Long before the festivities began, this match was being played out in a swirl of gunsmoke. It was somehow rather fitting. Liverpool are a team that have always played better with a whiff or cordite in the nostrils.
The fireworks had been sounding throughout the second-half. Private and local, not the display that would mark the trophy ceremony, rumoured to cost £1million. In the distance, the sound of car horns. This was a city gearing up for another monster celebration and to hell with social distancing.
Merseyside Police had announced a dispersal zone in anticipation of the eruption to come. Probably the quietest locale was inside Anfield, where the cheers that greeted another match won couldn't possibly compete with the fervour beyond those four walls.
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