December 1:
5 points off the top of the league.
3 points off the EC 2nd Round.
June 1:
Record league points total.
European Champions.
6 months is a long time in football, but this year it's a successful time.
We had to win this game. Not only to put a trophy in the cabinet, but we just couldn't be seen to lose to them, a club with no history in this competition. They're Spurs, not Real Madrid. As in 81 and 84, the game was not a thriller, and people can pick holes in it if they want. Right now, it doesn't matter. It will never matter. What matters is after 14 years, the European Cup is finally home.
Tactically though, we got it spot on. Got the early goal, dealt comfortably with what they had to throw at us, changed tactics when we had to, made the right subs when we needed to, then took the chance we had to, and saw the game out. All in all, an efficient job done to bring Old Big Ears home.
The penalty was a stonewall imo. Clearcut handball, the defender had no case. Before the game, Alan Sugar dubbed Mo Salah "useless" because of his performance at last year's World Cup. He only scored 2 of Egypt's 2 WC goals at the tournament, their first in 28 years, whilst carrying an injury. 26 more goals for us later and 109 seconds into this game; First touch, back of the net from the double Golden Boot winner. Yet again, he answered his critics on the pitch. Class is permanent after all.
After taking the lead in the final for the first time since 1984, we hoped to build on it. Instead the game passed by without much incident, and most of the neutrals lost interest by the time Divock wrapped it up. He looked lost at Chester in pre-season when we won 7-0. 7 wonderful goals later, he's now a European Champion.
And on we go to the next silverware up for grabs, against City in August. 3 days later, it's Chelsea in the Super Cup. In December, it's onto the World Club Cup, which will interrupt the league campaign, but we have a great chance to win that for the first time. Most European champions do. Not bad for a team placed in Pot 3 of the European Cup draw. Now we are No. 1 in Pot 1 for the next draw. So no Juventus/PSG/Bayern/Barcelona to face in next season's group stage.
There has been a lot of tears in the past 7 years, and plenty of opposing cranks and nutjobs have said plenty of things about this club, this team, and this coach; putting up crass memes, posting up tales of morality, inventing numerous nicknames to describe the club, all for a so-called "laugh". Now we're the people that are celebrating, and writing, and laughing. So they'll be seeing, reading, and hearing from us about what we've just won for a while, and let's see how much they like it for a change.
As with the 81 and 84 finals, in years to come, nobody will remember how much of a spectacle this game was, they'll just remember that Liverpool won it. As for us fans, winning trophies is our payout. Payout for having to watch games at Burnley in the depths of winter in the back of pubs, with no sound. Payout for trekking knee deep in snow, to try and find a place showing a home game v Newcastle. Payout for looking for any screen showing a third round cup game against lower league opposition, that no channel at all wants to show. And payout for those of us travelling long distances hoping to get tickets, with the clock ticking and prices skyrocketing. This is why we do it, winning silverware. There's nothing like it.
On 1 May, it looked like the year that Barcelona would plant a Catalan flag in Madrid. On 1 June, we collected the European Cup for the 6th time in Madrid.
I hope Sean Cox got to see it too, he deserves it as much as the rest of us. Tommy Smith didn't get to see it at all, but he was amongst the first Reds to bring the European Cup home. 42 years on, it's still here. You're never forgotten. We do it for all of you.
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