Rome police on alert as Liverpool supporters start to arrive for Champions League showdown

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Peter Allen1 May 2018

Police in Rome today warned visiting Liverpool football supporters to avoid areas of the Italian capital where they risked being stabbed or beaten up.

It came as the first of thousands of British fans arrived in the city for the Champions League semi-final second leg against AS Roma on Wednesday evening.

Liverpool fan Sean Cox remains in intensive care following the first leg in England, when the 53-year-old was set upon by a gang of so-called ‘ultra’ hooligans from Italy.

Now members of the Fedayn — the notorious Rome gang allegedly responsible for assaulting Mr Cox — have pledged to ‘hunt down and hurt’ more Liverpool supporters.

Rome police chief Giampietro Lionetti said: ‘There is a lot of history between the two sets of fans, and it will our job to keep them all safe.”

Lionetti warned the English to avoid areas of the city where there have been “ambushes and severe beatings” before and after previous matches.

These include the Duca d’Aosta bridge, which crosses the Tiber towards Roma’s ground, the Olympic Stadium, and key squares in the city centre.

Manchester United supporters were attacked in such areas when their team was in Rome in 2007, while Liverpool fans suffered a similar fate in previous European clashes.

Getty Images

Injuries included slashes to the buttocks — wounds that the Fedayn are notorious for inflicting — and cuts caused by leather belts used as whips.

Mr Lionetti said supporters should not “wander alone around the city, and instead should use shuttle buses and stick together”.

From today, there will be 500 extra police officers in the city, while 1,000 more will be on duty at the stadium on Wednesday night.

Liverpool lead 5-2 from last week’s first leg, when there were clashes between fans outside Anfield. Two Italians — Filippo Lombardi, 20 and Daniele Sciusco, 29 — have been charged with violent disorder. Sciusco has also been charged with inflicting grievous bodily harm.

They remain in custody and face trial in connection with the attack on Cox, of Dunboyne, Ireland.

At least 5,000 Liverpool fans are expected to arrive in Rome today and tomorrow, some without tickets.

Some are veterans of the notorious 1984 European Cup Final between Roma and Liverpool, when thousands of English fans were attacked before and after their victory.

A bitter history between Liverpool and Italian fans in general dates back to the 1985 Heysel Stadium disaster in Belgium. A wall collapsed as Juventus fans tried to escape a mob of Liverpool supporters, and 39 died.

The disaster that led to criminal convictions and English clubs being banned from Europe for five years.

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