How Liverpool Got To Keep The Cup

by Shane Murphy

(first published in the July 2011 Liverpool friendly match programme)

Tonight, one of the biggest clubs in world football visits the RSC for what promises to be a memorable occasion. Liverpool are one of only five clubs (along with 9 time winners Real Madrid, 6 time champions AC Milan and three-in-a-row winners Ajax and Bayern Munich) to be permanent holders of the European Cup having been awarded the trophy for winning the competition five times. The Reds surged to the forefront of European football by winning the famous trophy four times in the space of eight years before a 21 year gap to their most recent and most dramatic triumph.

Liverpool’s first European Cup-winning campaign began with a 7-0 aggregate win over Crusaders of Northern Ireland followed by a 4-0 aggregate defeat of Turkish champions Trabzonspor in 1976. The quarter final saw Bob Paisley’s men pitted against St Etienne in an epic contest which produced the first of Liverpool’s legendary European comebacks. St Etienne were the dominant force in French football, full of internationals and famed for their stylish play. Their 1-0 advantage from the first leg was cancelled out by Kevin Keegan’s lob inside a minute at Anfield. Early in the second half, Bathenay beat Ray Clemence with a thirty yard drive to reclaim the upper hand for the French. Ray Kennedy put the Reds back ahead, but they still needed one more because of the away goals rule. With just six minutes left ‘Supersub’ David Fairclough latched onto Kennedy’s long pass, waltzed past two defenders and struck into the Kop end goal to seal the win on a breathtaking night. FC Zurich proved to be less difficult opposition in the semi-final and were dismissed 6-1 over two legs. By the time the final came round, Liverpool had been crowned champions, but had lost the FA Cup final to Manchester United. Their opponents in Rome were Borussia Monchengladbach, featuring Berti Vogts, Denmark’s Allan Simonsen, top scorer Jupp Heynckes and young star Uli Stielike. The Germans almost took the lead when Rainer Bonhof’s shot smashed off the post, but it was the Merseysiders who went ahead in the 28th minute when Terry McDermott finished brilliantly from Steve Heighway’s pass. Simonsen equalised six minutes into the second half and Clemence had to make a superb save with his knees to deny Stielike. Tommy Smith, making his 600th appearance for the club, regained the lead with towering header from a Heighway corner and with eight minutes remaining, Phil Neal made it 3-1 from the penalty spot after Vogts fouled Keegan. Captain Emlyn Hughes lifted the European Cup for the first of two times.

That summer, Keegan left for Hamburg and was replaced with Kenny Dalglish for a club record £440,000. The Scot made an instant impact scoring in five of his first six league games and was joined by compatriots Alan Hansen and, later that season, Graeme Souness. Dinamo Dresden were the first obstacle to retaining the European Cup, but were comfortably despatched 6-3 on aggregate. Next up were Benfica who went into the tie on a 46 match unbeaten run and took an early lead in Lisbon. Goals from Jimmy Case and Hughes overturned the deficit on the night and a 4-1 victory at Anfield eased the Reds into the semi-finals. There they faced Monchengladbach again. A last minute goal helped the revenge-seeking Germans to a 2-1 first leg advantage, but the return game was one-way traffic with Liverpool winning 3-0. FC Bruges awaited in the final at Wembley. The Belgians were no pushovers having dumped Atletico Madrid and Juventus out en route, but they played extremely defensively in London. It was the new King of the Kop, Dalglish, who finally unlocked the Bruges defence in the 66th minute. Souness played an exquisite throughball to his countryman at the edge of the penalty area. Dalglish was at a difficult angle, but stayed ice-cool, paused until goalkeeper Birger Jensen committed himself and then chipped him from close range. Bruges could only manage one good chance in the remainder of the game, but Sorensen’s shot was half-blocked by Clemence and Phil Thompson completed the clearance off the line. 1-0 was enough for Liverpool to retain the trophy which Hughes held aloft again.

Brian Clough’s Nottingham Forest continued England’s domination of the Eurpean Cup for the next two seasons, but in 1980/81 it was Liverpool’s turn again. The campaign started badly with a surprise 1-1 draw away to Oulu Palloseura of Finland, but was back on track with a 10-1 second leg victory which included hat-tricks for Souness and McDermott. Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen were brushed aside in the second round 5-0 on aggregate and CSKA Sofia (who had ended Forest’s quest for three-in-a-row) were beaten 5-1 at Anfield (with another Souness hat-trick from midfield) and 1-0 in Bulgaria. A very strong Bayern Munich team were favourites to progress from the semi-final after securing a 0-0 draw on Merseyside. However, Ray Kennedy scored a crucial away goal with seven minutes left in Germany and even though Karl-Heinz Rummenigge levelled, Liverpool held out for an away goals win. The final against Real Madrid in Paris was expected to be a cracker, but like so many finals of the time, it turned out to be a scrappy, cagey affair. The Spanish champions had bought Stielike from Monchengladbach and also featured England’s Laurie Cunningham and future Spain managers Vicente del Bosque and Jose Antonio Camacho. The decisive moment came in the last ten minutes when Alan Kennedy chested down a throw-in and charged towards the left-hand side of the box. David Johnson was inside, but the left back bulldozed on and unleashed a vicious shot to the net from the tightest of angles. Having run from his own half, Kennedy just kept on running – past the goal, past the photographers, over the advertising hoardings and down to the Liverpool fans. Skipper Phil Thompson did the honours with the trophy and Bob Paisley became the only manager to win the European Cup three times – a distinction he holds to this day.

