A team of Liverpool fans have arrived in Ukraine ahead of the annual Eurofan International Football Fan-Festival.
This is Anfield FC are made up of a number of players from the This is Anfield internet forum and will take part in the annual pan-European football competition in Lviv for the third year in succession.
The team was originally founded to play a series of friendlies against Everton supporters, but officials from Ukrainian Premier League club FC Karpaty Lviv contacted them via the TIA forum and invited them to compete in the tournament.
Ian Pankhurst, a member of the travelling This is Anfield squad, said: "Going there for the first time was, in every sense, a voyage into the unknown; with crashed cars, dubious border guards and Polish country roads.
"After arriving in Lviv, we played three 70-minute matches in the space of 24 hours, winning our first but losing our second and third games to crash out.
"This feat was repeated in 2010, due to a combination of lacklustre finishing, alehouse fitness and poor goalkeeping.
"Nonetheless, we've strengthened in areas, played a bit more together as a team and are going back for more.
"This year in our group we face fans of Polish team Lechia Gdansk and the national team of Slovenia.
"As both sides are first time entrants in the competition, we've got no idea if they're Europa League or Sunday League contenders. Nonetheless, we intend to batter them!"
This is Anfield have arrived in Lviv after a gruelling 12-hour train journey from Krakow and will spend today acclimatising.
Later, a couple of team members will field questions from journalists in the tournament's press conference.
Their first match takes place on Friday morning against Slovenia, before they take on Lechia Gdansk later in the day.
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