MANCHESTER: Marcus Rashford scored twice in the first 24 minutes of his first start of 2018 before Manchester United held on for a 2-1 win over fierce rivals Liverpool to strengthen their grip on second place in the Premier League on Saturday. In a typically frenetic match between England’s two biggest teams historically, Liverpool failed to handle United’s aggressive and direct start as two long balls forward resulted in goals from the 20-year-old Rashford in the 14th and 24th minutes. Lackluster in the first half, Liverpool improved and reduced the deficit through an own-goal by Eric Bailly but couldn’t manage an equalizer, slipping five points behind United in the race for second place behind Manchester City. Having also beaten Chelsea 2-1 at Old Trafford two weeks ago, United look increasingly assured of a Champions League qualifying spot through a top-four finish. Jose Mourinho’s side are 12 points clear of fifth-placed Chelsea. United stuck to Mourinho"s conservative game-plan to clinch the points and the Portuguese coach was in typically defiant mood when asked about the defensive tactics. "If people don"t think we deserved it, I don"t care," Mourinho said. "I am a bit tired, we have a match on Tuesday. I don"t care what people say. The boys are happy, I"m happy." Mourinho insisted United had been rewarded for taking their chances in the first half and he was happy with the way his players soaked up the pressure after the interval. "We can split the halves. United first half and Liverpool second but in my opinion our first half was a half with goals and danger," he said. "In the second half - in my opinion, and probably the people in the studio have a different opinion - was Liverpool controlling with the ball and United controlling without the ball. "Against Liverpool if you play bad when you have the ball you can be in trouble. "Our team was always in control. Even in set pieces, corners, dangerous situations we were in control so I think we deserved it." Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp claimed the key moment was referee Craig Pawson"s failure to award a penalty for United midfielder Marouane Fellaini"s tackle on Sadio Mane in the final 10 minutes. "It was a clear penalty with Fellaini on Mane, in situations like this you need the right decision," Klopp said. While Klopp was frustrated with that decision, he admitted Liverpool had only themselves to blame for poor defending on both of Rashford"s goals. "We have to defend these situations better. You can always lose a header or a challenge with Romelu Lukaku of course but there is a gap in behind and we need to close that," he said. "The two goals made the game not easy, we had a lot of OK moments, two good moments in the first half where we could finish better. It is all about the result and we lost. "We didn"t score before half time and then in the second half we chased the game. It is really difficult to do against a team like Manchester United."