Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler is convinced the Anfield crowd will be a factor in this week’s Champions League showdown with Manchester City.
Fowler wrote for the Sunday Mirror: “City have a bit of form when it comes to being slightly affected by the Anfield crowd. I don’t want to over-emphasise it, but I can remember a couple of times when they seemed just a little knocked out of their stride.
“The 3-2 win in 2014 when both clubs were going for the title comes to mind. Vincent Kompany of all people made a mistake that day to give Philippe Coutinho the winner, so it can happen.
“I think City may also have been surprised by Liverpool’s passion and intensity – spurred on by the crowd – when they scored three goals in nine minutes just after the break in January. It can happen at Anfield to the best.
“I was there, and I can honestly say in the period before half-time and just after the break, I have never been more impressed with a visiting side coming to Anfield in recent years.
“It’s strange to say it about a side who ended up 4-1 down, but City were brilliant!
“And Pep Guardiola will remember that. He’ll be thinking, ‘we dominated them until that mad nine minutes, we have to dominate them again without the dodgy period’. Or whatever the Spanish equivalent of ‘dodgy’ is.
“Liverpool have to recreate the emotion of that nine-minute period — and then defend better if they can get any sort of lead.
“That means the crowd must help… and I know from experience they certainly have it in them.”
