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AS Roma v Liverpool

By Ian Rush

AS Roma v Liverpool

"We’d been on a good run to get to the European Cup final in 1984, but Roma lay in wait, and at their stadium, too.

"That didn’t bother us, though. Top Italian teams are notoriously difficult to break down, so we knew what to expect. The fact that I’d scored more than 40 goals that season meant I, like the rest of the team, was confident. We had a fantastic team spirit — even those who weren’t playing got behind the guys who were.

"From the moment we got off the bus, we were relaxed. So relaxed, in fact, that we were stood in the tunnel before kick-off singing Chris Rea’s I Don’t Know What It Is But I Love It. We had no idea of the effect it would have on Roma — we were just doing it for ourselves.

"That said, it had clearly got to them, as from the first whistle they couldn’t string more than a couple of passes together. By contrast, we started terrifically and were pinging it about for fun. It seemed inevitable that we’d score, and on the quarter-hour mark we did.

"A cross came into the box from the right and I went up with their goalkeeper, who fumbled it. When a defender made a mess of the clearance, the ball dropped to Phil Neal, who knocked it in.

"Just before half-time they nicked a goal back, a looping header which sailed into our net. It didn’t change manager Joe Fagan’s team talk at the break, though — the boss was complimentary of how we were playing and told us to keep fighting for each other.

"Roma pushed for a winner in the second half, but we defended well and it went to penalties — a first for a European Cup final. In training Fagan had told us not to practise penalties, as we were useless at them anyway. When Steve Nicol missed our first one, we thought that it was all over.

"But funnily enough, knowing that someone had already missed composed us. Neal and Graeme Souness tucked away the next two with ease.Walking from the halfway line to the penalty spot is the most nerve-racking thing in football, particularly if tens of thousands of people are booing you.

"I noticed that their ’keeper had gone the same way for every penalty, so I put mine the opposite way and, thankfully, scored [pictured].

"Bruce Grobbelaar’s spaghetti legs antics then put Roma’s fourth penalty-taker off his kick — he shot over and we had a chance to win the match. Alan Kennedy did the honours by finding the net and we’d won the cup. Just as importantly, we could start singing again."