CHAMPIONS LEAGUE FINAL
IT’S PROBABLY the least fondly remembered of all Liverpool’s European triumphs, but Paris in 1981 at least cemented a place in the club’s folklore for ‘Barney Rubble’ – aka Alan Kennedy.
The victory over Borussia Monchengladbach in ’77 was memorable because it was their first.
A year later the 1-0 win over Bruges in a turgid final was at least on home soil at Wembley.
Everyone remembers the drama of the 1984 shoot-out in Rome – Bruce Grobbelaar’s ‘spaghetti legs’ and Kennedy’s winning spot-kick.
And 21 years later came the miracle of Istanbul when Liverpool came back from 3-0 down to beat AC Milan.
But there isn’t much else to commend the ’81 triumph played on an uneven pitch against a Real team who were nowhere near the level of today’s side – and were in their first European Cup final since 1966.
Liverpool midfielder Terry McDermott gives a scathing assessment: “It was a rubbish game.”
And Vicente Del Bosque, who was in the Real side that night and went on to manage them, agreed.
“In our day the expectations around Real had more to do with the name than the team we had.
“Financially, Madrid was weak. The only big investment was for Laurie Cunningham who cost about £1 million. The current team is very, very strong compared to us. But it was still a huge disappointment because of the way we lost it. We had not been overwhelmed by Liverpool and we thought the game was heading to extra-time.”
That all changed when eight minutes from time left-back Kennedy went on one of his trademark forays that earned him the nickname of the fearless sidekick to Fred Flintstone in the famous cartoon series. “I wasn’t thinking about scoring,” he said. “I was thinking that if I could make a run here it might create a bit of space for Souness, McDermott or Dalglish.
“But Dalglish had come to the byline so I ran into the space that had been left open for me.
“After taking Razor’s [his namesake Ray Kennedy’s] throw on my chest I remember the centre-half tried to (Pruzzo 42) Liverpool won 4-2 on pens
LIVERPOOL
(4-4-2): Clemence; Neal, Thompson, Hansen, A Kennedy; Lee, McDermott, Souness, R Kennedy; Dalglish (Case 85), Johnson. Substitutes: Ogrizovic, Irwin, Money, Gayle. Manager: Bob Paisley.
REAL MADRID
(4-3-3): Agustin; Cortes (Pineda 87), Navajas, Sabido, Camacho; Del Bosque, Angel, Stielike; Juanito, Santillana, Cunningham. Substitutes: Gonzalez, San Jose, Isidro, Hernandez. Manager: Vujadin Boskov. 48,360. Karoly Palotai (Hungary).