down. Torres toppled the previously impregnable centre-half and partied amid the wreckage. Initially it seemed Vidic, with Rio Ferdinand’s help, would repel the Spaniard. On an early break, Torres was dumped on the ground and left to cry in vain for a penalty when he tried to run through a gap between the defenders. After another attack he was left on his haunches, wincing from a Vidic challenge.

Then came a moment that changed perceptions of Liverpool’s capabilities. Against Real Madrid Torres demonstrated his ability to make the most expert opponent look a novice when he forced the great Fabio Cannavaro to suffer a series of humiliations. Now it was Ferdinand’s turn to be embarrassed. Torres, with a blink-and-miss-it turn, whirled past Ferdinand inside the United box. Torres could not capitalise and United scored a minute later but soon the Spaniard was back shaming Vidic, beating the Serb for pace, power and wit to score Liverpool’s first goal.

What happened next confirmed Torres is a warrior. Vidic was on the warpath and many would shrink from such a prospect but the next time Torres got the ball he actively sought the defender out and had the further temerity to sell him a nutmeg in the penalty area. Shortly afterwards, Torres beat Vidic to a header and was barged to the ground, with United lucky not to concede a penalty. By this time Vidic’s shirt had come untucked, he was blowing heavily and blood welled from a scar on his face: he was wobbling.

Torres came deep to receive possession, Vidic was too fearful to track him, Torres played in Gerrard to win Liverpool’s penalty. Torres, who has been playing with the help of injections, “felt painful” as the match progressed, according to Benitez, so Gerrard took over and finished Vidic off, his surge past the Serbian met with a professional foul and followed by an inevitable red card for the United man.

Among the many extraordinary statistics generated yesterday was one stating that Gerrard’s goals were the first all season scored against United by an Englishman. “I’ve been lucky enough to win at Old Trafford before and that’s a fantastic feeling. To score goals as well, after all the stick I’ve had from United fans over the last 10 years — it’s nice to rub it in,” Gerrard said.

Torres added, a little menacingly: “It’s hard to play like this every week but we are confident now.”

Click here to see how Liverpool stormed Old Trafford.

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