Liverpool and Real Madrid came together again on Wednesday night in the second-leg of their Champions League quarter-final. Liverpool came into the game chasing a 3-1 deficit from the first-leg, but some fans took it too far trying to intimidate the Real team bus as it made its way to Anfield.
Video footage emerged of crowds congregating on either side of the road as the Real team bus worked its way through the streets of Liverpool. The UK are admittedly coming out on the other side of their lockdown a good bit earlier than we are on this side of the Irish Sea, but the size of the crowd was nonetheless a lot larger than we've seen for a long time.
Real Madrid’s bus welcome pic.twitter.com/dndytvelCr
— Belinder (@_bubblxs) April 14, 2021
Sadly, things soon turned ugly, as the crowds began to pelt the bus with missiles, causing damage to the side of the bus and cracking a window - supposedly nearby to Real manager Zinedine Zidane's seat.
Not a good start to the night. It looks like Real Madrid's team bus was pelted with bottles en route to Anfield. #LIVRMA #UCL pic.twitter.com/zOMhH4hQ25
— Balls.ie (@ballsdotie) April 14, 2021
Real Madrid bus has been attacked by Scouses in Liverpool & a window where coach Zidane was sitting broke through stones being thrown.
Shameful, really. #UCL pic.twitter.com/W3ty0cmpkN— BlancoReport (@BlancoReport) April 14, 2021
Thankfully, no one was hurt, and the Real Madrid team were able to prepare for the game as normal on arrival, but the incident was not how anyone wanted the night to start. In a statement, a Liverpool spokesperson condemned the attack and said the club would cooperate with the local police force to find those responsible.
“We sincerely apologise to our visitors for any distress caused.
We will work together with Merseyside Police to establish the facts and identify those responsible.”— James Pearce (@JamesPearceLFC) April 14, 2021
It is not the first time that Liverpool fans have caused trouble on European nights in recent years, with a similar incident happening before their 2018 quarter-final against Manchester City. It is a worrying reoccurence and Liverpool will be hoping that their fans will not cause similar incidents in the future.
It was a disappointing note on which to start what was otherwise set up to be a fantastic night of football, with Man City also in action in the Champions League quarters against Borussia Dortmund. We can only be thankful that nobody was hurt and hope that the correct measures are taken to prevent similar incidents happening in the future.
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