Tag: Anfield

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LIVERPOOL TO EXTEND ANFIELD CAPACITY TO 61,000

Liverpool will formally start work next week on a project to increase the capacity of their Anfield home to more than 61,000.

The expansion, which was granted planning permission in June and has been undergoing enabling works throughout the off-season, is looking to add 7,000 seats to the Anfield Road Stand and is expected to be completed in time for the 2023-24 campaign.

The club said on Wednesday morning that work “will begin in earnest with an official ground-breaking ceremony planned for next week”.

Jurgen Klopp’s men will continue to play at the stadium while the building work, which will involve a re-route of Anfield Road itself, takes place.

Managing director Andy Hughes told the Reds’ website: “We have been clear from the beginning that in order for this expansion to go ahead we needed the co-operation of local residents and the community, to successfully navigate the complex planning landscape, and to ensure the project is financially viable.

“We needed certainty for this project to progress and are now in a position to be able to move forward. We began this journey in 2014 and are grateful to everyone for the contributions they have made to bring the project to this stage.”

The newly designed Anfield Road Stand will see the lower tier retained and refurbished, with a new upper tier built above

Buckingham Group Contracting Limited has been appointed principal contractor and will work closely with the Red Neighbours initiative and also local employment groups having entered into a commitment to offer work experience, apprenticeships, graduate placements and jobs to local people.

The expanded structure, which will be similar in design to the Main Stand and will include improved concourses and sports-bar lounge hospitality facilities, is expected to support around 400 matchday roles in addition to the 2,200 which currently exist.

It will also feature additional pedestrian routes into Stanley Park and “include historical design references”.

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LUKA MODRIC WOULD PREFER TO FACE THE ‘AMAZING’ ANFIELD ATMOSPHERE

Real Madrid midfielder Luka Modric would rather face Liverpool in front of a full crowd even though he knows the power of Anfield.

The Croatia international has experienced the atmosphere both with Tottenham and Real, with his last visit in 2014 finishing in a 3-0 victory for the LaLiga side in their Champions League group game.

Wednesday’s situation will be vastly different as the ground will remain empty and Modric admits that will be disappointing, even if it would offer an advantage for the hosts as they seek to overturn a 3-1 deficit from the first leg of their quarter-final.

“We are in a situation everyone knows we are living in at the moment. Hopefully this will change quickly,” he said.

“To be honest I would prefer to play at Anfield with the crowd because of the atmosphere here.

“I played a few times with Tottenham, we played that game with Real and the atmosphere was amazing. Everyone wants to play with fans, with the crowd.

“That’s why we are not thinking about if there is a crowd or not or if there is an advantage for us or not.

“It’s a situation that we are in and we need to do the best we can in the circumstances we are in.”

Real’s injury problems have got worse since the first leg as Lucas Vazquez has been sidelined with a knee problem, joining fellow defenders Sergio Ramos (calf), Dani Carvajal (hamstring) and Raphael Varane (Covid-19) and forward Eden Hazard (muscle) on the absentee list.

However, coach Zinedine Zidane refused to allow it to be considered a weakness as his fit players become overstretched.

“We are going to try to manage our strengths, manage our injuries. We are always going to go out and try to win the game,” he said.

“There are challenges and difficulties. You grow stronger as a team and become more united. That is one of the qualities this team has.

“It is true a lot has happened to this team this season. I’d love to have everyone available but we have everyone who is here and they are the ones who count tomorrow.

“We will need to compete, defend well and attack when we get the chance. We are very prepared to face up to this game.”

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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE COME BACK DIFFICULT IN AN EMPTY ANFIELD – KLOPP

Liverpool manager Jurgen Klopp insists his side are not ‘comeback kings’ and turning around their Champions League fortunes will not be easy – especially at an empty Anfield.

A 3-1 defeat to Real Madrid in the quarter-final first leg immediately led to parallels with what they did to Barcelona in the 2019 semi-final second leg when they won 4-0 to turn around a 3-0 deficit from the Nou Camp.

That paved the way for them to win a sixth European Cup but it was achieved in an electric atmosphere at a packed Anfield which will go down as one of the greatest nights in the club’s history.

Next Wednesday they must do something similar, with the away goal helping slightly, but behind closed doors.

“Of course, it is completely different. Completely different,” said Klopp.

“If you want to have some emotional memories, then you watch the Barcelona game back and 80 per cent of this game was the atmosphere in the stadium, so yes, we have to do it without that.

“But it is not that I sit here and think, ‘Comebacks are our thing, we do it all the time’. We did from time to time but we always had supporters in the stadium.

