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Football

03rd Mar 2019

Roberto Firmino poses for picture with baby during Merseyside Derby

Wayne Farry

Never too busy for a photograph

The Merseyside Derby is commonly known as the Friendly Derby. The city of Liverpool contains lots of families which are split between the blue of Everton and the red of Liverpool and as such, the rivalry lacks the true bitterness of other derbies.

That degree of goodwill was evident on Sunday at Goodison Park where the Toffees were hosting Jurgen Klopp’s league-chasing Reds in the second Merseyside Derby of the season.

The first half had come and gone goalless, as did the entire game. It was a frantic affair but there was little in the way of true action in the first 45. So, early in the second half an Everton fan carrying a child decided to take her chance and ask Liverpool forward Roberto Firmino, who had started the game on the bench, for a photograph.

Now during most derby matches, there’s every chance that the person in Firmino’s position would have politely declined the photo, or indeed that the mother in question would have simply hurled abuse at the Brazilian.

That didn’t happen here though. Instead, being the very nice man that he is, Firmino agreed to the photo, taking the baby in his arms and posing for it while all around him laughed at both the cuteness and the strangeness of the situation.