Jordan Henderson Looks to Rally Anfield Ahead of Atletico Clash

With matches moving behind closed doors or being cancelled outright across Europe due to the threat of coronavirus, and Arsenal’s match against Manchester City being postponed, it seems only a matter of time before Liverpool are playing to empty stadiums—or not playing at all.

For at least tonight, though, there will be a crowd. A packed house. A Famous European Night, at least potentially, as Liverpool and the fans welcome Atletico Madrid to Anfield looking to overturn a one-goal first leg deficit and advance to the Champions League quarter finals.

“Part of having something special in life is making sure you never take it for granted,” noted club captain Jordan Henderson in the matchday programme. “That counts for so many things—but as a Liverpool player the positive impact of Anfield and the Kop should be top of that list.

“I know going into tonight’s game there’ll be a lot of talk about the importance of us being at home. There will no doubt have been dozens of articles and broadcasts referencing historic and special Anfield European nights, but we can never and will never take it for granted.”

At this point, nobody knows how the rest of the 2019-20 season will play out, in England or in Europe, but for at least tonight there is a match to be played and Anfield will be full as the Reds look to once again do what they’ve done better than anyone else in this competition—overcome.

“None of us take any of this for granted and we come into this game knowing if we want something special to happen, we have to work hard,” Henderson added. “That’s what we’ll look do as players: give everything we have and, if we do, we know the support will be there driving us on.”