Manchester City won 3-0 at Liverpool on Sunday in their first league match since the Premier League announced that the club had structurally broken its financial rules between 2009 and 2018. The result came at Anfield, Liverpool's home ground, where supporters made their feelings about the verdict loud and clear throughout the afternoon.
The match was goalless and scrappy in the first half, with Liverpool winning most of the physical duels without scoring. It changed in the second half, when Liverpool's Ryan Gravenberch, the Dutch midfielder, was shown a second yellow card, and therefore a red, for a foul on City's Belgian winger Jérémy Doku in the 62nd minute. Three minutes later Erling Haaland, who had hardly been seen until then, gave City the lead. Doku, whose introduction into the game was central to the turnaround, made it 2-0 in the 68th minute with a fine shot into the top corner. Rayan Cherki added a third after a flowing move and a solo run. Liverpool had created early chances in the second half through Lewis Koumas, Gravenberch and Alexis Mac Allister, but could not take them.
The atmosphere outside and inside the ground was charged. City's team bus reportedly took an alternative route to avoid large groups of Liverpool fans, and a decoy bus was said to have been used. Home supporters displayed banners and scarves referring to the verdict, and chants of "Cheats! Cheats!" rang around the stadium even after the final whistle. Al Jazeera's reporter at the ground said fans asked whether City would even still be in the Premier League by the end of the year. City have appealed the ruling, and the reports note that relegation has been raised as a possible consequence, though no outcome has been confirmed.
About a thousand City fans travelled and responded with humour, waving inflatable bananas. The banana is a long-standing symbol at the club, dating from the 1986-87 season, when City were relegated to the second tier and striker Imre Varadi was nicknamed "Imre Banana".
Manager Enzo Maresca said his side would have to live with the noise. "We will experience this noise at every away game," he said. "We have to make our own noise: winning matches." Haaland called the win a special moment for everyone at the club. For City, the victory offered a sporting response after a period of widespread ridicule, but the legal questions over the verdict and the appeal remain unresolved.