Liverpool vs Manchester United: Bile? Yes. Bitterness. Definitely. Mutual respect? Absolutely

Ahead of these great rivals meeting in Europe for the first time, we spoke to a prominent fan from both sides to better understand what this fixture means to supporters

A view of Anfield when Manchester United last played at Liverpool (GETTY IMAGES)

Liverpool host Manchester United in the Europa League on Thursday in the first-leg of their Round of 16 tie. Here, Barney Chilton or Red News and Andy Heaton from Anfield Wrap explain just what it means for the clubs' supporters...

Manchester United

By Barney Chilton, Red News

Despite the general downplaying of the significance of this fixture from outsiders because it now resembles an ageing couple of boxers mispunching rather than in their prime, this is still the fixture the fans look for. It is the one. Dig far enough into the bile and venom on display and there is some grudging respect there, and an understanding perhaps our differences are founded on some similarities.

There’s more to this obviously than just the football; there’s pride, history, ethos, style and gloating at stake. For now dumbfounded at United post-Fergie there still remains that feeling that whilst we’re doing badly, thankfully it’s not being made even worse by them doing better. We couldn’t bear that. It matters not how much it is viewed to matter because inside this very old style rivalry it is a base understanding that, for the next week or two at least, this is all that matters again.

We don’t care that all eyes are trained on these two games. It could be anything, but it’s the Europa, and it’s not you don’t want to lose. You can’t lose. The atmosphere, feeling and emotions are entirely different to anything else and still hard to explain after all these years. People will try, but it’s something quite different because it is different to any other fixture.

In a Premier League constantly trying to invent some false identity and history here and there, this fixture remains reassuringly able to sell itself without the hype. We’re close and completely far apart so we might as well be from a different galaxy. There’s so much history in the fixture you stop looking towards the future for a short while. All that matters. It could be a game of tiddliwinks. It’s very seldom an actual very good football match. Result over everything.

Sir Alex Ferguson upon his retirement (GETTY IMAGES)

Liverpool

By Andy Heaton, Anfield Wrap

Tony Wilson once said of the industrial revolution that Manchester was the heart and Liverpool the lungs, choosing to refer to the one period in history where it wasn’t simply a case of Manchester ‘borrowing’ something Liverpool created before polishing it a bit for sale for the mass market whilst at the same time claiming it as their own.

Music, football, terrace culture, trainers - the list goes on.

But the late, great, cantankerous Mancunian menace had a point, one that could equally be said of football in this country, despite what some London clubs might claim, plastic flags in hand, English football is nothing without the clubs at either end of the 33-mile gap between Anfield and Old Trafford.

And the two clubs are nothing without each other.

Bile? Yes. Bitterness. Definitely. Mutual respect? Absolutely.

The two clubs, or rather, their support, especially locally, have far more in common than they care to admit, and have shaped each other identities more than others outside of the North West may care to realise.

As can be said of the city, Manchester United don’t become the global giant they’ve become without Liverpool, Mr Ferguson’s bloody minded obsession with Liverpool and our domestic league title haul was fuelled by a 1980 demolition job inflicted on his Aberdeen side by Bob (3 European Cups) Paisley’s Reds, and it is that fire that Liverpool need to harness if we’re going to end our long wait for a title and anchor them and their perch to the bottom of the ship canal.

Time to set down a marker.

Still, 5-3 and that, la.