Manchester City will put sporting rivalry aside to mark the 1958 Munich air disaster, which killed 23 people including eight Manchester United players, with a wreath-laying ceremony on Tuesday.
The players, officials and journalists, among them former City and England goalkeeper Frank Swift who was travelling with the team as a reporter, died on February 6, 1958, when the plane crashed on a cold and snowy day in Munich.
"It's refreshing, we appreciate that from Manchester City," Manchester United coach Alex Ferguson told a news conference on Monday.
"And of course one of their own players was killed in the crash, their former players anyway."
United were travelling back after a game against Red Star Belgrade in Yugoslavia.
A Manchester City delegation, expected to include lifetime chairman Bernard Halford, will lay a wreath at the memorial on Manchesterplatz ahead of City's Champions League Group A match against Bayern Munich later in the day.
"I think it's a good sign that the game is not as bad as sometimes we think, I think there's an element of supporters' contribution in a different way which is not nice," Ferguson said.
"We appreciate what Manchester City are doing if that's the case, well done."
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