LIVERPOOL, England — They started arriving in the late afternoon, three hours before kickoff. They filled every spare inch of space they could find. When there was no room left on the ground, they clambered up traffic signal poles and scurried onto walls.
Where Arkles Road turns into Anfield Road and Liverpool’s stadium suddenly looms up into the sky, they unfurled their banners and draped their flags, and they sang their songs.
Two hours earlier, they had set off so many flares and smoke bombs already that the smell of cordite was wafting down Lower Breck Road, half a mile from the stadium, and the sky seemed to have been dyed red, as if something was burning.