Dispatch from abroad - Karlo and Sarah in Liverpool - May 2024
In early 2024, Karlo and I, along with our spouses, planned a trip to Liverpool to attend
a match at Anfield. We decided on the penultimate home match on 5 May 2024 against
Spurs. It worked with all our schedules, and we thought (hoped?!) the weather would be
relatively nice for the match. As you can imagine, tickets are difficult to come by and the
secondary market is not really a guaranteed (or legal?) thing in England, so we
purchased hospitality tickets to the match. By 17 January 2024, tickets, flights and
hotels were booked and all we had to do was wait 4.5 months for the big day to arrive.
Karlo and Connie selfie while Sarah lounges ahead of us going to the Hospitality bus.
Never did we think that nine days later the football world would be rocked with the news
that Jürgen Klopp was stepping down as manager at the end of the season.
As my dad always said, I would rather be lucky than good, and boy were we lucky with
our timing on booking tickets to this match!
Liverpool legend
Hospitality lunch with special guests!
For the next few months, we followed the Reds campaign intently. While their title hopes
and hopes for the quadruple fell by the wayside, as the end of the season approached,
the magnitude of Klopp leaving really set in. And so did a sense of gratitude for all he
had done for the club.
When the big day arrived, we were ready! The four of us are in Liverpool and excited for
the Anfield experience. We arrived early to walk the grounds around Anfield and take it
all in. We queued up with others to enter the ground and then…magic.
We sat in the brand new Anfield Road Stand, which was so new you could almost smell
the fresh paint. The concourses were large with plenty of room to move about, have a
beer, and pie, if you like. We opted for beers – Carlsberg, probably the best beer in the
world – and were SHOCKED at the price. A bottle of Carlsberg cost £3.50. £3.50!!!!! In
the US, a domestic beer costs at least $14. But I digress.
Sarah captures Karlo’s first time through the Anfield gates.
Sarah’s spouse, Brian, whose family is from and still lives in Liverpool. A family of reds.
We finished our beers and made our way to the seats.
Walking into a new stadium is always a somewhat religious experience for me. The
anticipation of seeing the pitch or field for the first time and feeling the history of the
place is something that gets me every time and Anfield was no different. The grass was
so green. The seats so red. The Kop SO alive! It was super and before we knew it, the
starters were being announced. It was almost match time.
Sarah with scarf raised in front of the iconic You’ll Never Walk Alone gate at the stadium
But first…
You’ll Never Walk Alone.
I’ll be honest, as soon as the song started playing, I raised my scarf in the air and could
not stop the tears. Shoot, thinking about it now still brings tears to my eyes. It was one
of the most moving experiences of my life. Being in the stadium and hearing 61,000
people singing at a volume I still struggle to describe is something I will never forget.
You could almost feel the generations of LFC supporters who have gone before us
singing along. I know, I know (eyeroll), but honestly, if you ever have a chance to go and
have that experience, do it.
Anyway, back to the match because, it was time for kick off!
Liverpool started well and had an early goal right in front of us (!!!!!!!!!) from Mo Salah.
Robbo followed suit just before half and the Reds were up 2-0 at half.
At the half, we went down to the concourse for a beer and bathroom stop. It was
crowded but not so crowded that you couldn’t get a bite to eat or something to drink.
Things moved quickly and everyone was good about space.
The 20 minutes went quickly and it was time for the second half. Cody Gakpo scored in
the 50 th minute to put Liverpool up 3-0. Harvey Elliott followed 9 minutes later to make it
4-0. Richarlison scored in the 71 st minute and Son in the 77 th for Spurs, but it was not
enough to claw back into the match. At full time, it was a Liverpool victory at 4-2.
Karlo in front of the Jurgen Klopp mural in the neighborhood around Anfield.
Watching Klopp do his post-match fist pumping and chest beating to the crowd was fun,
and it was wild to think he had only one home game left. We stayed for a while soaking
it all in and as we made our way to the exit, we all remarked at how very fortunate we
were to be here for this match and see Klopp in one of his final matches as manager. As
Karlo would say, what a life!
The bar you need to go to before or after, as we did, right outside Anfield. The world famous Arkles! Co-host Ian has also been here!!
Watch the match recap here.