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| Liverpool put on thrilling display on weekend of flags and flowers | |
| (about 13 hours later) | |
| This was an extraordinary day at Anfield, an occasion for remembrance that might have hung heavy on the shoulders of those charged with playing a football match in the midst of carefully borne familial grief. In the end it became a fitting celebration on the pitch and off it, an occasion of well-pitched solemnity in which Manchester City played their part. | This was an extraordinary day at Anfield, an occasion for remembrance that might have hung heavy on the shoulders of those charged with playing a football match in the midst of carefully borne familial grief. In the end it became a fitting celebration on the pitch and off it, an occasion of well-pitched solemnity in which Manchester City played their part. |
| There were of course two distinct entities in play. The first a match that could yet decide the Premier League title in Liverpool's favour after a thrilling 3-2 victory. The second the 25-year commemoration of the Hillsborough disaster, given impetus these last few months by the gathering public will for justice, for a once-and-for-all flushing out of cobwebs, buck-passing, and institutional deceit. It is perhaps wrong to mingle the two. There is catharsis to be found in winning a league title but justice will be served elsewhere, and soberly. And yet for anybody who cares about English football – and all tribal loyalties aside for a moment – it is still almost impossible not to be seduced just a little by the beautiful circularity of Steven Gerrard driving his team on towards the title in the same season the unscabbed wounds of Hillsborough have begun, finally, to feel some balm. | There were of course two distinct entities in play. The first a match that could yet decide the Premier League title in Liverpool's favour after a thrilling 3-2 victory. The second the 25-year commemoration of the Hillsborough disaster, given impetus these last few months by the gathering public will for justice, for a once-and-for-all flushing out of cobwebs, buck-passing, and institutional deceit. It is perhaps wrong to mingle the two. There is catharsis to be found in winning a league title but justice will be served elsewhere, and soberly. And yet for anybody who cares about English football – and all tribal loyalties aside for a moment – it is still almost impossible not to be seduced just a little by the beautiful circularity of Steven Gerrard driving his team on towards the title in the same season the unscabbed wounds of Hillsborough have begun, finally, to feel some balm. |
| At the end of a match that Gerrard felt, at times, would never end, Liverpool's captain looked utterly drained and utterly triumphant. It was simply that kind of day. | At the end of a match that Gerrard felt, at times, would never end, Liverpool's captain looked utterly drained and utterly triumphant. It was simply that kind of day. |
| There had been fears that the occasion would be a weight on Liverpool's players. Fat chance. Indeed, if Liverpool dipped in the second half as City asserted their own champion qualities, then there is no shame in that, not least after an opening half during which the home players seemed to be running on air. Title run-ins come and go, just as anniversaries come and go, but on a weekend of flags and flowers Liverpool's players produced their own bespoke footballing tribute for 45 minutes as the attacking unit of Luis Suárez, Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho played off the cuff with thrilling , focused intensity, like a world-class, four-piece band at a street carnival. | There had been fears that the occasion would be a weight on Liverpool's players. Fat chance. Indeed, if Liverpool dipped in the second half as City asserted their own champion qualities, then there is no shame in that, not least after an opening half during which the home players seemed to be running on air. Title run-ins come and go, just as anniversaries come and go, but on a weekend of flags and flowers Liverpool's players produced their own bespoke footballing tribute for 45 minutes as the attacking unit of Luis Suárez, Daniel Sturridge, Raheem Sterling and Philippe Coutinho played off the cuff with thrilling , focused intensity, like a world-class, four-piece band at a street carnival. |
| It couldn't last. This is a wonderfully resolute City team. It took them half an hour to catch their breath and 40 minutes to take a forward step. Then suddenly they were pushing at an open door. With a little luck and the referee's favour with the score at 2-2 City might even have won but this was never likely to be a straightforward occasion. Before the match there was a mass walk-past of Anfield's permanent Hillsborough memorial, with a stream of people filing by to touch the granite where the names of the dead are etched and to admire the scarves of all colours hanging from the Shankly Gates. | It couldn't last. This is a wonderfully resolute City team. It took them half an hour to catch their breath and 40 minutes to take a forward step. Then suddenly they were pushing at an open door. With a little luck and the referee's favour with the score at 2-2 City might even have won but this was never likely to be a straightforward occasion. Before the match there was a mass walk-past of Anfield's permanent Hillsborough memorial, with a stream of people filing by to touch the granite where the names of the dead are etched and to admire the scarves of all colours hanging from the Shankly Gates. |
