da bet7k： Liverpool fans hate Manchester United. Manchester United fans hate Liverpool. The North West giants are two of English football’s great sides and even though only a few miles of motorway divide the cities, they are some distance apart in terms of ever building a lasting relationship.
da bet7： And Monday night sees the latest instalment of their on-pitch rivalry, with Jurgen Klopp’s side set to host Jose Mourinho’s men at Anfield. Two huge teams, two great managers and one 90 minute spell to battle, it’s going to be quite the spectacle.
With the game such a big one, the build-up has gone into overdrive. Sky Sports have got their two residents from each side of the fence, in the shape of Jamie Carragher and Gary Neville, to discuss their memories of matches in the past.
Although there are some real gems in their conversation, our favourite is Carra’s lifting of the lid on what was a pretty horrific ‘tackle’ on Nani in a 3-1 win for his side, back in 2011:
JC: Not one of my finer moments. It was a bit of a dive from Nani, wasn’t it? I tell you what my best memory of that is…
GN: Not getting a red card I imagine!
JC: Haha. No, not so much the tackle but Wayne Rooney’s reaction. I was on favourable terms with the referee Phil Dowd. I got him on my own, pulled him and said ‘he just beat me with skills’. Everyone is fighting and I got him over like an experienced pro. Then Rooney comes over and says ‘you won’t believe it, he’s crying’.
GN: Did you seriously go to do him?
JC: No, what happened was that someone got injured so I went from centre-back to right-back and as soon as that happened, Alex Ferguson put Nani to the left wing straight away.
So I’m thinking ‘I’m either going to get tight, I’m going to tackle him or I’m going to foul him. There’s no way I’m letting him get the ball and run at me’. So I’ve got there and the ball did jump up at me, I went for it and it just disappeared so I caught him on the shin.
GN: Did you think it was a red card at the time?
JC: Oh yeah. I’ve seen the reaction of all the players but like I said, I got Phil Dowd on his own, had a word with him and we came to some sort of a deal.
In case you haven’t seen/can’t remember the incident, here’s a video…