The rivalry between Manchester’s two football clubs has reached new heights in recent times but it is pertinent to remember a meeting of 10 years ago.
In 2008 United and City played at Old Trafford on the 50th anniversary of the Munich tragedy. City won the game as it happened but that didn’t really matter.
Both teams and both sets of supporters marked the sombre occasion magnificently. Both teams wore kits shorn of advertising and player names. City manager Sven Goran Eriksson wrote to his supporters asking for appropriate behaviour and they did not fail him.
Man United and City players on the 50th anniversary of the Munich air disaster at Old Trafford
Eight Manchester United players and three backroom staff died in a plane crash in 1958
So it was a sad day but also a strangely uplifting day, a day to recognise the good in both clubs, a day to be proud of Manchester and, to a degree, proud of the power of sport.
Back then there were five survivors from Sir Matt Busby’s great team of 1958. When the 60th Munich anniversary will be marked at Old Trafford, there will be just two.
Both men have already played their part this time round, in different ways.
Sir Bobby Charlton – the only ambassador his great club has ever really needed – has written an eloquent letter to the current United squad.
‘That night we lost some of the greatest players and friends that I made in football,’ it said.
‘The devastating effect still lives on.’
Harry Gregg, meanwhile, has written for this newspaper and arrived in Manchester from his home outside Belfast on Monday night.
Gregg, now 85, has asked that not only the eight players who perished at Munich be given full thought but also the crew, civilians and journalists who brought the total of the dead to a quite wretched 23.
Gregg was particularly fond of the former City goalkeeper Frank Swift, who died while pursuing a career as a writer for the News of the World. Swift, still only 44, perished on the way from the airfield to hospital and has long since given City their own indelible link to the tragedy.
Not that they have needed one. At the time, Munich was very much viewed not just as United’s tragedy but Manchester’s and we should hold that sentiment close by us this afternoon.
Left to right: Ryan Giggs, Sven Goran Eriksson and Sir Alex Ferguson at Old Trafford in 2008
A banner honours Frank Swift, an ex-Manchester City player, prior to the match at Old Trafford
In his book ‘Manchester’s Finest, author David Hall wrote: ‘As a Manchester team and England’s first representatives in the European Cup, the majority of City fans wanted United to do well.
‘And the sense of loss and grief they felt was shared that morning throughout the land.’
Currently United and City’s rivalry sometimes feels too toxic. Social media is awash with ugliness. Lines are crossed.
Today, then, it feels appropriate to place that to one side and remember what really matters. Life, endeavour, brotherhood, glory.
City will be represented this afternoon by their own ambassador, Mike Summerbee, and chief operating officer Omar Berrada. A City wreath will be laid outside Old Trafford and an item marking the anniversary posted on the club’s website.
The Busby Babes were flying back from a European Cup tie when disaster struck
Sir Bobby Charlton has written an eloquent letter to the current United squad
Fellow survivor Harry Gregg has asked all 23 who died in the crash be remembered on Tuesday
With United having made the admirable decision to open the gates of Old Trafford to supporters for the service, we hope also there may be flashes of sky blue inside the famous old stadium.
Ten years ago, many who were there will not be able to recall the names of the City goal scorers as they beat their rivals 2-1. They were, for the record, Darius Vassell and Benjani.
But they may, as I do, recall the sight of 22 players lined up in their pristine retro strips around the perimeter of the centre circle, a blanket of red and white scarves punctuated only by the blue and white of the visiting section.
That was a day when modern rivalries and all their faults were rubbed out by memories of the past. It was a brief hiatus but we haven’t forgotten it.
We should wish for a little more of that today.