This season’s Champions League is already confirmed as the highest-scoring ever in terms of goals per game, and Liverpool are out in front as leading scorers. This might come as a surprise to anyone who remembers the club’s glory days of the 1970s and 80s, when European success was built on a tight defence and a willingness to grind out narrow victories. But though Liverpool’s present penchant for blowing teams away with scintillating waves of attack is relatively new, there have been occasions in the past when illustrious opponents have found their will to win hard to handle. Here are five of them:
May 1965, Liverpool 3-1 InternazionaleThis was the first leg of a European Cup semi-final, three days after Bill Shankly’s Liverpool had won the FA Cup against Leeds United. Naturally the trophy was paraded around the pitch before kick-off, and naturally the roar that greeted it proved unnerving for the Italian side. So much so that Inter were a goal down after four minutes, Roger Hunt putting away an Ian Callaghan cross. Further goals from Callaghan and Ian St John confirmed Liverpool’s superiority on the night, though it was the one they conceded (by Sandro Mazzola) that cost them in the return. Inter won 3-0 in Milan and Liverpool were denied a first European Cup final. Shankly would still recall this game as one of Liverpool’s best ever performances, so it must have had something.
May 1977, Liverpool 3-1 Borussia MönchengladbachBob Paisley described this night in Rome as the greatest in the history of Liverpool Football Club, which at the time it certainly was, for Shankly’s successor had just stepped out of the great man’s shadow by completing the quest for a European Cup. He did it in his own way too, encouraging his players to get forward in attack despite the German side’s reputation for soaking up pressure then striking on the break. Once again playing just days after an FA Cup final, this time a defeat to Manchester United at Wembley that denied them English football’s first treble, Liverpool took the lead through Terry McDermott, faltered for a while following Allan Simonsen’s equaliser, then took the match away from the German team with Tommy Smith’s famous header from Steve Heighway’s corner and a late Phil Neal penalty after the departing Kevin Keegan had been brought down.
December 2004, Liverpool 3-1 OlympiakosThis was only a group stage game, and Olympiakos were perhaps not the most feared of opponents, but on the night Liverpool needed to win by two clear goals to progress to the knockout stages. Going a goal down to Rivaldo after 26 minutes was not the best start, but Florent Sinama-Pongolle and Neil Mellor scored in the second half to set up a memorable conclusion, namely Steven Gerrard lashing home a blistering half-volley from 25 yards with four minutes to spare. Not much can beat the 2005 final for drama, though it hardly counts as one of Liverpool’s most impressive attacking performances. This one does, and without Gerrard’s heroics against Olympiakos there would have been no comeback from three goals down against Milan and no miracle of Istanbul.
April 2016, Liverpool 4-3 Borussia DortmundAs Anfield nights go, this just might be the most incredible of the lot. Liverpool appeared to have done the hard work in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final by gaining a 1-1 draw and an away goal in Dortmund. That illusion was quickly blown away by early goals from Henrikh Mkhitaryan and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang in the second leg. That left Jürgen Klopp’s new team 3-1 down on aggregate to his old one, and needing to score three to go through. Divock Origi pulled one back, but the cause looked lost when Marco Reus scored again for Dortmund after an hour. With the aggregate score now 4-2, Liverpool still needed three goals, and in a breathless last half-hour they got them through Philippe Coutinho, Mamadou Sakho and Dejan Lovren, the last in the closing seconds. The Dortmund coach, Thomas Tuchel, was flabbergasted afterwards. “What happened was not logical,” he said. “I can only think it was the crowd.”
April 2018, Liverpool 3-0 Manchester CityA bit recent, perhaps, and another occasion drawn from the still-short Klopp era, but Liverpool absolutely clobbered Manchester City in the 20-minute period of the first half that brought all three goals. It is obvious now, but may need pointing out in future, that City were on the brink of being crowned English champions, and Pep Guardiola’s side were the one everyone had been hoping to avoid in the draw. Liverpool appeared to have pulled the short straw in an all-English Champions League quarter-final that no one really wanted, though by the interval it was clear that City were a long way from matching the home side’s energy and intensity. Goals from Mo Salah, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Sadio Mané left City with too much to do in the second leg, which in the end they lost to leave Klopp with three victories over Guardiola in a single season. No matter how fresh in the memory, no roll-call of European nights to remember would be complete without this one.
(The Guardian)
