GLANCE FACTS
Played 185 Liverpool wins 62 Man Utd wins 72 Draws 51
Liverpool v Man Utd head-to-head record in all competitions
The rivalry between Liverpool and Manchester United has become almost unique in its intensity since the Premier League's balance of power shifted from Merseyside along the M62 in the early 1990s.
The two cities do not simply share a sporting rivalry but also a cultural and industrial one - something mirrored most starkly in the relationship between two of world football's greatest clubs.
Covering one of my first meetings between Liverpool and United at Anfield in 1988 I got a close up view of then manager Kenny Dalglish carrying his six-week old daughter Lauren in his arms while enraging counterpart Sir Alex Ferguson in the tunnel by suggesting a radio interviewer might get more sense interrogating the baby than his fellow Scot.
It was a snapshot of the fierce competition that has always existed between Liverpool and United but the incident now falls into the category of mild banter given what has become, and few would dispute this, an increasingly poisonous relationship between the supporters in recent years.
Tension has built as United have amassed league titles - eventually eclipsing Liverpool's 18 top-flight trophies with their 19th in 2011.
The rivalry has led to concerns that what should be an occasion for remembrance, emotion and sympathy when they meet in the Premier League at Anfield on Sunday - as Liverpool play at home for the first time since the release of the Hillsborough files - might be hijacked by a small minority intent on ill-feeling as opposed to empathy.
And yet the actions of both clubs in the build-up to Sunday's game suggests this day could yet be a watershed in that fractious relationship between fans, a day when the unity that has been shown within football following the disclosure of the Hillsborough documents relating to the 1989 disaster could heal long-standing wounds.
This will be the wish of the overwhelming majority of Liverpool and United supporters inside and outside Anfield, and those in the boardrooms, at these two English and European superpowers.
As those who died at the FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest in 1989 are remembered on Sunday, the occasion has the potential to become a turning point, a force for good in forging a new bond between the clubs' followers.
BBC Sport football pundit Mark Lawrenson, who played in many Liverpool-Manchester United matches, says the eyes of the sporting world will be on Anfield on Sunday.
"This is Liverpool's first game at home since the release of the Hillsborough files and no-one wants anything to detract from the meaning of this occasion followed by the importance of a showpiece Premier League game," he said.
"Concerns have been expressed after a small number of United fans sang anti- Liverpool songs during last week's win against Wigan but I fully expect this to be a day reflecting the mood of so many decent supporters on both sides.
