It wasn’t just Bruce’s legs going wobbly that night
THE 1984 European Cup final in Rome witnessed a classic clash between tonight’s two clubs. Liverpool won on penalties at the end of a 1-1 draw amid the famous Bruce Grobbelaar wiggle. GIDEON BROOKS on how the drama unfolded. ALAN KENNEDY can still remember the deep, clawing feeling of dread as he walked to the penalty spot to take the kick which secured Liverpool’s fourth European Cup in eight years.
He recalled how he had taken a practice penalty in the warmup over two hours earlier which went so badly his team-mates had thought the best policy was to tell him, ‘Don’t worry, it’ll never go to penalties’.
“As I was walking up I was thinking, ‘Am I going to be hero or villain?,’” said Kennedy. “My thoughts were scrambled and when I placed the ball, I could hear in my mind the lads saying, ‘Why has Joe [Fagan] picked him?’ If I could have had something beam me up at that very moment I would have.”
Hours later Liverpool’s players and coaching staff were having dinner with their wives in a villa overlooking the city. And in the middle of the table sat a big silver cup.
Liverpool’s triumph at the Stadio Olimpico that night in May almost 34 years ago was the full stop on an 11-year period spanning the Seventies and Eighties when the club strode across Europe with a swagger that few teams have equalled.
It was a record of sustained dominance matched only by Real Madrid’s six in 11 years between 1956-66, while Liverpool managed to land a couple of UEFA Cups in 1973 and ‘76 as well.
If Bill Shankly had kickstarted a passionate love affair with European competition with the UEFA Cup 11 years earlier, few of those glory nights – Istanbul was still to come – matched the drama in Rome in 1984.
Roma’s players admitted they felt destiny had delivered the perfect final with the chance to win their first European trophy in their home stadium. “In the build-up to the match and in the dressing room before we had repeated to ourselves that it was the opportunity of a lifetime,” said goalkeeper Franco Tancredi.
“A finale at the Stadio Olimpico? When would this happen to us again?”
Emerging into the floodlit night Liverpool were struck by the early hostile atmosphere. “The noise was deafening – unbelievable. You couldn’t even hear yourself speak to the person next to you,” said Grobbelaar.
The early lead went to Liverpool when defender Phil Neal scrambled home after 13 minutes but Roma levelled just before half-time through Roberto Pruzzo.
Both sides had chances in the second half with both keepers making saves but the match ended 1-1 and, after extra time, came the penalty shoot-out. It started off badly for Liverpool with Steve Nicol missing the first after electing to get his kick out of the way early.
When Roma scored theirs to go 1-0 up, Fagan told his Zimbabwean international goalkeeper Grobbelaar to try to put off the opposition. After Neal levelled at 1-1, Grobbelaar started crossing hands on his knees and making faces.
It worked. Bruno Conti put his kick over the bar. Then Graeme Souness scored,
Ubaldo Righetti netted and Ian Rush converted to make it 3-2. As Francesco Graziani stepped up, Grobbelaar went into overdrive.
“I’d never seen before a keeper like Grobbelaar who was acting like a clown,” said Graziani, who nervously made the sign of the cross before he took his kick. “We all try to distract our opponents and he did that better than us.” Grobbelaar said: “I went into the net and pulled it with my teeth. I thought ‘I’m in Rome, the national dish is spaghetti, so I’ll do spaghetti legs’. I went right and the ball clipped the bar.”
Graziani’s miss presented Kennedy with his opportunity.
“The Roma fans were trying to put me off,” he said. “I felt as though the whole world was watching me. I thought if I miss this, I am going to have Souness on my back, Kenny Dalglish on my back, everyone saying, ‘You idiot’. I couldn’t let them down.”
The ball went high to Tancredi’s right as he went left. The Roma keeper described the night as a “wound which will never heal”.
“It is impossible even 34 years on to remember the game without anger, so much anger,” said Tancredi. “Enormous joy then the awful frustration of having lost.”
I couldn’t miss it and let them all down