I’m going to start the report on this final by rewinding back 12 months to last year’s one. Specifically, the aftermath of it and Jurgen Klopp’s reaction to it.
While the rest of us were still in a daze, trying to process the mad shit that happened and attempting to deal with the disappointment of it all, Klopp was on the ale with his mates, grinning and singing about how “we swear we’ll keep on being cool, and bring it back to Liverpool”. And he actually did it. He fucking did it.
Not only that, he did it while also registering the highest points tally in club history. We’ve just witnessed the most impressive season in the entire history of the club. It might not have produced as many trophies as some of the memorable campaigns of the past did, but 97 points in the league and a European Cup in the trophy cabinet is a monumental accomplishment. It can’t be over-stated what Klopp and his team have done this year, especially in light of how last season ended.
My memory is terrible these days but I remember how I felt a year ago as though it was yesterday. Initially it was anger and disappointment. The anger never really went away (fuck you, Ramos, you’re still a shithouse) but the disappointment was replaced by defiance and confidence within a day or two.
On the Monday after the final I wrote something for ‘This is Anfield’ about how I wished the new season was starting there and then because I was sure we were going to make everyone pay for what happened in Kiev.
I’ve just had a look back to see exactly what I wrote and here are a few snippets from it:
“The loss to Madrid isn’t the end of the journey, it’s just a speed bump on the road to glory. We have a young and incredibly exciting team with the best manager we could possibly ever hope for. This defeat won’t break them and it won’t break us. It will be the fuel that fires us through next season.
"I’m over it, and far more quickly than I ever imagined. I just wish the season was starting again this weekend because I’m raring to go again already. We were the best team in the Champions League this year and we’ll be even better next year. We aren’t going away this time; we’re going to come back stronger, better and hungrier than before. You only had to look at that video of Klopp singing with his mates at 6am after the final to know that. He’s not worried, he’s excited and confident. We should be too.
"We’ll be really good next season no matter what, but depending on what we do in the transfer market we might actually be sensational. I expect mayhem from us next season. The disappointment of Kyiv should fuel the players and the new signings will hopefully bring a bit of nasty with them. Add a bit of devil to what we have and…well, look out.
"The final is in Madrid next season, at Wanda Metropolitano, the home of Atletico. It’s a pity it isn’t at the Bernabeu because what better way of exacting revenge on Ramos & Co. than by taking their title off them in their own stadium? Beating them in their own city will have to do.”
It's funny looking back at that, and uncanny how it played out almost exactly the way I predicted. We didn’t get to beat Real in their own city but that’s because they just turned to shit when they sold Ronaldo. We had to make do with smashing Barca instead, but Zidane, Ramos & co should be glad that Ajax humiliated them as it saved them from getting it even worse from our lads.
The point I’m labouring to make here is that Klopp is remarkable. He's the reason I was so full of bravado after we lost to Madrid. He just inspires belief. If he had me thinking like that, imagine the impact he will have had on the players he mixes with every day. Actually we don't need to imagine, because we seen it.
There just aren’t words to do justice to what this man has done, and how he’s done it. There’s nobody like him. Nobody. He's completely unique. That night a year ago just sums up why he’s so great. He’d just lost his sixth final, he knew he’d never hear the end of it because prior to that all he’d been hearing was how he’d lost his last five. But none of it fazes him at all. He doesn’t get disappointed, he just picks himself and starts throwing punches again.
No wonder he loves the Rocky films so much. He lives his life by the code of the Italian Stallion.
“You, me, or nobody is gonna hit as hard as life. But it ain't about how hard ya hit. It's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done!”
You just can’t keep Klopp down. He just takes the punishment, smiles and comes back for more, determined to go one better.
So I go back to that night when Klopp and his mates are singing, with beers in their hands, and then I fast forward to yesterday. Klopp once again singing, with a beer in his hand, only this time he’s hanging off the back of a big red bus doing a parade around the city in front of 750,000 fans. And he’s got ol’ Big Ears on the bus with him.
