Rangers Manager and Captain Pay Respects at Hillsborough Memorial

Liverpool host Rangers in matchday three of the UEFA Champions League group stage on Tuesday. Ahead of the tie, Rangers manager, Giovanni van Bronckhorst, and captain, James Tavernier, paid their respects at the Hillsborough Memorial outside Anfield.

The two men laid a wreath to honor the 97 men, women, and children who lost their lives at Hillsborough Stadium on April 15, 1989.

Since this is the first competitive fixture between the two clubs, this was the first opportunity for Rangers to pay these respects. (Liverpool previously faced Rangers only once: losing a friendly in 2011.)

The two clubs have previously been linked by such memorials, however, despite never playing each other competitively in the past. The Ibrox Stadium Disaster, a crush which claimed 66 lives on 2 January 1971, has been previously memorialized by those on Merseyside with a flag, flown at the 40th Anniversary of the Ibrox Stadium Disaster in Glasgow (a ceremony also attended by Margaret Aspinall, whose son James died at Hiillsborough). The flag was also aired at Anfield on New Years Day to pay respects from Liverpool.