Liverpool and Manchester City set for battle in front of Anfield wall of noise
Before the cameras started rolling, Jürgen Klopp could be found in a quieter moment, leaning against the wall inside the tunnel, with the backdrop proclaiming Liverpool’s crowd as the “12th man” and several verses of prose depicting what the players of Manchester City can expect tonight. “Anfield is unique. It lives, it breathes. It gives us strength,” one verse of this wall mural reads. It is one of the last things the players see before going on the pitch and it is intended for the away players, as well as the home ones. “On match day it transforms. It comes alive to connect with its heroes. Through thick and thin, the ebb and flow. The decibels rise as its heartbeat sounds. Every ball is kicked. Every save is made. Every goal is celebrated.”
And the thinking goes that when the din is at its loudest, as it always tends to be in European ties, opposition teams have a tendency to wilt under the sign for “This is Anfield”. Malcolm Macdonald once tried to make a joke of it when Newcastle were in town, announcing: “I told you we had found the right place.” Bill Shankly was talking to the Newcastle manager, Joe Harvey, at the time. “Aye,” he shot back. “Wait till you get out there, son, and you’ll know you’re at Anfield. You can run but you canna hide.”
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