How he got there is a tale full of ups and downs. We could have been knocked out in the group stages but survived. We won away at Bayern. Beat Porto comfortably. Lost 3-0 in the Nou Camp but still won the tie. And then there was this, a final against a team we know so well. Maybe that familiarity partially explains why it was such an abysmal game? In some respects though, this being a dull, relatively uneventful game shows just how far we’ve come. No drama, just a clean sheet and a win. You don't need to play well in finals, you just need to win them.
I’d say there are a few reasons for how poor the game was though. The three week break definitely played a part as neither team had any sharpness at all. The heat didn’t help either, as both ourselves and Spurs like to play at a high tempo with lots of energy but that wasn’t really possible, especially with so many tired legs after such a long season.
The tension of the occasion comes into it too, and I’d also say that us scoring so early played a big part in the flow of the game. That’s why I pay no attention to the talk from some pundits about Spurs being the better side. They weren’t, they were equally as poor as we were, it’s just that we had a lead for virtually the entire game so the onus was more on Spurs to make the play.
As poor as our performance was with the ball, without it we were outstanding. Alisson barely touched the ball until the last 15 minutes when Spurs really had to try and push for a goal. Up until then we never let them near our goal. So while it’s fair to point out that a number of players looked well below par (Bobby was understandably well off the pace), it shouldn’t be overlooked that defensively they did exactly what was required.
The midfielders were especially quiet I thought, but their work in filling spaces and making it difficult for Spurs was top class. The forwards weren’t at it either, but again, defensively they kept their discipline and it was a great team effort to keep the clean sheet.
That’s the difference now. In Klopp’s first few years we were capable of great things but to pull it off we needed to play well and often it took a Herculean effort to get a result. That has completely changed now because we are just so hard to score against. We don’t need to play well because more often than not we’ll keep a clean sheet, and if you do that then winning games is obviously so much easier.
The team is just so much more mature this year. Not so long ago, us scoring in the first minute would have probably led to a wild game that could easily have ended up 4-3 or worse. We would have just carried on trying to force it and score more goals, because that’s just what we did. What we had to do almost, because sitting back would only end in tears. Sometimes it would work and we’d win easily, other times it led to a basketball type game.
That doesn’t happen anymore because we have the ability to just shut the game down if we’re not really on our game. If the goals aren’t flowing, no problem we’ll just make sure we don’t concede any. Virgil was just in cruise control for most of the game. He barely had to break sweat but the one time he needed to he was there to just step on the gas and take the ball off Son as he ran into the box.
Robbo and Trent were excellent defensively and both managed to go close with shots from distance. If Robbo’s piledriver had gone in I honestly think that would have been my favourite goal of all time. The other member of the back four, ol’ Big Bird Joel, was once again just quietly efficient and did everything asked of him with no fuss. He even had an assist on the Origi goal.
Ah yes, the Origi goal. As soon as he came on I said to the lads he’d score, partly because I’d had a few and was caught up in the moment, and partly because it’s just been that kind of season for him, so it almost felt inevitable. The unlikeliest of heroes was about to become an even bigger club legend, and it wasn’t even a surprise. After what he did against Barca it was written in the stars that he’d come on and score in this one. And it was a great finish. Good first touch, clean strike, right in the bottom corner. Left foot too.
He might never do anything of any real significance for us again but it doesn’t matter now. In 50 years time Reds will still be talking in hushed tones about the night Big Divock demolished Barca, or when he came off the bench and clinched number six. And then they’ll follow it up by laughing uncontrollably about the time he won a derby six minutes into stoppage time and caused Klopp to invade the pitch.
Any one of those moments would have guaranteed him a special place in Anfield history, but he’s had three of them in one season even though he’s hardly even played. It’s right up there with Alan Kennedy somehow being the man to score the winning goal in two European Cup Finals. This club though, it creates legends in the most unlikely of places.
It’s easy to say now after the event, but really the game was over as soon as we scored that penalty in the first minute. I haven’t seen anyone from Spurs complain too much about it but Glenn Hoddle had the right hump and threw a strop when none of the other pundits agreed with his view that it wasn’t a pen.
