Liverpool are one of the most popular and successful clubs in the world. The Reds have won 11 European trophies including five Champions Leagues and three Europa Leagues. In fact, only Real Madrid, AC Milan and Barcelona have more European honours than the giants of Merseyside.
Even though Liverpool have failed to win a league title for over two and half decades, they are still considered as a European giant. This is because of some of Liverpool’s spectacular performance against the other top teams from Europe. The club are known for making their home ground, Anfield, a very difficult place to visit and that’s why the stadium has witnessed some truly remarkable performances.
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Over the years, football fans have been treated to some truly remarkable comebacks from Liverpool and their recent triumph over Borussia Dortmund in the Europa League is no different. We are turning the pages of the history book and divulging into five of the best comebacks by Liverpool in European competitions.
Liverpool vs Auxerre: UEFA Cup 2nd round, November 1991
It was Liverpool’s first season back in European competitions following their exile. Former Liverpool player, Graeme Souness, was also taking charge of the side for a full season for the first time.
Liverpool were participating in the UEFA Cup which is now known as the UEFA Europa League. The reds steamrolled past Finnish club Kuusysi Lahti in the first round before facing French club Auxerre in the second.
The first leg of the tie was in France and the Reds were taken apart by the home side. If it weren’t for the heroics of Liverpool’s goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar, they would have gone to the return leg at Anfield with a bigger defeat than 2-0.
In the return leg at Anfield, Liverpool were back in the tie quickly after an early penalty from Jan Molby. At the half an hour mark, Mike Marsh scored a rare goal to level the tie on aggregate. Auxerre held on to this position until the 83rd minute, but Liverpool’s pressure finally cracked their defence and Mark Walters’s goal completed the comeback.
Liverpool vs Olympiakos: Champions League group stage, December 2004
Although this was a group stage game, its significance was huge. Liverpool were grouped with Monaco, Olympiacos and Deportivo La Coruna. They were hosting Olympiakos at Anfield and Deportivo were hosting Monaco on the final match day. The group tables looked like this at this point:
Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
Olympiacos | 5 | 3 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 2 | 2 | 10 |
Monaco | 5 | 3 | 0 | 2 | 5 | 4 | 1 | 9 |
Liverpool | 5 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 7 |
Deportivo | 5 | 0 | 2 | 3 | 0 | 4 | -4 | 2 |
For Liverpool to reach the knockout stage they had to win their game at all costs. If Monaco lost their game against Deportivo, then Liverpool just needed a win. However, Deportivo were winless after five games and had scored zero goals in those games, so the Reds couldn’t count on them winning against Monaco. So the only other possibility was winning the game against Olympiakos and Liverpool needed to do it by a two-goal margin to qualify at the expense of the Greek side on head to head.
The game didn’t go according to the script for Liverpool as Olympiakos took the lead against the run of play in the 26th minute through Rivaldo. A below-par Liverpool side toiled hard and put two past Olympiakos courtesy of Pongole and Mellor.
In the 86th minute, Neil Mellor headed down a ball into the path of Steven Gerrard who was lurking outside the penalty box. Gerrard drove a first touch low volley into the Olympiakos net which made commentator, Andy Gray - a former Evertonian, produce a memorable commentary to go with the goal.
Liverpool vs AC Milan: Champions League final, May 2005
This game is easily one of the greatest football games of all time. The ingredients for the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ were perfect. Liverpool were the underdogs against the mighty Milan side that played the final. The Milan team that played the final featured players like Maldini, Nesta, Shevchenko, Kaka, Pirlo, Crespo, Cafu and many other prominent names.
The difference in quality between the two sides started to show very early in the game as Milan took the lead in the opening minute of the game through their iconic captain Paolo Maldini. Things soon went from bad to worse as Crespo added two more goals before half-time.
It all seemed to be going the wrong way for Liverpool as Harry Kewell had to be taken off in the first half because of an injury. All seemed lost for Liverpool at halftime, but eight minutes into the second half, the world witnessed one of the greatest comebacks in sporting history.
