Liverpool boss Jurgen Klopp issued an apology to Man City after their team bus was attacked on their way to Anfield on Wednesday night.
The two sides met in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final showdown, with the Reds going on to win 3-0 to put themselves in a commanding lead in the battle to advance to the last four.
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However, scenes before the game as the City bus made its way to the stadium dominated headlines too, with thousands of Liverpool fans lining the streets to greet the visitors with flares and songs while projectiles were also seen hitting the bus.
While Klopp would undoubtedly have been in full support of the vociferous noise made by the fans prior and during the game, he offered an apology to their fellow Premier League side as evidently he felt as though it overstepped the mark with bottles and cans leading to a broken front windscreen.
“I really don’t understand it. There was a lot of talk about it before. We tried everything to prevent a situation like that,” he is quoted as saying by The Mirror. “For Liverpool FC I have to say sorry.”
That gracious apology was greeted in positive fashion by Guardiola, who insisted that he was merely relieved that his players were fine and that no-one suffered any injuries.
“I want to say thank you to Jurgen for his words, apologising,” Guardiola told BT Sport. “We didn’t expect that, I didn’t expect that. I thought police can know that. Fortunately nothing happened to the players, they are all healthy. I know that is not Liverpool, the history of the club is much bigger than this four or five or 10 guys.”
Liverpool also released a club statement to apologise to City, but whether or not the greeting had any bearing on the performance of the visitors is up for debate as they couldn’t cope with the Reds early on.
Having raced into a 3-0 lead in the opening 30 minutes, Liverpool have now put themselves in a great position to progress, but it remains to be seen whether or not City can pull off what would be an incredible turnaround at the Etihad next week.
Guardiola and his men certainly have it all to do, and they’ll need their supporters to stand up and be counted to create a great atmosphere of their own.