In fairness, I do sort of see his point, a little bit anyway. The ball hit Sissoko’s chest and then deflected onto his arm and then his hand. There was nothing deliberate about it, but why was his arm pointing outwards like that? It was stupid and unnecessary. I don’t like it when players put their arms behind their backs as I feel that’s overkill, but the reason they do it is because it eliminates the risk of a penalty. If the arm is in a natural position it’s not supposed to be a pen anyway, but I can understand why some have decided to remove that possibility altogether.
What I can’t understand is anyone doing what Sissoko did. It looked as though he was pointing to tell a team-mate where there was danger coming, such a potential overlap from Robbo or someone running off the back of him, but when you watch it back there’s no-one near him so it’s just weird that he put his arm up like that. It’s a soft and needless pen to give away and I can see why you’d be upset as a Spurs fan.
But the ref gave it. VAR agreed. The ex ref in the studio also agreed. Most pundits did too. Put it this way, if it hadn’t have been given then that would have been far more contentious.
With no Milner on the field it was left to Mo to step up. I don’t usually fancy him on pens at all and I wasn’t exactly confident about this one, even though there was the obvious ‘redemption’ storyline waiting to be written. I strongly suspected he’d blast it up the middle and it was even more obvious by his run up that he was just going for power.
Lloris should have just stood where he was, but keepers seem to hate doing that and thankfully he dived out of the way of it. I still think he should have saved it though as all he needed to do was raise his arm. No matter, it went in and that’s all that matters. The perfect start and already it felt like this year it was going to go our way.
One of the big things for me in the build up was a feeling that it was our time, mainly because of the near misses and heartbreaks we’ve had in recent years. Spurs haven't had that, and my belief is that you don’t just turn up off the street and win a European Cup, you have to earn the right. That’s just how it works. You have to pay your dues. I feel really strongly about this as history backs it up.
We were on the receiving end of it last year. What happened to us wasn’t fair. It was bitterly cruel in fact. Not so much that we lost, but how we lost. That was unnecessarily sadistic, but the truth is we were the ‘upstarts’ and Madrid had won it three out of the previous four years or something. They’d been there and done it and knew how to win. Yes, they had a lot of fortune, but that’s part of it really. The experienced team, the favourite, usually gets the luck.
I look back now and think it just wasn’t our turn. We hadn’t served our apprenticeship (although we had been in the Europa Final two year earlier so it’s not like we came from nowhere). Last year was almost a right of passage for us though if you like. I didn’t feel that way at the time but it’s something I’d been thinking about a lot in the build up to this game, especially because we were playing Spurs who had never been near a final in decades and had been massively spawny to get as far as they had.
I’d have felt majorly aggrieved if Spurs had won this because it would have felt like they’d jumped the queue, and there’s nothing more infuriating than queue jumpers. Those of us who were waiting to get in the Echo Arena beforehand can attest to that.
I'll explain. We’d been queuing up a while and had eventually gotten close to the entrance, when all of a sudden a few hundred selfish pricks just ran up from the back of the queue on the outside into the space at the side of the line and pushed their way to the front.
One of our lads (you know him on the forum as @Paul ) started shouting “Fucking Thatcherites!!” and “Selfish Tory wankers” at them. Most of them at least had the good grace to sheepishly just look straight ahead and avoid eye contact with those of us they’d screwed over with their selfishness and lack of respect for others, but one lad made the mistake of trying to justify his cuntery, so words were exchanged between him and a couple from our party.
I initially held my tongue until I heard him say that he had been queuing up but it was “moving too slow” and he “got fed up waiting”. That set me off and it was all starting to get a bit heated, especially when his smirking gobshite mate kept blowing his ciggie smoke our way and I got into it with him too. Tempers were getting frayed but the queue then began moving and we were quickly shepherded into a different gate when the stewards apparently realised what had happened with the queue jumpers.
I vowed to Paul though that if we lost I was going to find that lad and batter him. Bear in mind I haven’t had a fight since I was in school (and I didn’t win that), but as Anthony Joshua found out later that night, us big boned lads can pack a whallop, so I'd say the queue jumper should be as happy as anybody that we won.
I don’t really know where I was going with all of that.... oh right, yeah, so Spurs would have been jumping the queue. That was the point, and I really do feel there’s something to all that. What happened last year increased our chances of winning it this year, for both logical and illogical reasons.
