Man City and Liverpool have considered themselves enemies in recent years. The fierce race through each season makes it impossible for them to be “gentle” with each other.
* The match between Man City and Liverpool in round 28 of the Premier League takes place at 10:45 p.m. on March 10 at Etihad Stadium.
Before today’s big match, Liverpool defender Trent Alexander-Arnold actively provoked Man City by saying that Liverpool’s titles in the “new era” are more meaningful. Because, “green” Man is just someone who uses money to buy titles.
Hostility began to appear at Man City and Liverpool in recent years (Photo: Getty).
Of course, Alexander-Arnold’s statement “touched” Man City members. Erling Haaland, then Ruben Dias were dragged into the war of words. They think that a “ordinary” person like Alexander-Arnold cannot understand the feeling of winning a great treble. Even though he didn’t want to, coach Pep Guardiola was dragged into the quarrel orchestrated by the Liverpool star.
In some ways, such verbal battles are common before decisive battles. If we consider the flow of the past years, the statements of Alexander-Arnold, Haaland or Ruben Dias are still too “light” to describe the great battle.
In the era of Klopp and Pep Guardiola, Liverpool and Man City considered each other mortal enemies. The rest in the Premier League sit on a different tray. Even with its fierce nature, the two teams’ relationship gradually became “toxic”.
The first slice of hatred began when the two teams met in the quarterfinals of the Champions League in April 2018. In the first leg at Anfield, the bus carrying Man City players was welcomed with a party of bricks, flares, colored smoke… The front windshield and the door next to the driver were severely damaged. . The car was unable to make the return journey to Manchester.
The bus carrying Man City was attacked while marching to Anfield to attend the Champions League quarter-final match in April 2018 (Photo: Daily Mail).
There is one notable detail. Liverpool was fined 20,000 euros by UEFA for this incident. However, Merseyside police had no intention of searching for the vandal. That move made Man City just swallow their disappointment.
In October 2021, when English football fields began to bustle again after being banned from entering the field due to Covid-19, Liverpool fans were accused of salivating when entering Man City’s training area. A complaint was sent but after the investigation, Liverpool concluded… there was no evidence.
But hurt people want to hurt others. Man City fans are also not average. During the 2022 FA Cup semi-final, many “green” Man fans mocked the Hillsborough tragedy.
That action touched the pain of Liverpool people. 33 years earlier, 97 fans of the Merseyside football team died in the most tragic tragedy in football. Afterwards, Man City affirmed that they were “extremely disappointed” with the reaction of home fans.
Man City fans wrote taunts about Liverpool at the Heysel tragedy in 1985 on the door at Anfield stadium (Photo: PA).
Journey of hatred directs fans to the battle between the two teams in October 2022. A match filled with controversy. Liverpool won 1-0 thanks to Mohamed Salah’s goal, but coach Klopp was sent off for cursing at assistant referee Gary Beswick.
Pep Guardiola was also extremely angry after Phil Foden’s goal was denied. Not stopping there, the Spanish coach got angry with the crowd of Liverpool fans in the stands because the coin was thrown. Once again, in the Anfield stands, mockery of the Hillsborough disaster echoed from the position of Man City fans.
The day after the match, Man City’s bus was attacked again. The culprit behind this incident has not yet come to light.
Ignoring warnings, extremists have many times turned matches between Man City and Liverpool into parties of violence. The blood-soaked Man City scarf was posted on social networks as an image of the hatred between the two teams.
That scarf belongs to a 15-year-old female fan of Man City. She suffered a head injury from being hit by a plastic bottle full of coins thrown from the Liverpool fan area during a match at Etihad Stadium on December 22.
Pep Guardiola got angry and complained to the referee because a Man City fan threw a coin (Photo: Getty).
And then, when reading the news in the newspaper, people also see information about a 53-year-old Man City fan being assaulted outside the stadium or disabled Liverpool fans being taunted.
For a long time now, Man City and Liverpool have left their dominant footprint on the Premier League. In the context of the match taking place this afternoon (UK time) to directly decide the tournament championship, true fans can only pray for peace.
