Manchester City are hoping that Liverpool and Merseyside Police have put measures in place to avoid a repetition of the attack on their team coach when it approached Anfield before a Champions League tie in 2018.
Bottles, cans and flares were thrown at the City players in a frightening ordeal that Pep Guardiola admitted: ‘You can not imagine how bad it was.’
City’s two visits to Anfield in front of supporters since then have passed off without incident though Real Madrid had a window of their coach smashed by Liverpool fans in April.
‘Hopefully, I wish it would never happen again. Hopefully they have sorted it out,’ said Guardiola about his own experience.
‘I am pretty sure the Liverpool police and people understood the situation and I hope it never happens again.’
Liverpool are planning for today’s game to be a celebration of their record goalscorer Roger Hunt who died last week at the age of 83.
A special commemorative programme has been issued with manager Jurgen Klopp and captain Jordan Henderson paying tribute to the World Cup-winning striker and a giant mosaic for “Sir Roger” is due to be unveiled in The Kop.
