Liverpool FC Forum

[65-1114725958]

I disagree with st michael on this one.

in the late 70's/ 80's , lfc were expected to beat those teams, were very dominant etc.

this season, we are nearly 40 points off the league summit, our second worst performance in the prem league since it started, and have been massive underdogs in a lot of european games.

rafa is not even halfway through his revolution, and he's had to come through long lay offs to Alonso, Cisse, and stevie g out for a bit too, so he's having to field players like Biscan, Smicer etc.

I think if we win, its the greatest achievement ever!

[siti_zaiton1982]

no doubt at all.it is.

[policy]

Why can't we appreciate both in equality? I think that it is impossible to compare the two qualitatively because they are so different.

Football in the seventies is so different from what it is now in the 21st century.

[azriahmad]

It would rank as one of the biggest achievement ever because this journey to the final has been done with the unlikeliest of fashions with this limited team against opponents with such high quality.

During the earlier years, the opposition were less vareid and only 1 club represented 1 league, unless the defending champion was not the league champion in its domestic league. There were less games played because of the home and away 2 legged format and there were no expanded format to include more "glamour" teams who did not emerge as league champions. In those days, it can also be argued that the UEFA Cup was the harder to win as the teams who progressed far in the UEFA cup tend to be doing well domestically and are on form and tend to attack more.

This expanded format of the CL is much harder to win and so far, no club has successfully defended the CL in the following season - because the inclusion of many more top clubs has made it more varied with more depth.

Whatever, it is a great achievement and I will take any kind of Liverpool win - penalties, own goal etc as long as we win.

[woof woof !]

It is harder. For a start we have to play Juventus AND AC Milan, before there would only be one of them and we would have some Belgian champions or whatever to face instead.

We have beaten a lot more quality teams in getting to the final than it was previously neccesary, forget how the teams got to the competition.

What you guys aren't remembering is when we won in 77 and 78 we were the strongest team,

Back in the day we may have played teams that are no longer regarded with much respect but in the 70's we played the likes of St Etienne ,Benfica,Monchengladbach, Brugge and CSKA,who had huge respect and fearsome reputations, believe me those teams were no pushovers .We also played the likes of Bayern Munich and Real Madrid in the '81 semi and Final.

I've gone for the '77 victory primarily because for the club it was our first triumph in the competition and (imo) our first real step towards euro domination .Before 1977 we were respected in Europe ,after 1977 we were feared .

Not trying to take anything away from what the current team has achieved ,which is nothing short of a miracle .

[azriahmad]

I remembered in '77 when we played St. Etienne and lost away (if I am not mistaken) and then they scored at Anfield. Suddenly, we needed to win by 2 clear goals and the Supersub came on and delivered. This was the destiny changing point, from there we went from strength to strength in Europe.

By 1983-84, Liverpool had completely mastered the home and away European Cup games and seldom lost away and win at home, even with the weaker team in 1985 where we only lost one game during the march to the final by a single goal at Benfica (Kenny got sent off) but we whacked them 2-0 or 4-0 at Anfield (if memory serves me correctly). During those times, the Italians were going through a period where their club teams are rather weak but they have just started to invest heavily to buy the best talents from all over the world.

This day, the galmour Italian and Spanish teams have a cosmopolitan squad filled with first-class internationals such as Schevchenko, Eto'o, Zidane (in decline now but top of the world a few years ago), Ronaldinho etc. who have the individual skills to make the difference in the tightest of games. Add to that, the tactical knowledge of the modern coaches in the very top European teams, who mostly play in the CL. It is much harder now to win the CL because of these factors and also there are more games to play before reaching the final itself. With more games being played, luck becomes an important factor. While one cannot rely totally on luck, Porto had some luck last year and so did we during the early part of the knock-out stages, having avoided Barcelona (easily the best attacking team in this season's CL campaign and I am sure Eto'o and Ronaldinho and their lot will score a few against us if we had drawn them).

I wouldn't say that winning today will top the '77 European Cup victory but because of the sheer difficulty in getting to the final itself, winning the game tonight will rank as one of the greatest achievements ever, unless Liverpool has a bottomless cash pile to buy the very best talents like Chelski, but even then it will still be an achievement to reach the final and win it.

[Big Niall]

The argument about which European cup/champions league is harder to win is illogical.

No matter what the format, only one team in Europe wins so it is of equal difficulty. When they doubled the amount of teams from each country, it halved the difficulty of qualifying but then made it twice as hard to win it once your there. End result equal difficulty.

Sorry guys, it's maths.

[laza]

Alright ive changed my mind
This is our greatest achievement   

YESSSSSSSSSSSSSS

[L-type]

The fashion that we achieved the win gives this game the edge on our other championships, but then again i wasn't alive for the other ones.

[Lando_Griffin]

I'd say this was the best, as all the way through we've been written off. The playing staff aren't as good now as when we won it before, and it's Rafa's first season which has been ballsed up by injuries. This, for me, is the best achievement, but then, I never saw the others as I was too young/not born!!!!! It's got to be the most enthralling final, surely!?!