lucky that we have so many to choose from. Since i followed us in 1990 i have had
1. Auxerre, coming from 2 down to win 3-2. A ballsy decision by Souness not to play Dean Saunders given he was our record buy, Mark Walters and Jan Molby were magnificent.
It was a good few years before there was a truly great night again. The next one was probably
2. Barcelona at home in the Uefa cup semi final in 2001. The game started my Dad said he never saw Anfield that noisy, mind you he said it a few times since. A 1-0 win to get us into a Uefa cup final which we won.
3. If group games dont count then the next one is Juventus at home in 2005, i must admit though i dont have fond memories of this game, i was flat out in work, i literally didnt get a minute that season, i was in work and there was a pub across the road, all i wanted was to see 5 minutes of that game but i was that busy the game was over before i got a chance, could only hear on the radio and i actually felt sad when the final whistle went because i never felt part of it. Of course typically as soon as the match ended i wasnt too busy (was in work until midnight). Someone asked me (who wasnt even the boss) what was wrong, when i explained all i wanted was to see 5 minutes she was like
"yeah well then if you wanted it that bad then dont come in, you get paid so shut up, if you wanted to see it go home and dont come in"
Im just thinking "shut up or i will smash your wrinkly old head through the nearest wall but you are such an ugly old bag it will probably improve you"
but...........
took unpaid leave to see
4. European cup semi final against Chelsea, 2005. Amazing, incredible atmosphere, right from the start and a backs against the wall. I watched it at home, i dont know what it is but strangely my mother just never stops belching, it gets annoying as fuck after the 5th time but jesus christ she just keeps doing it. Unbelievably rude and annoying, now my nerves were fucking shredded on the night and i didnt need this and i could even see her out of the corner of my eye looking at me, it was like she was doing it on purpose, she eventually belches like Jay sherman in the Simpsons. I had enough
"JESUS CHRIST DO YOU EVER STOP BELCHING". She has literally belched about 20 times in the space of about 15 minutes, my mam isnt afraid of anyone, least of all me but ill tell you one thing she didnt do it again for the rest of the night.
5. Chelsea in 2007, again another superb night, and into the final again, was a rush to get home from the game as some young kid was run over in dublin so it took about 2 hours to get home when it should have taken half an hour. only in the door in time and i was literally that exhausted from this game it took me a week to get over it between work and what not. I get exhausted just thinking of the game, which probably takes away from it a bit but what a night and performance. Dirk Kuyt was incredible that night.
6. Inter in 2008, Torres rattling Matterazzi so much he got sent off early doors, late doors Gerrard and Kuyt do the business. Think i was stuck in work but im sure i saw some of it, i definitely wasnt as pissed off as i was against Juventus
7 Arsenal same season, that was an absolutely fantastic match, Arsenal flew out of the blocks and could have been 3 up and then out of nowhere Sami Hyypia rattles in a header, what a goal that was. Im gonna have to google it now. Jesus I loved Sami Hyypia. When Arsenal drew level late on i was gutted, then of all people to give away a penalty it was Kolo Toure. I swear it, the last person in the world i wanted to be was Steven Gerrard taking that penalty but he rattled it home. then when Ryan Babel broke away and score it was pandemonium, I used to love when Reina ran the length of the pitch to celebrate.
8. Real Madrid 2009, we absolutely smashed them that night, 4-0, no exaggeration, no word of a lie if it wasnt for Iker Casillas we might have had double figures.
9. We had to wait a while again, but next for me is Dortmund in 2016, Europa league quarter final, that is absolutely one of the best games i have seen in recent years. Klopp hadnt been managing us long and when we went 2 down early i thought "oh well, shows how far we still have to come"
second half we just wouldnt give up, when Origi scored you thought we had a chance, then Marco Reus scored a lovely goal and you thought thats it, no way we can score three. Coutinho scored a lovely goal, i remember texting a mate going "fair fucks to us, we wont give up, this is a great match".
Even when Sakho scored you thought it would be one of them games you go down swinging then Milner floats in a cross, time stood still, i love the anticipation of the crowd for that goal, they just knew, Milner was absolutely magnificent that night, ran himself ragged and Lovren heads home, I love his celebration, id break me leg doing that but jesus christ what a night.
10. I was going to skip the next one but fuck it, Villareal semi final in 2016, it was great to get to another European final, it wasnt as dramatic as the others, we were home and dry late on but what did it for me was the support and the general intimidation Anfield created that night, the Villareal manager that morning said in the media that his side would not be intimidated and the crowd would have no effect. I remember reading that thinking, "you really shouldnt have said that"
sure enough as soon as the match started you could see they shit the bed. An own goal 7 minutes in and i think sturridge and Lallana finished them off, Emre Can ran the show
11. Man City 2018 quarter final. Early in the match they controlled things, then it was like when Ivan Drago gets the shout from the corner against Apollo creed, he has enough of being tied with and just unleashes a furious assault and thats what happened. My son was only 4-5 months old, i was desperate to get him sleeping before the match, he fell asleep about 5 minutes before kick off, it was so hard not to scream the place down in the first half. If it was boxing the fight would have been stopped. We absolute murdered them in the first half, Ox scored a peach, he nearly burst the net. A tremendous performance from front to back
12. I think PSG 2018/9 edges the Roma semi, The Roma semi good yes but we still had an away leg to come. Here we downed the oil barons, Firminos late goal was fully deserved, went nuts for that.
13. Napoli at home, I started my previous seasons ritual of downing a very strong craft beer the night of a champions league game, and it was back in style, keeper could have done better for Salah's goal but full credit to Mo, then the last gasp save from Allison. Magnificent.
14. Barcelona semi final. 2019, i will admit i didnt think we had a chance when Firmino and Salah were out. to be honest i thought it was just about not being humiliated but i had the beer out and as soon as the players walked on the pitch and heard the crowd it galvanised us all around, you just thought when you heard the crowd we have to at least give this a go, you could see the players and crowd were pumped. when 3-0 down i try to break it down to mini games.
Say if you are 3 down at half time, sometimes say to yourself, if we get one in the next 15 minutes then we have a chance, then you have to get 2 in 30 minutes. That isnt impossible but the sooner you get the next one the more time you have to get the decisive third.
Here i thought if we get an early goal it could rattle them and give us a boost, we score early and you think if we get another before half time we only need 2 more in 45 minutes. But again its 1-0 at half time and you need 3 in the second half so you need an early second half goal to make it doable. It isnt even 10 minutes into the second half and its 2-0 and its game on. Now you have over half an hour to make it level on aggregate, it doesnt look so impossible now
Every man out there is a warrior, Gini wijnaldum comes on like a man possessed, Origi runs himself into the ground and you know the rest, what an absolutely amazing amazing night.
honorable mentions and ones that could have been if group games were allowed or we just had a little bit of luck infront of goal, of we just came up short (ooops i included group games already but im fucked if im taking them out)
so the nearly list for various reasons
Genoa in 1992, PSG and Strasbourg in 1997, Roma in 2002, Olympiakos in 2004, Atletico Madrid in 2010, Basel in 2014
I will add that i think we are very lucky and privileged to have so much to choose from
