Coming just days after Monday night's shocking events in Manchester, last night's Europa League final between Man Utd and Ajax was a game which took on added importance for the city.
On BBC Radio 5 live ahead of the game, Mark Chapman, a resident of the city, gave a moving intro for the broadcaster's coverage of the game.
I’m proud to call Manchester my city.
The place where I grew up, the place where I live and the place where my family and my children go out, like so many did on Monday night and never came back. I love the place and I’m in love with the place.
The team here tonight are from that city and many will want them to win for the city. Some fans of other clubs may not want them to, but do you know what? In the context of football, that’s fine, because football divides us but only in a pantomime way.
What unites all our great cities is love, friendship, community and hopefully opportunity. Only, and just indulge me this one line, when it comes to Manchester, as Tony Wilson said: ‘we do things differently.’
This is only a game of football – it doesn’t really matter. And I’ll be honest with you, I don’t massively want to be here. I want to be at home, cuddling my kids and telling them that we’ll go to the Arena again to a gig, and we’ll sing and dance but we will never forget the victims of Monday night.
But we are here, all of us are here. And we will do our best to bring this to you as well as we possibly can. Treating it as a football match with importance and with so much emotion for people back home.
You can listen to Mark Chapman's intro below.
"I love the place, and I'm in love with the place"
Mark Chapman's moving tribute to Manchester at the #UELFinal pic.twitter.com/1xV3OpJnP7— BBC 5 live Sport (@5liveSport) May 25, 2017
