No triumphalism from Liverpool fans, just a bleak sense that the football had given way to utter irrelevance. A dark day at Anfield but Man City will probably not be here again, writes IAN HERBERT

The planning had been meticulous, of course. Flags bearing the word ‘cheats’ and images of Pep Guardiola and Manchester City ’s players as convicts were going for a fiver from stalls next to The Park pub. People responded to the message, circulating all week, about meeting at the King Harry pub ahead of a ‘greeting’ for the City team bus. ‘Bring flags, pyros, flares,’ it said, and they did. But inside those pubs, there was neither triumphalism, nor a particular desire to raise holy hell on the visiting team, just a bleak and resigned sense that the football combat which…