Champions League: First leg lessons

Pre Match ‘Festivities’:

It had been widely advertised on social media to attack the Manchester City bus, and indeed that’s what happened. The Merseyside police had released the travel route for the City team, and then seemingly failed to deal with incidents as they happened.

It seems two police officers were injured in the incident which saw flares and bottles hurled at the team bus. Whether this had any part to play in City’s game is up for debate, but it certainly wasn’t something we want to see.

Next: Champions League: Player Ratings

UEFA might look into the incident, with the local police also looking into events. Liverpool issued a public apology to Manchester City on the incident, and that was certainly welcome, but it really was closing the door after the horse had bolted.

Questions have certainly been raised by the incident. Answers need to be found and people found guilty of these actions need to be dealt with severely. We all remember the Dortmund coach attack almost a year ago today. In that respect, with Klopp close to that team, you would expect him to view the incident the way he did.

It doesn’t take a bomb to injure players and staff though, with Marc Batra injured by shattering glass. In the grand scheme of things City were lucky to leave Anfield with only a defeat on the pitch, and not a player heading for surgery for being on a bus, heading to a game.