YOU'RE GONNA GET YOUR F**KIN HEADS KICKED IN

Last updated : 06 April 2005 By Editor

Many Reds will recall the reception that awaited us in Turin back in September 1996, as the first English club to visit the city since Heysel. Stabbings galore, banners deploring “English animals” and a full scale after-match riot were al part of the package. And back in 1991 the five coachloads of Juventus fans who travelled to Genoa before Liverpool’s UEFA Cup match there weren’t intent on swapping banners and handshakes. Have a nice trip….

From the Guardian:

The most powerful statement on a night of intense emotion came shortly before the first Liverpool-Juventus match in 20 years had begun. A group of supporters from both clubs approached the 2,600 Italian fans at the Anfield Road End carrying a banner bearing the words Memoria e amicizia, in memory and friendship.

It was a gesture intended to express regret and sorrow but it was met with a devastatingly eloquent response. As the banner moved forward, watched from the centre circle by Phil Neal, Michel Platini and Ian Rush, all of whom had played at Heysel, the front 10 rows simply turned their backs. They did so again moments later when Anfield stood for a minute's silence and supporters on the Kop displayed a mosaic repeating the sentiment, Amicizia.

From the Independent:

Memoria e amicizia - "In Memory and in Friendship" - declared the banner carried towards the Anfield Road End before kick-off. But for many of the 2,600 Juventus fans gathered there, forgiving will clearly be no easier than forgetting the 39 Italians and Belgians who died at Heysel in 1985. Dozens of their number last night, if not hundreds, turned their backs on the peace offering.

Less hostility greeted the sight of Phil Neal and Michel Platini, opponents on that fateful evening in Brussels, joining forces with Ian Rush, who played for both clubs, as they carried a plaque bearing the crests of the teams into the centre circle. A mosaic unveiled by the Kop, revealing the word "Friendship", even drew applause from some of the visitors.

But the ritual rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" came against a backdrop of whistling and booing from their enclosure. The acrimony is sure to be magnified when Liverpool go to the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin for the second leg a week tonight.

Talk of the tie helping to achieve "closure" always did appear somewhat fanciful. Liverpool's supporters have not given up their grievances or grieving over the 96 who died at Hillsborough in 1989, so it was always expecting too much for the Italians to set aside their bitterness over the drunken rampage that cost so many innocent lives at Heysel.