Carragher: Mourinho asked me how big Anfield is now

The tribune was officially opened at a ceremony on Friday morning and will host its first ever fixture tomorrow when Leicester City visit L4 in the Premier League.

Just over 54,000 supporters will be inside the stadium to witness the clash, and Carragher believes the increased capacity will only enhance Anfield’s reputation as one of world football’s most intimidating arenas.

The 38-year-old told LFCTV’s forthcoming documentary ‘This is Anfield’: “I think everywhere you go, when you are with England or you speak to foreign players, Anfield around the world is renowned for a huge atmosphere.

“I speak to Thierry Henry doing Sky and he always talks about it. They always wish they had it at their own clubs and I think that says it all.

“The interesting one was Jose Mourinho. At Soccer Aid he was the manager for a charity game and he asked me how many more people were going to be at Anfield with the new stand. I told him it would be an extra seven or eight thousand and he was like ‘that is massive’.

“So he’s well aware of the atmosphere. But not just him, I think everybody is and going there when Liverpool are playing well on the front foot with the crowd behind you as well [will be tough]. I know we’ve said it before and it’s a cliché, but it’s certainly true at Liverpool, [they are] the extra man – the 12th man.”

Carragher experienced some of the globe’s most revered stadiums during his professional career when representing both Liverpool and England.

Nevertheless, nothing comes close to the venue he simply describes as ‘home’ for our former No.23.

“It’s number one,” he said. “I’ve played there so often, had so many great nights there. It’s special.

“I think even when you’ve got teams like Real Madrid and Barcelona coming to Anfield and being worried about the atmosphere and then going away and talking about it, and how many times their fans come away with stories about Anfield [it says a lot]. They all want to come to Anfield.

“As a kid you want to play in the Nou Camp, the Bernabeu, San Siro – all places we were lucky to play at, but don’t forget their players want to come to Anfield, their supporters want to come to Anfield. I don’t think we should ever forget that.”

Indeed, some of Carragher’s most treasured memories of the famous old arena came in continental competitions while the likes of Barcelona, Real Madrid, Juventus, Inter Milan and many more were overcame at Anfield.

Perhaps most famous of them all, however, was the 1-0 victory over Chelsea in the second leg of the 2005 Champions League semi-final.

“If someone said to me go back to my Liverpool career [and was] there a moment or a time you could go back to, it’s playing those big European games in May, sort of semi-finals, maybe quarter-finals, because it’s not a cold night and it’s not that dark really,” he said.

“Even though it’s in the evening it’s still quite warm, there’s just something special about it and coming out [on the pitch] on those nights, the hairs on the back of your neck standing up. You see the crowd, who are right up for it, probably more up for it than the players without a doubt.

“The big thing when you came out was making sure Steven Gerrard wins that coin toss and you try to attack the Kop end in the second half.

“Unfortunately on that night against Chelsea it was the other way around but I think it helped us that night. Because we were under so much pressure in the second half I think the Kop helped us to keep the ball out [of the net].

“Normally you want them to suck one in for you when you are putting teams under pressure, but the quality in that Chelsea side with us going 1-0 up was always going to be tough for us in the second half. I think in a way losing the toss that night was a massive benefit for us.”

Watch ‘This is Anfield: The Documentary’ on Sunday September 18 at 8pm BST on LFCTV as we tell the story of Anfield, from 1884 to the present day, and explain how the stadium rose from a barren patch of land to become one of the world’s finest footballing cathedrals.