Pointed gestures as Italians refuse to forgive and forget

Memoria e amicizia - "In Memory and in Friendship" - declared the banner carried towards the Anfield Road End before kick-off. But for many of the 2,600 Juventus fans gathered there, forgiving will clearly be no easier than forgetting the 39 Italians and Belgians who died at Heysel in 1985. Dozens of their number last night, if not hundreds, turned their backs on the peace offering.

Memoria e amicizia - "In Memory and in Friendship" - declared the banner carried towards the Anfield Road End before kick-off. But for many of the 2,600 Juventus fans gathered there, forgiving will clearly be no easier than forgetting the 39 Italians and Belgians who died at Heysel in 1985. Dozens of their number last night, if not hundreds, turned their backs on the peace offering.

Less hostility greeted the sight of Phil Neal and Michel Platini, opponents on that fateful evening in Brussels, joining forces with Ian Rush, who played for both clubs, as they carried a plaque bearing the crests of the teams into the centre circle. A mosaic unveiled by the Kop, revealing the word "Friendship", even drew applause from some of the visitors.

But the ritual rendition of "You'll Never Walk Alone" came against a backdrop of whistling and booing from their enclosure. The acrimony is sure to be magnified when Liverpool go to the Stadio delle Alpi in Turin for the second leg a week tonight.

Talk of the tie helping to achieve "closure" always did appear somewhat fanciful. Liverpool's supporters have not given up their grievances or grieving over the 96 who died at Hillsborough in 1989, so it was always expecting too much for the Italians to set aside their bitterness over the drunken rampage that cost so many innocent lives at Heysel.

That is not to say that Liverpool - club and city - should not be commended for trying to heal the wounds. For two decades, it had seemed as if the red half of Merseyside's football community were in denial over the tragedy. Consumed by sorrow and anger over its own dead at Sheffield, yet reluctant to confront the realities of Heysel.

The match programme stopped short of the official apology many Juventus supporters have sought - talking instead of "building bridges" - but the Liverpool Echo pulled no punches on its front page. "We're Sorry" the headline announced. "The Liverpool fans who charged were shamefully to blame," ran the editorial. "No ifs, no buts, no excuses. What should have been a great spectacle turned into a sickening episode of soccer shame - one of the game's darkest hours."

One group of Liverpool fans extended an olive branch by challenging the London branch of the Juventus Supporters' Club to a match at Kirkby. However, signs that other factions of the Turin side's support might be in no mood for reconciliation were evident during the build-up to last night's match. Groups of Italians walking around the Albert Dock area reacted aggressively when approached by radio reporters on vox-pop duty.

Even before Liverpool's extraordinary start to the game, the atmosphere among their followers seemed to be one of "Well, we gave the mutual-respect thing a go, but now we're going to back our team". At 2-0 up, the decibel level inside Anfield was almost of pre-all-seater levels.

Chants of "England's No 1" rang around in honour of Scott Carson. Chorus after chorus of "La Bamba", with the names of Rafa Benitez, Garcia and Nuñez ingeniously threaded through it, cascaded from the Kop.

Through it all, the Juventus contingent stood and watched in near silence. Fabio Cannavaro's riposte changed their mood at a stroke. They bounced up and down, ignoring the seats that were introduced as a result of the horrors of Heysel and Hillsborough.

Benitez had hoped for a "spectacle" as the most fitting tribute to the dead, a game where the goal count rather than the body count was the talking point. His wish was granted. From the first whistle to the last, this was the kind of contest that nobody could turn their back on.