By Chris Rowland, Daniel Rhodes and Mihail Vladimirov.

This top 4 qualifying play-off takes place at Anfield on Sunday afternoon, kick-off 1.30pm.

Now hate is a strong word, too strong for mere sport. But mutual loathing is about the best you can say about feelings between these two clubs,  so we’ll just call it the mutual loathing thread for now, OK? 😉

The fact is, these are English football’s two true heavyweights, both with massive support both in the UK and worldwide. From Malmo to Melbourne, Malaysia to Mauritius, the two tribes will be up for this one like no other.

They are also England’s two most successful clubs by a country mile, with 38 league titles (yes, we know it’s 20-18 thanks) and eight European Cups/Champions Leagues (yes they know it’s 5-3 thanks!) between them, not to mention 18 FA Cups (11-7 to Utd), 12 League Cups (8-4 to Liverpool), 3 UEFA Cups (all Liverpool) and 1 European Cup Winners’ Cup (Utd). That’s a staggering 80 major trophies between them (41 Liverpool, 39 Utd), disregarding Charity/Community Shields, European Super Cups, International Club Championships (and of course Liverpool’s unforgettable Screen Sports Super Cup in 1986!), etc – ie mostly one-off games that you qualify for by winning something proper).

They are two clubs who have both known tragedy on a massive scale. They have more in common than the fans would care to admit.

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