Liverpool face City test
london — Liverpool will look to the past and future this weekend when they commemorate the 25th anniversary of the Hillsborough disaster before duelling Manchester City for supremacy in the Premier League.
Next Tuesday marks 25 years since a fatal crush that would claim the lives of 96 Liverpool fans occurred during an FA Cup semi-final against Nottingham Forest at Hillsborough stadium in the northern city of Sheffield. As a mark of respect, all professional matches in England this weekend will kick off at seven minutes past the hour, to mark the sixth-minute abandonment of the fateful game at Hillsborough.
Liverpool’s game against City on Sunday will also be preceded by tributes, with legendary figures from the two clubs exchanging wreaths on the pitch at Anfield before those inside the ground observe a minute’s silence. Fresh inquests into the deaths opened recently after the original coroner’s verdicts of accidental death were quashed following a campaign by the victims’ families that led to the publication of a new independent report. Two investigations are also under way into the police’s handling of the disaster, amid mounting evidence of a cover-up that prompted British Prime Minister David Cameron to issue an official apology.
The sense of occasion on Sunday will be heightened by the knowledge that victory over title rivals City will take Liverpool closer to a first league crown since 1990. Brendan Rodgers’s side go into the game four points clear of City at the top of the table and although the visitors have two games in hand, their destiny will no longer be in their own hands if they lose. —