After 3-1 of the first leg, Jürgen Klopp finished his taunt to Alfredo Di Stéfano by recovering the spirit of Anfield (even if it is empty) and using a malicious lace: “We will play in a real stadium.”
Mind games aside Madrid visits for the first time without a soul in the stands the stadium with the most mystique of English football next to Old Trafford. The pandemic has left the reds without a fundamental asset for their comebacks. This is the iconic stands The Kop, 'the twelfth man', Liverpool's 12th footballer. A tier named after the Boer War and that plays. It came to have 25,000 noisy kopites (today, 12,000 seated) squeezing the rival when Liverpool attacked towards it. It was said by Bill Shankly (“The Kop absorbs the ball into the net”) and was finished by writer Stephen F. Kelly in a book dedicated to this unique place.. “For a Liverpool fan it is a place of devotion and, after the Hillsborough disaster, a sanctuary.”
It is Anfield meat (cement, rather) of legend and The funny thing is that it was first the field of the city's eternal rival, Everton, who abandoned it to go to Goodison Park. The one kilometer journey between the two stadiums will always smell like football, even if times change. Everton are moving in 2024 and Liverpool want to make up Anfield. You are going to spend 80 million euros to modernize it and also increase one of the funds, thus gaining 7,000 viewers, up to 61,000 in total.
Emotionality. This empty Anfield that does not sing before the opening whistle the You Never Walk Alone by Gerry and The Peacemakers he has become an emotional slab for Liverpool. Until 2-1 last Sunday against him Aston Villa, the Reds had not won at home in all of 2021. What's more, they had lost six consecutive Premier League home games. But Liverpool and Anfield, like Madrid, always give their best when the European Cup.