Fans back at Anfield

LONDON. — There are few football experiences capable of stirring the emotions more than listening to “You’ll Never Walk Alone” being sung by Anfield’s Kop.

Sunday evening at approximately 7:13pm provided one of those lump-in-the-throat moments. This wasn’t the first match in England to welcome fans back to stadiums. It was only number 27 on a list that — pilots excepted — began at Carlisle United last Wednesday.

But as the first bars of the Gerry and the Pacemakers hit that is forever entwined with Liverpool Football Club were heard over the public address system, it felt symbolic.

Two-hundred-and-seventy-one days since it was last sung in this stadium, at a Champions League tie against Atletico Madrid at the start of the pandemic, 2 000 Liverpool fans belted it out with gusto before the match with Wolves.

“I had goosebumps,” said Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp after the emphatic 4-0 victory over Wolves on Sunday night.

“I had no idea what to expect from the warm-up or when they started “You’ll Never Walk Alone”.

Having all that without a football match would have been great. After 10 months it was very emotional.”

There were 50 000 more people here on that night on March 11, when Atletico knocked Klopp’s team out of Europe, but it didn’t feel like there was such a difference in sheer numbers.

Those lucky enough to get a ticket for the visit of Wolves in a ballot that was inevitably massively oversubscribed made as much noise as they could, their arms raised holding aloft those familiar red and white scarves as they sang.

“I wanted to cry with joy when I found out I had been successful,” said Amanda, a key worker from Liverpool who got to the ground early and waited patiently for her slot to enter.

“It felt like the first match I have ever been to.”

She was not alone. A few fans I spoke to beforehand said the same thing.

Klopp, who has an intimate relationship with Liverpool supporters and went to them after the final whistle to do his customary fist pumps of celebration following the win, agreed. “I get it, 100 percent,” he said.

Such a lot has happened in the period between fans being inside Anfield. Liverpool ended their 30-year wait for the title for a start.

“That was so hard,” said Amanda. “I had a seat in the second row in the Kop for what would have been the last game. It was horrible. We thought the season might be voided so we accepted not being there, but it was hard.”

Klopp has promised a bus parade “when the time is right”. In the meantime, little things are reminding fans of Liverpool’s epic 2019-20 season as well as hinting that more “normal” times are returning.

At a beer kiosk in the Main Stand, which was closed even though a small percentage of the fans with tickets were sat in that section, a drawing that shows off Liverpool’s 44 major trophies has evidently been updated since June. It now has the old Football League Championship trophy next to the Premier League equivalent, with the number 19 under them both.

As the teams prepared to come out of the tunnel “Bring on the champions” was sung.

That new refrain — able to now be sung by Liverpool fans for the first time in three decades — mixed with familiar chants of “Liverpool. — BBC.