Fans lined the streets of Anfield in preparation for the arrival of the Manchester City team bus, with pyrotechnics and pure vitriol adding to the tense pre-match atmosphere. Every vantage point was taken, with spectators standing on walls to get a glimpse of the enemy, only for the coach to sneak in from the opposite side of the ground to avoid confrontation. The subterfuge defused a volatile situation that could have turned into an incendiary one.
Tensions were high on Merseyside. Since the City takeover in 2008, Liverpool have finished second to their rivals on three occasions, although only one of those falls within the parameters of the investigation into City’s financial breaches of Premier League rules. Liverpool supporters are aggrieved, feeling they would have won more trophies had City not circumnavigated the rules to help sign elite players.
Liverpool were punished in 2018 after supporters launched missiles at the team bus as the City players were driven to Anfield for a Champions League clash. The animosity has only been heightened by the independent commission’s guilty verdict. References to the verdict were not difficult to find at stalls outside.
For £15 – haggling took it down to £10 – it was possible to buy a “Guilty 114” flag, including an AI image of the City squad in prison uniforms or a “Cheats” banner in the style of the Oasis logo. Many supporters, however, were content with the traditional – and much maligned – half and half scarf to commemorate such an occasion. The fashion-conscious could pick up T-shirts with a similar motif.
There were more frugal offerings, with homemade banners carrying the blunt message being paraded around the ground. There was a sense of injustice and thousands wanted to express it. A solitary City fan, clad in sky blue, stood among the sea of red.
He was unbothered by the commotion around him but was left alone because he is not at fault. Social media chatter suggested City merited a “bus greeting” on Anfield Road and police were prepared for such an eventuality. There was toxicity and hostility on both sides in the buildup, with away supporters chanting their anthem of “City’s going down with a billion in the bank” while waving inflatable bananas, the latter a tradition that goes back to the 1980s.
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