Jamie Carragher has claimed he would’ve liked for the FA Cup semi-final clash between Liverpool and Manchester City to have been moved from Wembley but admits he wasn’t surprised at the FA’s decision to keep the fixture at the national stadium.
The former Reds defender believes the FA are ‘desperate to get the money in’ and explained that’s the reason why there was no change of venue, despite there being no direct trains from either city to London on the weekend of the fixture.
“I would have liked it to be moved for the same reasons as everyone else. Semi-finals shouldn’t be at Wembley, but we know it is a financial thing,” he told the Liverpool Echo.
“There is something special about playing an FA Cup semi-final. I did it at Villa Park and Old Trafford and the other one was at Wembley against Everton, so I sampled a few different ones.
“Even as a kid, playing at a neutral ground against opposition is different – there is something special about it. I never thought for one minute the semi-final would be moved, I thought it would be at Wembley. The FA are just desperate to get money in.
“It will be a tough game, City are a brilliant team. But it will be tough for them as well as we’re a brilliant team. It could go either way: small details decide big games and that match will be no different. We will go there full of confidence and I’m sure City will as well.”
Rather than changing the venue to a stadium closer to the North West, the FA have instead revealed that they are providing 100 free buses for supporters travelling down to the capital.
Liverpool supporters will still travel down in their thousands and sell out their allocation, but it would’ve been nice for the FA to think about supporters for once.
Initially, on April 16, when the semi-final is set to take place, Liverpool were set to travel to Villa Park to face Steven Gerrard’s Aston Villa in the Premier League.
So that clearly means the Midland’s venue was vacant had the FA decided to look elsewhere to stage the semi-final.
It’ll certainly be some game against Pep Guardiol’s side at Wembley, let’s hope we have enough to come out on top and take a huge step towards winning the only trophy Jurgen Klopp is yet to win as Liverpool boss.
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