FEAR THAT DRIVES LIVERPOOL IN THE EUROPEAN CUP
It’s a little known fact that Liverpool, a club with an extraordinary capacity to reach the penultimate stage of European football’s elite competition, have hated semi-finals more than any other round of knockout football down the years.
‘Yes, it’s the one we were most scared of,’ says Roy Evans, a member of the legendary Boot Room for 20 years before becoming manager.
Mark Lawrenson would have rather exited in the first round. ‘At least that meant you were never in the mix, so there’d be no regrets,’ reflects the former defender. Few have come to know more about this staging post of the European Cup. this is Liverpool’s 10th appointment with it and, though Manchester United have totted up 12, five of those came pre-1970, when the pool of first-round teams was half the size.
It could be argued Liverpool are Britain’s top European n Cup side, performing well in the e competition even when n they are not the best team m at home. they have been n way off top spot domestically in four of the last five seasons they have reached d the final. What is it about t them and Europe?
Familiarity with that t semi- final pressure has s helped them over-perform. m. ‘When you’ve been to a semi- final once, you’ve known it and next time e you’ll have it stored away,’ y,’ says Evans. Results prove e his point. Just once since e the semi-final exit to Inter er Milan in 1965 have they y fallen at the second-to-last st fence — against Chelsea in 2008, after extra time.
the Anfield factor has as played a huge part. Perhaps no British stadium creates a more rabid environment under lights for visiting sides. some will tell you the 1977 quarter- final against saint-Etienne — when Liverpool needed two goals in 40 minutes and found them — is the supreme proof of that.
But the European fervour has become even greater in recent years. Many claim the 2007 Chelsea semi-final — one of the three against that team in four years under Rafa Benitez — was the best Anfield night of all.
A less appreciated reason for Liverpool outstripping other British sides in Europe is their pragmatism, especially away from home. the article of faith in the triumphs of Bob Paisley, Joe Fagan and Benitez was game management: doing what was necessary. Just once since that defeat in Milan, 53 years ago, have Liverpool conceded more than one goal in a European Cup semi-final away leg. they have never gone hell for leather on foreign fields.
the reasons are rooted in the club’s early European adventures under Bill shankly, whose sides held nothing back and were punished for it. the 1965 san siro defeat is shrouded in controversy, with a strong suspicion referee Jose Maria Ortiz de Mendibil was bribed. But Liverpool were cut open that night, then again in the 1973 second-round defeat by Red star Belgrade.
Paisley, who took over the following year, was so convinced something more prosaic was required that Liverpool packed their midfield away from home.
‘Kenny Dalglish would drop into midfield,’ says Lawrenson. ‘He’d let Ian Rush forage up front. I’m not sure he had to be told. He just did it and with that brain of his, he could create from back there.’
Cool heads were required. the stand-out semi for Lawrenson is the 3-1 win at Dinamo Bucharest in 1984. Graeme souness had broken Lica Movila’s jaw in two places in the first leg, so it was no bed of roses in Romania. Liverpool did not concede an away goal en route to the final against Roma that year.
there was a gap of 20 years before Benitez restored Liverpool’s presence among Europe’s elite, but he brought common sense, se too. ‘that is the link,’ says sa Lawrenson. ‘ Benitez had h that pragmatism.’ the spaniard s was more strategic, gi though. While Paisley and a Fagan barely discussed the th opposition, Benitez was obsessed o by them.
In the 2007 semi-final, he fi figured he could overcome J Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea w with set-pieces. Knowing Mourinho would be scouting Liverpool for three or f four games beforehand, Benitez ‘hid’ his special setpiece for weeks, saving it for Daniel Agger, who scored from it when the sides met.
In the 2005 quarter-final a against Fabio Capello’s Juv Juventus, Benitez made Xabi Alonso the hub of a 3-5-1-1 system. But the team played the first two minutes in the 4-2-3-1 Capello had been expecting, before morphing to a three-man defence, which appeared to flummox the Italian. the rest is history.
For Evans, the 1-1 draw at Bayern Munich in 1981 after a goalless draw at Anfield surpasses all the other semis. Ray Kennedy struck at a time when Bayern seemed invincible at home. It was one of the very few occasions when Paisley went for man-marking, billeting a young sammy Lee on Paul Breitner.
An encounter between Lee and Breitner afterwards seemed to encapsulate how Liverpool, in their proletarian, no-nonsense way, cut far grander clubs down to size. ‘Well played,’ said the German, who’d just been marked out of the game by the Liverpudlian seven years his junior. ‘thank you, Mr Breitner,’ replied Lee, as he walked past.
there are no signs Jurgen Klopp is about to change his ethos tomorrow. If his side progress to Kiev and lift a sixth European Cup, it will be European success of a kind Liverpool have never known before.