We won the Eurovision song contest then won the European Cup

REDS’ PRE-MATCH SINGALONG SPOOKED ROMA

YOU cannot face a tougher prospect than playing a European Cup final in your opponents’ backyard.

It was the best memory of my career, the most defining moment of my career, to win the European Cup and to win it at Roma’s own ground.

And yet there was a moment even before the game when we knew, our Liverpool team of 1984, that we had the beating of that Roma side.

It was when we all went for a walk around the pitch and Liverpool’s trio of former Middlesbrough players David Hodgson, Craig Johnston and Graeme Souness broke into song.

They sang a song by Chris Rea, one of the most famous people to come from Middlesbrough: “I Don’t Know What It Is But I Love It.” They sang it as loud as they could – and the opposition heard it in their dressing room. They knew how relaxed we were, they knew we weren’t going to be intimidated. The rest is history. Even the Roma manager said afterwards that the moment he knew they’d lose was when he heard us singing that song.

They had tried every trick in the book to disturb us. Back in those days you didn’t train on the opposition pitch the night before a game. You had to find somewhere to train and Roma gave us somewhere in the middle of nowhere that was covered in dog mess. Needless to say, we didn’t bother and just had a walk instead. I remember Joe Fagan, our manager, saying: “Don’t worry lads – that’s how much they are worried about us.”

They tried everything to unsettle us but by kick-off we were ready. When I say ‘we’ I mean the best Liverpool team I played in.

You could always score with Ian Rush and Kenny Dalglish in the team.

Kenny, just coming back from