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Liverpool Echo
Liverpool Echo
Sport
Charlotte Coates

Graeme Souness recreates infamous celebration that nearly sparked riot

Graeme Souness relived an iconic moment after he recreated his infamous flag celebration after returning to former club Galatasaray.

After stepping down from his punditry role with Sky Sports, Souness opted to travel to Turkey for the Istanbul derby between Galatasaray and Fenerbache.

Galatasaray were celebrating their latest Super Lig title and invited the Liverpool legend back to club he managed in 1995-96.

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During that season, Souness nearly sparked a riot when he planted a Galatasaray flag in the middle of the Fenerbahce pitch after a Turkish Cup final between the rivals.

It was seen as a display of revenge to a Fenerbache executive who had mocked the former Scotland international after he had undergone surgery.

Souness told the tale of how the celebration came about: "One of their [Fenerbahce's] vice-presidents had said, 'what are Galatasaray doing signing a cripple?', he was referring to the open-heart surgery I had," Souness recalled.

"So we play them nine months later in the cup final, a two-legged cup final - we won the first game in our stadium 1-0, lose the second game 1-0 after 90 minutes. It goes to extra time, Dean Saunders - a really good player and great striker of the ball, before he's actually made contact with it I am up off my seat knowing he's going to score.

"We win the trophy and after the game, all of our players ran down to one end where our supporters were and that great big flag was handed over. All the players took turns to wave it and then it's my turn, I give it a few waves and then turned to hand it to someone."

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