There wasn’t really anything between the two sides as neither played well but we had the experience of last year and we’d earned our stripes. It was our time. I honestly don’t think anyone would have beaten us in the final this year as we were just ready to be European Champions. Last year maybe we weren’t.
We were a really good team with flaws that were eventually exposed on the biggest stage. Those flaws? The goalkeeper and a lack of cover for the front three. What happened in this final? Alisson was arguably man of the match and Origi came off the bench and scored. Like I say, we were ready to win it this time.
Of course I wouldn’t allow myself to say that before the game. I was ultra confident last year and it backfired on me. This time I made no predictions, didn’t run my mouth off, and braced myself in case something went wrong. Inside though, I was confident without being cocky about it.
My logic was twofold. First, there was the ‘it’s our time’ thing I’ve just outlined, and secondly I felt that the players had it in hand. I trusted them because they’d earned it. There was a confidence and steely resolve about them in interviews and they seemed completely relaxed about the whole thing. They passed every test put in front of them this season so there was no reason to think they didn’t have this in hand.
Anything can happen though and the fear of ending up empty handed despite all the heroic efforts of this season still loomed large in the background. I doubt the players allowed that to bother them, but as fans how can you not be worried about it? What made it worse was that we were facing another English club. That just kills the buzz for me. The fear of losing is just too great and makes it so much less enjoyable. If we’d been playing Ajax or even Madrid again, it wouldn’t have been anywhere near as stressful because if we had lost we’d ‘only’ have had to deal with losing.
You lose to another English club though and not only do you have to deal with losing, you also have to deal with them winning and then lording it over you for years. The risk / reward ratio is just totally different between facing a European side or going up against a team from your own league.
Losing to Spurs would have been horrible, and yet for me there was no extra satisfaction in beating them. I took no added pleasure in the fact it was Spurs that we beat. None at all. I’m just delighted we won, nothing else. If we’d beaten City or United (or Chelsea too I suppose) it would have been the double whammy as it would have been extremely satisfying to stick it up them, but the only thing I feel towards Spurs is sympathy.
Honestly. There’s no punchline coming, This isn’t a set up for a gag. I feel for them. Not for Harry Kane, obviously. Fuck him, I’m happy to see him suffering, the egotistical slobbering goon (I was made up he started instead of Lucas Moura). The rest though; players, fans, manager (especially the manager, he’s alright him), I genuinely have sympathy for them. We’ve been there and we know how it feels. It’s not nice.
The other thing is that for years Spurs fans and players have had to live with that “bottler” narrative. Hell, I’ve joked about it often enough too, but we’ve been on the receiving end of that ourselves recently so I’ve got some empathy with Spurs on this. They’re going to be ridiculed for losing a final, much like we were ridiculed a year ago and for ‘losing’ the league despite ending up with 97 points.
Spurs did something that most English clubs can’t even dream about doing, yet they’ll probably have fans from never-achieving clubs like Newcastle, Wolves and West Ham mocking them.
Tottenham should be proud. They did something they’d never done before. Something that only half a dozen or so other English teams have ever done. So what if they got beat. Their fans have been to a European Cup final, which is something they could never say before.
There is no shame in this defeat. They were playing a team with more experience, better players and who had finished 20 odd points ahead of them.
They couldn’t pull off the upset, but they beat Man City on the way to the final so fuck anyone who thinks they can laugh at Spurs. The only ones who can laugh at Spurs are us, and I’ve yet to see any Red wanting to do that.
By all accounts the two sets of fans got on great over there and I’ve seen lots of comments from Spurs fans talking about how respectfully they were treated by our fans afterwards. There was no gloating, no piss taking, just sympathy and respect. So much for us being ‘unbearable’ when we win something, eh?
Tell you what though, I hope next season we ARE as unbearable as can be. I hope that every game next season we rub everyone’s noses in our success. Every game except when we play Spurs that is. It would be fucking boss if we didn’t sing about ‘number six’ when we play them, but ram it down the throats of everyone else. Especially smalltime gobshites like Wolves and Newcastle, as well as the obvious ones like the two Manc clubs and the Blues.
