It’s a common criticism of the stadium.
Liverpool’s 3-0 victory over Manchester City last week in the first leg of their Champions League quarter final was largely due to the intensity with which Liverpool play. Their counter pressing and ability to sucker punch City on the break led them to a 3-0 lead within half an hour.
But it would be silly to ignore the factor of the atmosphere. The hostile welcome the home fans gave the away coach will have had an effect on the players, as would the atmosphere inside the ground. In the build up to the match, there was a lot of hype around the intimidating atmosphere that the crowd would generate. There was also a lot of mockery of that cliché. But Liverpool had the last laugh as City looked rattled by both the intensity on the pitch and the noise from the home fans.
City now face a mountainous task of overcoming this 3-0 deficit, and Pep has decided to field an extremely attacking team in a bid to outscore Liverpool.
But that is only half the battle. They will need some help from their fans, according to Glenn Hoddle. Speaking on BT Sport, Hoddle said:
“There’s no energy in here like I thought there would be. They [the supporters] have got to be a twelfth man here. If City are going to get a result here, they’ve got to take the roof off.”
The Etihad is often derided as full of empty seats and too quiet, but you’d expect that it’ll have a different vibe tonight.
I might not be Anfield, but an early goal will certainly generate some noise.
Bit better now. They do love a plastic bag flag round here pic.twitter.com/8ZWiszEezt
— Kieran Canning (@KieranCanning) April 10, 2018
https://twitter.com/jonathanliew/status/983777726309027840
