Players of Liverpool (in red) and Manchester United (in black) vie for the ball Photo: VCG

Based on what happened last weekend, the last thing anyone looking for the trademark "Magic of the FA Cup" wants is a rematch between Manchester United and Liverpool.

That is what the draw has thrown up and the teams meet again on Sunday, swapping Anfield for Old Trafford and the English Premier League for a game that must end with a winner - even if that means penalties.

Neutrals can console themselves in that, at least. Their match last weekend was Liverpool's third in the league without scoring, United on the other hand made chances but only later in the game after sitting back for most of the first hour.

"We didn't deserve the three points because we didn't play well enough," Manchester United manager Ole Gunnar Solskjaer told Sky Sports after the league meeting best forgotten.

"We didn't impose ourselves on the game, especially first half. We grew in the game and thought it was there to win in the second half and created two massive chances.

"We can be more composed; we can have the ball more. We had to defend really often, and we gave the ball away too often... I'm disappointed at the moment," added Solskjaer. 

"With the injuries they have had lately, you want to come here and get a result. We didn't, but a point might be OK if we win the next one."

The next one he meant was his side's English Premier League trip to Fulham in midweek but the one he really needs to win is this weekend.

Past FA Cup meetings



Thankfully, the FA Cup has tended to provide great games when these teams meet, as Solskjaer himself will well remember from his playing days.

Liverpool traveled to Old Trafford in January 1999 for an FA Cup fourth round meeting and were ahead soon after kickoff thanks to a rare Michael Owen header just two minutes in.

That looked to be enough for Liverpool to progress to the next round as time ticked down before Dwight Yorke popped up with an equalizer with two minutes left before Solskjaer himself netted an injury time winner.

The club would go on to win the FA Cup as they won their famous Treble with Solskjaer showing his knack for late winners with the most famous one in the club's history to win the UEFA Champions League over Bayern Munich at Barcelona's Camp Nou.

Three years earlier Liverpool and United had met in the FA Cup final at Wembley, a game which many will remember for the Anfield side's so-called Spice Boys choice of matchday attire.

Their white Armani suits inspired a book, The Men In White Suits, and have become a shorthand for everything about what left Liverpool short in the mid-90s.

The game ended 1-0 to Ferguson's United, the decisive strike coming from his talisman Eric Cantona and a goal that is considered one of the classic cup final winners. It was the first silverware for United's famed Class of 92, who would go on to be the backbone of more than a decade of success.

Another FA Cup final was the setting when the side's fortunes were reversed back in the 1970s.

Wembley welcomed the clubs in May 1977 for their first meeting in any cup final and Bob Paisley's high-flying Reds were favorites over the Red Devils of Tommy Docherty.

United had only just returned to the English First Division from a season in the Second Division, finishing a very creditable third in their comeback campaign, but Liverpool were champions and playing their first ever European Cup final days later.

Still, Paisley was left empty-handed at Wembley and would never win the FA Cup, thanks to goals from Stuart Pearson and Jimmy Greenhoff.

It would be United's only major trophy of the decade, in stark contrast to Liverpool conquering England and Europe well into the 1980s, starting with the 1977 European Cup.

Never met in final



Given the relative success of both clubs in the years before, although strangely their periods of dominance never seem to coincide, it might seem strange that the clubs had never met in a final before.

They had met many times over the years, starting with a goalless draw between Newton Heath LYR and Liverpool in February, 1898 at Bank Street. Liverpool won the replay at Anfield 2-1, a game that was played on a Wednesday afternoon.

It would be five years before they met again and United would get revenge with their first FA Cup win over their Merseyside rivals. They had become United just 10 months earlier but still played in Newton Heath.

The next tie, in 1921, would need a replay, after the first game ended 1-1 at Anfield. That resulted in a 2-1 win for the hosts in the sides' first FA Cup meeting at Old Trafford, 11 years after it opened.

When they met again in 1948 it was another new ground: Everton's Goodison Park. With Old Trafford bombed during air raids on Manchester in the war, United had to relocate to Liverpool but that did not help the club of the same name. They lost 3-0.

The 1960s might not have been in full swing when new Liverpool boss Bill Shankly hosted Matt Busby's United at Anfield in January 1960. 

The visitors romped past a second division Liverpool side on the day but the roles would be reversed soon enough, certainly by the time of that 1977 FA Cup final.

That was the case again in 1979, when United won the semi-final 1-0 in a replay at Goodison Park after a 2-2 draw in the first leg at Maine Road, Manchester City's stadium.

Same story once more in 1985 when they met in the semi. A 2-2 draw at Goodison was followed by a 2-1 United win at Maine Road.

Fast forward to this century. Liverpool won their 2006 fourth round meeting 1-0, despite United enjoying the better run in the league. Then the Red Devils won in 2011 before Liverpool won a year later.

With the teams neck and neck in the league, it is hard to predict who will win on Sunday but it cannot be as bad as last week.