The Thai media had dubbed it the "Red War" but it turned out to be more of a skirmish at Rajamangala National Stadium on Tuesday night in which the Red Devils restored some much-needed pride after their recent underwhelming season.
Manchester United won't get carried away by their surprisingly comfortable 4-0 win over Liverpool, but manager Erik ten Hag and his players will certainly have gained an important boost to their confidence as the new season approaches. It certainly pleased their Thai fans.
Exhibition matches are notoriously unreliable indicators of what lies in store and Ten Hag wisely cautioned that Man U should not get carried away.
He pointed out that despite the scoreline, there is a lot of work to be done.
"It will take time, we will have to work hard to cut out the mistakes," said the Dutchman.
Still it was a good result for Man U after their disastrous aggregate 9-0 pounding by Liverpool in the Premier League last season.
Liverpool manager Juergen Klopp chose to field what was effectively three separate teams, including many youngsters, playing 30 minutes each.
It was an experiment that didn't really work and none of them came to terms with the relatively well-organised and fitter United who also substituted 10 players at half-time.
The damage was done early on, helped by some dodgy Liverpool defending.
Jadon Sancho, Fred and Anthony Martial gave the Red Devils a 3-0 lead by half-time and Ten Hag will have been particularly pleased by Sancho who looked lively.
Klopp saved his star players, including new signing Darwin Nunez and Mo Salah for the final half-hour which led to an improved Liverpool performance but it was their opponents who got the only goal in the second half through Facundo Pellestri.
Klopp conceded it was "a fair result" but he was not too concerned as "it's just the start of pre-season."
However, it probably disappointed Thai fans who preferred to see Liverpool's best XI in action.
Exhibition matches such as this tend to be not too exciting.
The players are wary of picking up injuries and are more concerned with fitness. Coaches also don't want to see their team extend themselves in meaningless matches.
But in any United v Liverpool clash there will always be a bit of spice.
Prior to the game, both managers made sure they said the right things, appreciating the overwhelming welcome from Thai fans, although the Liverpool press conference at Suvarnabhumi airport was rather chaotic.
"I've never been to a press conference quite like this," joked Klopp.
Klopp tried to spice it up a bit by insisting it was "not a friendly".
For his part, Ten Hag had to bat away numerous questions about the future of Cristiano Ronaldo, who was left out of the squad for "family reasons," insisting the superstar is "not for sale".
Tuesday's game reminded me of watching Liverpool taking on Thailand at Rajamangala back in 2001 when Gerard Houllier was manager.
Liverpool had just enjoyed their most successful season during their Premier League drought.
They had achieved a "Cup treble" -- the FA Cup, League Cup and Uefa Cup -- as well as finishing third in the league, meaning they qualified for the Champions League.
The match was played in a heavy rainstorm with Emile Heskey scoring the opening goal as Liverpool went on to beat Thailand 3-1. Vladimir Smicer notched a brace in the second half.
It was rather a bizarre game with the first half lasting nearly 60 minutes as a result of what was termed a "misunderstanding".
After an hour, it was left to Thailand coach Peter Withe to suggest to the referee that it might be a good idea to blow the whistle and end the half.
Houllier commented afterwards: "That was the longest half I have experienced in my life.''