Mother of all Rivalries take centre-stage at fiery Anfield

WHEN Liverpool and Manchester United clash at Anfield on Saturday, one of the Premier League’s most explosive rivalries will serve as a referendum on the current state of both clubs.

While in-form United hope to mount a sustained challenge for their first English title since 2013, Liverpool, already seven points behind their second-placed rivals, are battling to stay relevant after an inconsistent start.

Over the last four decades, United and Liverpool have rarely been in the ascendancy at the same time, so there is extra pressure on Jurgen Klopp’s side to prove they can keep pace when Jose Mourinho’s men arrive on Merseyside.

While both teams play in red and come from cities separated by just 49 kilometres, beneath the superficial similarities lies a bitter feud.

Here we set the scene for the latest instalment:

Formed as Newton Heath in 1878, Manchester United were born 14 years before Liverpool emerged in 1892, and for a brief period, the clubs had a surprisingly cordial relationship.

In 1915, players from the teams even joined forces to fix their match to ensure United avoided relegation, with four from Liverpool and three from Manchester subsequently banned for life.

As late as 1958, Liverpool offered to lend players to United after several of their stars were killed in the Munich aeroplane crash.

But the friendly rivalry had turned nasty by the late 1970s as hooligan gangs fought bloody battles, while United were sprayed with tear gas by a Pool fan when they stepped off the coach before a match at Anfield in 1986. The enmity plumbed new depths when Liverpool striker Luis Suarez was suspended for eight games after racially abusing United’s Patrice Evra in 2011.

Liverpool enjoyed one of English football’s most dominant periods in the 1970s and 1980s, a golden era which saw them win 11 of the club’s 18 league titles, lift the FA Cup three times and win the League Cup four successive years.

Not content with hoovering up the domestic prizes, Liverpool reigned supreme abroad, winning the European Cup four times and the Uefa Cup twice. But Liverpool’s preeminence had ended by the dawn of the Premier League as United rose to power.

Between 1992 and 2013, United were crowned champions 13 times, surpassing Liverpool’s record as they took the club’s overall haul to 20 English titles.

With 12 FA Cup triumphs, United are five ahead of Liverpool, but it remains a source of angst at Old Trafford that the team’s three European Cup/Champions League victories fall short of the five on display at Anfield.

“It doesn’t matter if we are playing tiddlywinks, when we get together you expect sparks to fly,” former United manager Alex Ferguson once said of the Liverpool rivalry.

Ferguson did more than most to light the fuse, complaining that visiting managers left Anfield “choking on their own vomit” after an acrimonious 1988 clash and crowing that he had made it his aim to “knock Liverpool from their perch” when he arrived in Manchester. — AFP

ANATION exploded with relief yesterday as Lionel Messi single-handedly dragged his Argentina team into next year’s World Cup finals with a spellbinding hat-trick in Quito.

“Messi is E.T. He’s from another planet. He’s not from this world,” Marco Mouras, a 28-year-old Brazilian said in a crowded Buenos Aires bar as Argentinians around him went wild, beer and pizza spilling onto the floor.

Messi gave the world a masterclass of what it would be missing if he didn’t go to Russia 2018, a distinct possibility when Argentina went a goal down inside the first minute of a match they had to win.

A graveyard silence descended on bars, restaurants and homes when Ecuador’s Romario Ibarra struck in the first minute of the game, casting a pall of gloom across Argentina as he scored.

It was proof for the doomsayers that this team was a lost cause. Argentinians had suffered too much during a lacklustre qualification series and this was the last straw.

But Messi burst through the gloom to equalise and then soon scored again to give Argentina the lead.

“2-1 was not enough. We couldn’t be calm,” said Lautaro Gonzalez, 35, celebrating after being put through an emotional wringer by his national team.

Beside him a disbelieving Maximiliano Lacasa proclaimed himself a devotee of “Saint Messi. Thank God we have him.”

Pride in the shirt was restored when Messi completed his hat-trick in the second half. It was time for Argentinians at home to believe again. Pablo Ramos, 34, could hardly take it in. The team is still a misfiring mess going to the World Cup, he said, “so it’s all suffering”.

Even music yielded to Messi when Irish rockers U2 delayed their concert by almost two hours to allow fans in the La Plata stadium near Buenos Aires time to watch the match on giant screens. When they finally came on stage, they kicked off a giant party. With seemingly everyone crowded around every available TV set, the streets of Buenos Aires were so empty it seemed like a curfew. People wore the Argentine shirt in the build-up, but not many. The Argentine public had grown tired of believing in vain.

A win seemed a little too fanciful to most, exasperated by a series of underwhelming performances by the national side.

Only a win would do in Quito, where Argentina hadn’t won since 2001. The nation held its breath. Nobody here, or anywhere else, wanted to contemplate the unthinkable but very real prospect of Argentina losing. That would mean next year’s World Cup in Russia would go ahead without Messi, arguably the world’s greatest player.

“It’s complicated, I want the team to be at the World Cup in Russia, but only a miracle can save them. I’m going to pray for them,” said Maria Cordoba, a 64-year-old optician.

Cometh the hour, cometh the man, and now Argentina will bask in the fact that the “Messiah” will lead them to the World Cup finals.

Team coach Jorge Sampaoli said he had told his players: “Messi doesn’t owe the World Cup to Argentina, football owes the World Cup to Messi.”

“Messi is the best player in history and I’m really excited to be able to be in a group, close to him.”

The main concerns of most Argentinians is the economy and the loss of purchasing power, but the torments of the national team has relegated even that into the background. The nation yearns for a return to the glory days of 1978 and 1986 when Argentina won the World Cup. Over to you, Mr Messi. — AFP