| On a breezy sunny late spring day there was an oddly restrained sense of occasion around this rattly old corrugated artefact of a stadium. Not quite a day for celebration, not quite a day to be sombre: this was instead an occasion without a script, a full-throated memorial Sunday in the heat of a league title race. | On a breezy sunny late spring day there was an oddly restrained sense of occasion around this rattly old corrugated artefact of a stadium. Not quite a day for celebration, not quite a day to be sombre: this was instead an occasion without a script, a full-throated memorial Sunday in the heat of a league title race. |
| Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Joe Corrigan and Mike Summerbee were applauded gently while they held a red and white floral arrangement. A pre-match You'll Never Walk Alone was greeted by a raising of scarves all round the stadium, together with a mass raising of the hairs on the neck. After which: the minute's silence. It was a proper minute too, not a disintegration halfway into celebratory applause, but silence broken only by the whirr of pitch-side snappers and news helicopters above. The minute can feel a little routine at times, a boilerplate expression of fortnightly regret. Not here. | Ian Rush, Kenny Dalglish, Joe Corrigan and Mike Summerbee were applauded gently while they held a red and white floral arrangement. A pre-match You'll Never Walk Alone was greeted by a raising of scarves all round the stadium, together with a mass raising of the hairs on the neck. After which: the minute's silence. It was a proper minute too, not a disintegration halfway into celebratory applause, but silence broken only by the whirr of pitch-side snappers and news helicopters above. The minute can feel a little routine at times, a boilerplate expression of fortnightly regret. Not here. |
| And so Liverpool began at a tearing pace. Even before he made the opening goal Suárez had already looked like a man playing his own game, more mobile, more furiously involved than anyone else on the pitch. Having bumped Gaël Clichy to the floor with a flex of his left buttock the Premier League's man of the season played the perfect pass at the perfect pace for Sterling's run. His shimmy and finish was a high-class touch from a player of craft and incision. | And so Liverpool began at a tearing pace. Even before he made the opening goal Suárez had already looked like a man playing his own game, more mobile, more furiously involved than anyone else on the pitch. Having bumped Gaël Clichy to the floor with a flex of his left buttock the Premier League's man of the season played the perfect pass at the perfect pace for Sterling's run. His shimmy and finish was a high-class touch from a player of craft and incision. |
| And for a while Liverpool were rampant, driven on by the crackle of noise around Anfield's open single-tiered stands. A City defence who had conceded only two Premier League goals since 3 February looked giddy. The second goal, a corner headed in by Martin Skrtel, was a product of that horribly disorientating opening quarter. Coutinho in particular was sensational. If Brazil really do have a full quota of superior central midfielders, then the World Cup's already in the bag. | And for a while Liverpool were rampant, driven on by the crackle of noise around Anfield's open single-tiered stands. A City defence who had conceded only two Premier League goals since 3 February looked giddy. The second goal, a corner headed in by Martin Skrtel, was a product of that horribly disorientating opening quarter. Coutinho in particular was sensational. If Brazil really do have a full quota of superior central midfielders, then the World Cup's already in the bag. |
| To their great credit City drew level at 2-2 through David Silva and then a Glen Johnson own goal, and might have won this match with a little luck and some referee favour before Coutinho's beautifully executed winner on 78 minutes. At the final whistle the home support bounced in the stands for a full five minutes. It was a day to remember but also to celebrate, whatever the season's final outcome. | To their great credit City drew level at 2-2 through David Silva and then a Glen Johnson own goal, and might have won this match with a little luck and some referee favour before Coutinho's beautifully executed winner on 78 minutes. At the final whistle the home support bounced in the stands for a full five minutes. It was a day to remember but also to celebrate, whatever the season's final outcome. |