United coach Ferguson hails the Bulgarian forward who scored a hat-trick in his team's thrilling 3-2 win against Liverpool yesterday

Berbatov scores hat-trick as Manchester United beat Liverpool 3-2

United coach Ferguson hails the Bulgarian forward who scored a hat-trick in his team's thrilling 3-2 win against Liverpool yesterday

Dimitar Berbatov scored a hat-trick as Manchester United overcame a Liverpool fightback to win 3-2 in a classic Premier League battle at Old Trafford yesterday.

Berbatov rose high to nod home an 84th-minute header to seal maximum points for United, who had seen Liverpool recover from two goals down thanks to a second-half brace from skipper Steven Gerrard.

In the day's other match, Manchester City moved into the top four with a 2-0 victory away at Wigan. Carlos Tevez and Yaya Toure got the goals at a rain-swept DW Stadium as City registered their second win of the campaign.

But the story of the day was at Old Trafford, where Berbatov stole the show with a virtuoso display that left Liverpool shattered and languishing near the foot of the table in 16th position after five games. Berbatov put United 1-0 ahead on 42 minutes after being left in acres of space by marker Fernando Torres when Ryan Giggs swung in a corner.

The Bulgarian then doubled United's lead on 59 minutes with a sublime effort, using one touch to control a Nani cross before sending an overhead kick crashing in off the underside of the Liverpool bar.

Ferguson later hailed the performance of Berbatov, who is enjoying his best run of form for United since his transfer from Tottenham in 2008.

"This season he's started off in the right fashion, his pre-season training was very good, the pre-season tour was good and he's carried that on. But there's never been any doubt about the quality of the man. And we saw that again today," Ferguson said.

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