After all the bollocks we had to endure from all of these dickheads from up and down the country chanting about Gerrard’s slip, and all the fucking nonsense this year when we were going for the title, there’s an awful lot of gloating to be done and scores to be settled.
I hope we get Wolves first game of the season actually. although I’m just rambling now. I don’t know what direction to take this report now as my head is still all over the place. So many random thoughts are just popping in and out of my head and I’m just trying to type them up as they come to me.
The game being so shit doesn’t really help with the flow of this either as there’s just hardly anything to say. Spurs barely laid a glove on us until they belatedly brought on Moura and then started to throw men forward late on. They had a fair few shots and some of them brought good saves from Alisson, but the weird thing is I never felt that worried that they’d score. Alisson was just giving off the kind of vibe that he wasn’t going to beaten by anything.
Spurs have scored a lot of late goals this season though so that was always looming, but Big Div put paid to that when he added the second. The scenes in the Echo Arena when that went in were manic. Way more wild than when the first went in because we knew that this was it. Game over. Number six in the bag and a big fuck off to all the pricks who’ve given us so much shit, especially this season.
There’s lots I could say about the aftermath and the parade the next day, but I’d be here all night. The one thing I can’t not mention though is the emotional scenes involving Hendo on the pitch afterwards. I love that lad and I’ve been saying for months that I want us to win something as much for him as I want it for myself and all of us. He’s had so much shit thrown his way over the years, some of it fair most of it not, and he’s constantly had to battle to prove himself.
Even now, after this, there’ll still be people waiting to write him off or question his captaincy credentials as soon as he has a bad game. It’s a battle he’ll never completely win but at least now he can shrug off any shit he gets and just point to the picture of him lifting the European Cup. Although he’d never do that because it’s not who he is. He’s a much better person than I am. I'd be settling scores all over the fucking place!
He broke down crying in Klopp’s arms and then went over to see his Dad and broke down again. Amidst a load of emotional scenes those were the two moments that really got me (Trent going over and having a picture taken with his parents and his brothers was a choker as well). If you didn’t shed a little tear at Hendo then you’re made of stone.
Jordan Henderson, European Cup winning captain. Sounds great doesn’t it? I wouldn’t bet against him emulating Emlyn and doing it twice as there’s no reason to think we can’t be back here again next year. There’s no-one in Europe better than us and Klopp is yet to lose a two legged tie. Outside of another English club, who could beat us over two legs? I don't see anyone.
We look set up to have a real run at this for the next few years and it’s certainly going to be easier to win this than the Premier League, unless of course the authorities actually step in and do something about City’s flagrant rule breaking. If they had been forced into playing by the same rules as the rest of us, we’d have been crowned Champions last March.
That still stings, but not as much as us becoming Champions of Europe will sting them and the rest. City will have to retire their shitty cover of ‘Allez Allez Allez’ now too, otherwise they’ll look like even bigger bellends than usual. I won't hold my breath though.
Had we not beaten Spurs next year would have just been week after week of listening to sad fucking ‘banter merchants’ taking the piss. Now, they’ll still attempt it no doubt (I expect a few “you nearly won the league” chants), but it’s like water off a ducks back now because we’re Champions of Europe, bitches.
All of this will be covered in the special issue of the fanzine that will be out at some point over the summer. Yeah that’s right, TLW is coming out of the garage for another spin around the block. I always said I’d bring it back if we did something special and after twice being thwarted by losing in finals, it’s third time lucky.
Star man is any one of Alisson, Robbo or Big Virg. Apparently Van Dijk got the official award, which I’d say stands him in very good stead for the Balon d’or now. I’ll not argue at all if Messi wins it, but it would be nice to see the big man win it on behalf of all the defenders out there who are always overlooked in these things.
So that’s it then until August. All that’s left is to say thanks to all of you for continuing to support TLW, and hopefully you’ll keep your subscriptions going for the next few months as I'll still be adding members only content throughout the summer. Oh, and make sure you buy the fanzine for old time’s sake!
SIX TIMES BABY!!!
Team: Alisson; Alexander-Arnold, Matip, Van Dijk, Robertson; Fabinho, Henderson, Wijnaldum (Milner); Salah, Firmino (Origi), Mané (Gomez):
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