The 1983/84 season was remarkably successful for Liverpool. Joe Fagan’s debut season as manager saw the Reds win the League title for the third year running as well as the Milk Cup and the club’s fourth European Cup. They didn’t concede a single goal in the early rounds with Odense beaten 1-0 and 5-0 while Athletic Bilbao managed a 0-0 draw at Anfield, but fell to an Ian Rush header in the Basque country. Benfica were beaten 1-0 in England, but were still confident in front of 70,000 fans at Estadio da Luz. Their hopes were dashed as Liverpool cruised to a 4-1 away win. Dinamo Bucharest lost 1-0 at Anfield in the first leg of the semi-final and a Graeme Souness-inspired Liverpool overcame the kicks, trips and elbows in Romania to win 2-1 thanks to two goals from Rush (who won the European Golden Boot that season). The final could not have been more intimidating as Fagan’s team faced AS Roma in their home ground, the Stadio Olimpico. The wonderful Brazilians Falcao and Cerezo were expected to reign at midfield, but it was the ‘visitors’ who struck first when a clearance cannoned off Rush into Phil Neal’s path and he gave the Reds a 15th minute lead from six yards. Shortly before half-time, Roberto Pruzzo headed an equaliser and the score remained 1-1 after extra time. Substitute Steve Nicol insisted on the responsibility of taking the first penalty which he proceeded to sky over the bar. Di Bartolomei put the Italians ahead, but Souness levelled it before Bruno Conti hit his kick high and wide. Neal, Righetti and Rush all scored giving Liverpool a 3-2 advantage and then it was the turn of Bruce Grobelaar to make headlines across the world. The Zimbabwean goalkeeper’s “spaghetti legs” routine added to the nerves of Francesco Graziani and his penalty clipped the crossbar on the way over. That left Alan Kennedy with the chance to score the winner in a European Cup final for the second time which he did with aplomb – sending Tancredi the wrong way. Graeme Souness raised the cup to finish an incredible first season for Joe Fagan.

A gap of over twenty years followed before Liverpool won their fifth and most exciting and unforeseeable European Cup. Under recently-appointed manager Rafa Benitez, the Reds entered the re-named Champions League in the Third Qualifying round. A 2-0 away win at Grazer AK preceded a shock 1-0 home loss to the Austrians. Their reward was a tricky group stage against AS Monaco, Olympiakos and Deportivo la Coruna (conquerors of Shelbourne in the Third Qualifying round). Defeats at Monaco and Olympiakos and a home draw with Depor left Benitez’s side in need of a two goal win at home to the Greeks. Rivaldo put the visitors in front with a trademark free kick, but goals from Florent Sinama Pongolle (47) and Neil Mellor (81) kept the home team’s hopes alive. The dramatic finale saw Mellor’s knockdown blasted into the net from twenty yards by Steven Gerrard. “What a hit!”. Bayer Leverkusen, with Voronin and Berbatov in attack, were drawn to face the men from Anfield in the last sixteen. A surprisingly easy 6-2 aggregate win meant that Liverpool progressed to the quarter final where they had a much tougher hurdle against Fabio Capello’s Juventus. To many people’s amazement, the Reds (struggling on the domestic scene) raced into a 2-0 lead after 20 minutes thanks to goals from Sami Hyypia and Luis Garcia. A Scott Carson error left the tie in the balance at 2-1 after the first leg, but the English side competed bravely in Turin to force a 0-0 draw against the likes of Nedved, Buffon, Cannavaro and Ibrahimovich. The semi-final was an all-Premiership affair with Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea who were steamrolling their way to the league title. An incredibly tight and tense tie produced only one goal – Garcia’s in the secong leg at Anfield. The “phantom goal” occurred in the opening minutes when Cech hauled down Milan Baros and Garcia nudged the ball goalwards. Controversy raged over whether the ball had actually crossed the line and whether the Reds would have been better off with Chelsea down to ten men and facing a penalty, but the goal was awarded. Heroic defending from Jamie Carragher in particular saw them through to the final whistle at a deafening Anfield.

If the road to Istanbul was something of a rollercoaster, it was nothing compared to the final itself. AC Milan were ahead within a minute from Maldini and a brace from Hernan Crespo seemed to have given them an unassailable half time lead. Cue “six minutes of madness” as Gerrard’s header (54), Vladimir Smicer’s long-range shot (56) and Xabi Alonso’s rebound from his saved penalty (60) brought Liverpool back on terms. Carragher led his defence through renewed Milan pressure in extra time and a couple of Jerzy Dudek saves helped Benitez’s side through to a penalty shoot-out. The Polish keeper copied Grobbelaar’s antics from ’84 to distract Serginho whose spotkick sailed over the crossbar. Despite enduring a broken toe, Dietmar Hamann smashed home his penalty. Dudek saved from Pirlo and Djibril Cisse gave Liverpool a 2-0 lead. Tomasson scored for Milan and Dida saved from John Arne Riise to bring Milan back into contention. Kaka netted, but so did Smicer meaning Andrei Shevchenko had to score. The Ukrainian, at the time one of the top strikers in the world, had his shot saved by Dudek’s left hand and Koppites celebrated an astonishing fifth European Cup win as Steven Gerrard reclaimed the trophy for Liverpool permanently.