Manchester City staff help road accident victim hours after team bus attack by Liverpool fans

City's team bus, with players and coaching staff on board, stopped for around 25 minutes in area close to attack so club medics could tend to woman who had been struck by vehicle

Soccer Football - Champions League Quarter Final First Leg - Liverpool vs Manchester City - Anfield, Liverpool, Britain - April 4, 2018   Liverpool fans set off flares and throw missiles at the Manchester City team bus outside the stadium before the match    Action Images via Reuters/Carl Recine
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Manchester City medical staff stopped to treat a road accident victim outside Anfield following Wednesday's Uefa Champions League loss to Liverpool.

City's team bus, with players and coaching staff on board, stopped close to the Arkles pub for around 25 minutes so club medics could tend to a woman who had been struck by a vehicle.

The incident occurred close to where the team's original coach was pelted with objects by Liverpool fans before the game.

City waited until emergency services arrived.

Significant damage was caused to City's original bus as fans' missiles - including bottles, cans and fireworks - struck it on its journey to the stadium.

The attack began at the same spot where Liverpool fans had gathered in their thousands, and continued as the bus turned onto Anfield Road. Visibility was also poor due to red smoke from flares.

City needed a replacement coach after the game, a quarter-final first leg, which they lost 3-0.

European governing body Uefa has opened disciplinary proceedings against Liverpool over the matter.

The attack on the City bus should have led to the game being suspended, according to a psychologist specialising in workplace stress.

"They should have suspended the game, they should never have had the game go ahead," Professor Cary Cooper of the Manchester Business School told Press Association Sport. "Not with players on the bus being intimidated like that. No 1, [suspending the game] is a way of punishing Liverpool and No 2, it's a way of sending a message that this shouldn't happen, but there's no way [the Manchester City players] couldn't have been affected by that.

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"Uefa wouldn't have the guts to cancel it for financial reasons - television rights, the people in the stadium.

"The performance was totally uncharacteristic. They must have been unsettled and it must have had a psychological impact on them.

"People think footballers are resilient, but they are normally cosseted, away from the public, they're really well protected - and they're young.

"The majority of them are in their 20s, they're not necessarily life-mature and have been cosseted since the age of 16-17. Then they go to work on a bus and the bus gets attacked before a big event."

Meanwhile, Premier League leaders City are to make a plea to supporters to stay off the pitch at the Etihad Stadium after Saturday's derby against Manchester United.

City can clinch the title with a victory over their rivals but the club want to avoid damage to the pitch by excessive celebrations ahead of next Tuesday's second leg against Liverpool.