No. 9 – Our Third European Cup in Paris
Liverpool 1 – 0 Real Madrid
Date : 27.05.1981
Venue : Parc des Princes
Spectators : 48,360
We continue our countdown with TIA Forum Member LetsBuyTotti recalling the night Liverpool clinched their third European Cup, courtesy of an Alan Kennedy winner against Real Madrid in Paris. Following two barren years, Liverpool had a great season in Europe during 1980/81 with wins over Oulun Palloseura, Aberdeen, CSKA Sofia and Bayern Munich. Liverpool were through to another European Final, Paris was the host city for the titanic clash between the original ‘Kings of Europe’….
“Unless you’ve been living in a cave during 2009 you will all recall our glorious triumph over Real Madrid in this years Champions League. What you may not have all been around for was the last time we squared up competitively to the Spanish giants in Europe competition and that was during the 1981 European Cup Final in Paris held at the Parc des Princes.
On this occasion, Liverpool held off the Spanish armada in a tense one-nil victory to bring old big ears home to Anfield for the third time and claw the trophy back from Nottingham Forest who had [somehow] managed to win it for the preceding two seasons. Still under the stewardship of Bob Paisley; Phil Thompson captained that night in a team full of immortal Liverpool legends which included Ray Clemence, Phil Neal, Alan Hansen, Sammy Lee, Graham Souness, Terry McDermott and Jimmy Case.
Alan Kennedy – not even certain of a place in the team until match day due to an injury picked up earlier in the campaign – scored an 82nd minute winner and was referred to as ‘the unlikely man’ in what has now become a famous piece of punditry.
After a couple of shots from Alan; his efforts were ultimately rewarded with an iconic goal sparked from a Ray Kennedy throw in on the left side which Alan chested down and charged forward with. He avoided a huge lunge from Cortez, ignored a pass to team mate David Johnson in the box and instead shot past a left diving goalkeeper into the near post. In Alans words “the ball flew in and I set off on a run to celebrate, I can picture the fans who were behind a big fence and had that not been there – I would have been in with them.”
All in all, 1981 was yet another stunning season for the rampant reds as we dovetailed our 3rd European Cup under Paisley with the first of four back to back League Cup titles. And not a bad year for Kennedy either..
Liverpools Team : Ray Clemence, Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Phil Thompson, Ray Kennedy, Alan Hansen, Kenny Dalglish, Sammy Lee, David Johnson, Terry McDermott, Graeme Souness
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