Gerrard scored the first for Liverpool after heading in a cross from John Arne Riise. The captain led from the front and urged the Liverpool faithful to get behind their team. Two minutes later, Vladamir Smicer who came on for Kewell scored a screamer to cut down the deficit to one.
Three minutes after Smicer’s goal, Gerrard was fouled in the box and Liverpool were awarded a penalty. Xabi Alonso stepped up to take the kick, but he missed. However, the rebound came back to him and he put it past a resilient Dida to draw Liverpool level at 3-3!
Milan were unable to recover from that shock and Liverpool went on to clinch their fifth Champions League final after beating the Italian club on penalties.
Liverpool vs Arsenal: Champions League quarter-final, March 2008
Yet another Gerrard inspired comeback and the venue was once again Anfield. The game was during a period when English teams were regulars in the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Champions League. Liverpool were facing Arsenal in the quarter-finals of 2008 and the first leg at the Emirates finished 1-1.
Liverpool had the away goal advantage coming into the second leg, but that was cancelled out by a Diaby strike in the 13th minute. At the half an hour mark, Sami Hyppia scored a rare goal for Liverpool and negated Arsenal’s advantage.
In the second half of the game, Liverpool took the upper hand in the tie once again after a spectacular finish from Fernando Torres. However, in the 84th minute of the game, Theo Walcott made a lung-bursting run from his own box to Liverpool’s box and set up Adebayor to swing the tie back in Arsenal’s favour. With just six minutes of normal time left to play, Liverpool had to score another goal to win the tie or else the Gunners would progress due to their two away goals compared to Liverpool’s one.
Arsenal’s joy and celebration didn’t last long because they conceded a penalty instantly after scoring. Steven Gerrard stepped up and dispatched it to swing the pendulum back in Liverpool’s favour. The Reds went on to score a fourth goal in the added time of the second half as Arsenal were desperately searching for a goal that would take them through.
Liverpool vs Borussia Dortmund: Europa League quarter-final, April 2016
When Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund were drawn against each other for the quarter-final of the 2015-16 Europa League, it was a tie that the whole football world was looking forward to. The return of Jurgen Klopp and the special rendition of ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ were all things to look forward to. When the tie was made, Klopp said that it is a story only football can write and he was right.
Liverpool travelled to Germany for the first leg and returned with a 1-1 scoreline that gave them an advantage for the second leg. However, Liverpool’s plans and preparations for the return leg went out the window in just 10 minutes as Dortmund scored twice through Mkhitaryan and Aubameyang. This meant that the home team had to score three goals to progress.
Jurgen Klopp’s men picked up their game after conceding two goals, but they were unable to finish the chances they created and they created plenty. Liverpool came out for the second half with renewed energy and pulled one back within minutes after Divock Origi calmly finished a chance set-up by Emre Can. Their joy didn’t last long as Marco Reus scored for Dortmund and once again Liverpool needed to score three more.
Klopp introduced Joe Allen and Daniel Sturridge after Dortmund’s third goal and Liverpool became more threatening. Few minutes later, they scored their second after Philippe Coutinho finished off a brilliant passing move. With two more goals required, Liverpool won a corner. Coutinho didn’t put in a great cross from the corner, but it bounced in front of Sturridge and landed kindly on Sakho’s head. The Frenchman only had to direct it towards goal and he did it with ease.
The game went to added time of the second half and Liverpool won a free-kick near the halfway line. Except for Mignolet and Milner - who was taking the free kick, every other Liverpool player was in the box. Milner didn’t play the ball into the box and played it through to Sturridge who had made a god run towards the right side of the penalty box.
Sturridge held the ball up brilliantly and waited for Milner to make a run from the halfway line into the box. Once Milner was in the right position, Sturridge gave an inch perfect pass for Milner to latch on to, who then took a touch and dinked the ball into the six-yard box and it was met by Lovren at the far post. Lovren headed the ball into the net for Liverpool to take the lead in the game for the first time and thus completed another remarkable comeback at Anfield.