“We don’t have that this time so I don’t know if we can do it, but I can promise you we will give it a proper try.

“It must be a really tricky task for Real Madrid at Anfield with or without supporters.

“This here (at the Alfredo Di Stefano Stadium inside Madrid’s club’s training ground) was really strange.

“It was really difficult, a different situation with the stadium, but Anfield is at least a proper stadium and that will be good for us.”

In a season of ups and downs, a week ago the most likely route back into the Champions League next season for Liverpool looked like coming from winning the competition itself.

However, a win over Arsenal and other results going their way has put the top four back within reach as they sit just three points adrift of West Ham, who occupy fourth place, with only one of their remaining eight games against a team (Manchester United) higher than ninth.

But Klopp said it was not realistic to just flip-flop between prioritising competitions.

“We cannot be picky with that, we have to go for everything,” he added.

“It’s not like we can now make the decision after that game there is no chance for us in the Champions League any more.

“In the Premier League, we cannot change it every week – we have to fight until the end and we will.

“This was a really good result for Real Madrid and it’s not that we have any kind of advantage, but with each day and each minute that will go until the next game the 3-1 will not be that good any more for Real Madrid and not that bad any more for us because there is, of course, a chance.

“But we have to play much better football (and) we cannot get it like tonight. For example, when we played against Barcelona and lost (the first leg) 3-0 we played a super game. That’s a massive difference.

“We can play much better (than against Madrid) and we can be much more uncomfortable to play against than we were and that’s what we have to make sure next week.

“Now we have to recover first and then concentrate on Aston Villa, which is for us a very important game, not only because of the results we had recently or in this season against them.”

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LACK OF ANFIELD FANS HURTING LIVERPOOL BAD – DJIBRIL CISSE

Djibril Cisse believes the lack of fans in the stadium is hurting Liverpool during their current struggles as they prepare for a Merseyside derby behind closed doors.

Liverpool have slipped to sixth in the Premier League and go into Saturday’s match against Everton desperate to avoid a fourth-consecutive Anfield defeat – unthinkable during a 68-game unbeaten home run that was ended by Burnley last month.

Empty stands have certainly played a role but former Liverpool striker Cisse believes the absence of fans will be felt most keenly on derby day.

“As a professional player, you have to take it as seriously as if the crowd was there,” Cisse told the PA news agency. “But as a human it takes something off because sometimes if you have bad momentum you need the crowd to cheer you up.

“I have played in empty stadiums and it is not the same. In a derby, you need the fire of the fans.”

Cisse experienced some of the biggest rivalries in Europe during his career – a Rome derby with Lazio, playing for Panathinaikos against Olympiakos, and facing Paris St Germain with Marseille – but said the Merseyside derby has a unique character.

“It is special because the two stadiums are so close, but what makes it even more special is because in the same family you will have some Liverpool fans and some Everton fans,” the Frenchman said.

“When you hear the word ‘derby’ you think of hate. Two clubs that hate each other, but that is not really the case. For us as players we still knew the importance of the game but it’s not the same as PSG-Marseille or Panathinaikos-Olympiakos.”

But a ‘friendly’ derby did not mean a less intense one.

“You can feel the difference during the whole week,” said Cisse, who scored a decisive third against Everton at Goodison Park in December 2005.

“The fans in the city make sure you know the game is really important for them.

“As a foreigner, when I arrived in Liverpool (in 2004) I heard about the derby but didn’t really know the meaning of the derby for the people.

“I was quite close to Stevie (Gerrard) and he told me about how important the game is so I was ready to give 100 per cent to make sure Liverpool was the team of the city.”

Cisse – part of Liverpool’s Champions League-winning squad of 2005 – is remembered by Liverpool fans as an exuberant character with a series of wild haircuts, the accidental lord of the manor who bought a house with a title in Cheshire, and a joker in the dressing room.

“It was a relaxed atmosphere,” he said of Rafael Benitez’s regime. “But we knew when it was game time, when it was training time. We knew the limit.

“Even in derby week it was really relaxed and friendly but we knew when we have to go to war, we go to war. We knew what we had to do.”

Cisse’s time on Merseyside was also marked by a broken leg which cost him five and a half months of his first season.

With injuries taking their toll on Liverpool again this year, Cisse said the impact was always felt well beyond the pitch.

“When it’s a leader of your defence – I’m thinking of Virgil Van Dijk – you can be a little worried,” he said. “Even if you trust all of the squad and the players going to replace him, it is still a big loss so you are worried.

“But you don’t really have time to think about it. You have to be ready and focused, and to help the new players who are going to replace them. They are under a lot of pressure because they have to perform and do as well, and it is not easy.”