Manchester City were met with loud boos as they made their entrance at Anfield, with Liverpool fans voicing their frustration in the first match since the club was found guilty of breaching 114 of the Premier League's financial rules.
Enzo Maresca's side were showered in boos as they prepared for kick-off on Sunday afternoon. The hostility, which had been planned to start before kick-off with the bus arrival, continued as the game started.
Banners and chants from the Kop
It wasn't just boos that showed the Reds' fury. "A generation of supporters cheated," one banner from the Kop read. A second, unfurled moments before kick-off, referenced Oasis' 2002 hit 'Stop Crying Your Heart Out': "All of your stars are fading away."
Each and every City touch was met with boos, while the Kop occasionally erupted into chants of "cheats" and "you cheating b*******, we know what you are". That spilled onto the pitch, with an electric start from the Reds.
Verdict and appeal
Earlier this month, City were found guilty of breaking the Premier League's financial rules. The verdict found that City had "arranged sham contracts" - which misrepresented the true agreement between the parties - with a number of its commercial partners, as well as relying on "sham" agreements with others, to artificially inflate the club's revenues and reduce its costs over a nine-year period from 2009 to 2018.
A statement said: "The club filed misstated accounts and concealed the true state of its finances from its auditors and football regulators." It added that throughout the investigation City "committed multiple breaches of its duties of co-operation and utmost good faith towards the league".
City reject this and have launched an appeal. The club confirmed it lodged its comprehensive appeal against the opinion of the Premier League Commission on Thursday 1st October 2026, stating: "The club's firm position is that, on multiple grounds, the opinion contains clear material errors, of law, principle and fact and is unsafe. The club is innocent of the accusations made by the Premier League and a comprehensive body of irrefutable evidence exists in support of all of its positions, relating to this case."
The club added: "We will continue to respect due process and are necessarily restricted in what we can say further until all proceedings are complete."
