The Reds have enjoyed some incredible European successes down the years – and at Real Madrid on Wednesday, they'll need the best of the lot
They couldn’t, could they? In fairness, if anyone could it would be Liverpool. The Reds’ history is littered with unexpected and glorious comebacks, with European triumphs in the biggest arenas and on the biggest stages.
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Even allowing for such a rich heritage, however, Jurgen Klopp’s side will need to pull off the greatest and most unlikely escape act of all on Wednesday, if they are to keep their Champions League flickering a little while longer.
Liverpool’s 5-2 defeat to Real Madrid at Anfield in the first leg of their last-16 tie last month leaves them on the brink of elimination as they head to the Spanish capital this week. Santiago Bernabeu, intimidating at the best of times, will be even more so this time around.
In Champions League history, no side has ever lost the home leg of a knock-out tie by three goals and recovered. Only one team – Manchester United in 2019 – has lost by two goals and gone through, and even that was in the era of the away-goal rule.
Liverpool, in short, need to win by three clear goals just to force extra-time, and by four if they want to go through without the tension of a penalty shootout.
For context, only two teams have ever beaten Real by three clear goals in a Champions League game at the Bernabeu, and both were in the same campaign. CSKA Moscow triumphed 3-0 in the 2018-19 group stages, before Erik ten Hag’s Ajax dumped Los Blancos out with a 4-1 win in the last 16.
History, then, is not on Liverpool’s side, although supporters can call upon the memory of a 4-0 win over Real back in 2009. They may also refer back to a few more memorable continental triumphs from down the years.
Here, GOAL ranks their greatest European nights away from Anfield, starting with the greatest of all…
Getty1The Miracle of Istanbul – AC Milan 3-3 Liverpool (Liverpool win 4-2 on penalties), May 25, 2005
The most incredible Champions League final of all came in Istanbul’s Ataturk Stadium in 2005, as Carlo Ancelotti’s all-star Milan side were downed by Rafa Benitez’s rag-tag Reds.
Milan looked to be cruising to glory as they raced into a 3-0 lead by half-time in Turkey, but Liverpool hit back sensationally with three goals in six second-half minutes.
Jerzy Dudek pulled off one of the most remarkable saves in history to deny Andriy Shevchenko in extra-time, and when Shevchenko’s tame penalty was saved in the shootout, Liverpool had their fifth, and most unlikely, European Cup success.
AdvertisementGetty2Roman Gods – Roma 1-1 Liverpool (Liverpool win 4-2 on penalties), May 30, 1984
Victory in the lion’s den, and then some. Liverpool’s triumph in the 1984 European Cup final goes down, much like Chelsea’s in Munich in 2012, as one of the great performances by an English side in Europe.
Roma, playing in their own stadium and with 90 percent of the support as a result, were overwhelming favourites, but Phil Neal silenced the home fans with a first-half goal, and though Roberto Pruzzo equalised, Joe Fagan’s side played with composure and aggression to see the game to penalties.
In the shootout, Bruce Grobbelaar’s ‘spaghetti legs’ and Alan Kennedy’s nerveless kick proved decisive, as Liverpool left the Italian capital with the best piece of silverware in town.
Getty3Barca bulldozed – Barcelona 1-2 Liverpool, 21 February, 2007
Anfield’s greatest-ever night featured a win over Barcelona in the Champions League, but 12 years before that triumph came this, a stunning humbling of Lionel Messi, Xavi, Ronaldinho and Co. in their own backyard.
The build-up to this last-16 first leg tie had been dominated by a ‘training camp’ in Portugal which had ended with Liverpool striker Craig Bellamy attacking left-back John Arne Riise with a golf club.
It was perhaps inevitable, then, that both Bellamy and Riise would be on target as Rafa Benitez’s side picked up a victory that would prove enough despite a 1-0 defeat in the reverse leg. Liverpool made it all the way to the final that year, losing to Milan in Athens.
Getty4Silencing the Bernabeu – Real Madrid 0-1 Liverpool, 25 February, 2009
Real Madrid may have Liverpool’s number at the moment, winning five of the last six meetings between the sides, but it wasn’t always that way.
Indeed, as recently as 2009, it was the Reds who could be considered to have the wood over their Spanish rivals.
Never was that more apparent than in a rousing 5-0 aggregate win over Real in the last-16 of the Champions League. The 4-0 trouncing at Anfield grabbed the headlines, but the real damage (no pun intended) was done with a 1-0 first-leg victory at the Bernabeu, in which Yossi Benayoun headed a late winner.