WITHIN a football club as decorated as Liverpool, some minor achievements will inevitably get overlooked. It is strange, though, how many people have forgotten the last time Liverpool got to a European semi final. It wasn’t that long ago.
It is such a forgotten tie that I mentioned to Neil Atkinson last week that I wanted to write about it and he said “great idea”, and then proceeded to immediately forget about it when recording the preview show for the first leg against Villarreal. It’s that forgotten.
As you can hear, everyone in the room failed to mention that Liverpool got to the Europa League semi final in 2010, where they were beaten by eventual champions Atletico Madrid. These lads, who dare to charge you £5 a month to hear their knowledge of football, failed to even vaguely recall the match. So why is that?
Well there was, of course, a lot going on at the time. It was a season of disappointment on the pitch and growing protests off it. After a title challenge in 2008-09, Liverpool went into the first leg against Atletico in sixth place in the Premier League, a fair way short of the Champions League places they had become accustomed too. This meant growing pressure on a manager who had antagonised owners and directors and, strangely, never completely won over certain sections of the crowd.
Rafa wasn’t the only ones antagonising the owners. Two months earlier Spirit of Shankly had launched a billboard campaign across Merseyside calling for the removal of Hicks and Gillet. It was a period where supporters tried to mobile, but so often it just led to arguments. Many supporters refused to engage with anything that was happening outside eleven players on a football pitch, whilst others preferred to blame the manager for the club’s problems. Tom Hicks Jr, then a director of the company, emailed one supporter with the line “blow me, fuck face. Go to hell, i’m sick of you.”
So it’s fair to say there were distractions. It was also the case that the Europa League wasn’t exactly held in the highest regard, even by today’s standards. We’d only gone into the tournament after exiting the Champions League in the group stages, after which Managing Director Christian Purslow decided to put himself on TV telling everyone it was all fine.
Liverpool fans largely disagreed. They just couldn’t get any appetite for the competition. Going into a competition because you have been rubbish in another one always feels like a bit of a joke. But truth is, we were spoilt. We were used to Champions League semi finals, not Europa ones. It was only three years since Athens, five after Istanbul. If we hadn’t seen such riches, we could live with being poor…..
But the two ties were eventful enough to deserve a greater part of our memory. For a start we nearly couldn’t get to Madrid. A volcano erupted in Iceland and the resulting ash cloud meant all flights were cancelled out of the UK. Therefore the Liverpool team had to embark on a journey reminiscent of the ones Mick Clarke tries to book me on to a European Away to try and save £30. In total the journey took 24 hours, including six coaches, three trains and, eventually, a flight, in what seems like less than ideal preparation for a big game.
Liverpool lost the first leg 1-0 thanks to an astonishingly messy goal from Diego Forlan, which includes the worst attempted header of all time. Seriously, how has everyone forgotten this?
Liverpool’s side that night showed how quickly the squad had deteriorated in quality. Up front on his own was David N’gog, who was playing for Bolton Wanderers a year or so later. At centre half was Sotirios Kyrgiakos, who Benitez had signed in desperation after a “break down in communication” meant he suddenly only had £1.5m to buy a defender. The substitutes included Philipp Degen, Daniel Ayala, Nabil El Zhar and Daniel Pacheco.
It’s a list of players that suggests Liverpool were lucky to be there in the first place. After the game they were probably lucky to still be in the tie, with Pepe Reina making many good saves to keep Liverpool in it. However Yossi Benayoun also had a goal incorrectly ruled out for offside, for what should have been a vital away goal.
And so to Anfield, the stage of so many dramatic turn arounds for Liverpool. But something on the night was missing, despite Liverpool forcing the game to extra time through a goal from Alberto Aquilani just before half time. In the office we mentioned that the atmosphere was strange, with many seemingly not too bothered about going through and others, more unforgivably, preferring if we didn’t. Gareth Roberts said he was in the Main Stand for the game and many were openly hostile towards the manager, with abuse bordering on racist.
I’d forgotten myself that Liverpool actually went ahead in the tie for seven minutes, Benayoun scoring past a young David De Gea. However, Diego Forlan fired in to win the game. After which Liverpool didn’t have the energy, or certainly the bench, to come back. In truth Liverpool had looked second best overall. Out they went and the calls for a change in manager increased.
A quick look at a BBC message board after the game demonstrates some of the strength of feeling.
Liverpool went on to finish seventh that season and Benitez lost his job. With so much drama, anger, excitement and concern during that period, it is perhaps unsurprising that it has become the forgotten semi-final for Liverpool. However it can also be seen as a warning for Klopp. He has less to deal with in terms of distractions and recent success, but for Liverpool seasons and periods are defined by winning things, not coming close. And cup runs can only hide league form while they are still going on.
Here is hoping for a better atmosphere, performance and, ultimately, result on Thursday.
Apologies John, can I deviate from the article as per.
Neil was funny on the radio this morning. For anyone who’s interested he was saying forget the cups and go all out for the league. This includes winning Europa this year because of the drag of being in the CL next season. Leicester winning it had made him suicidal by the sound of it.
Don’t get me wrong, I always respect strength of conviction. It’s a good trait and I wouldn’t criticise when someone has it.
What struck me though (as someone who’s had similar views over the past few years) was – just because you prioritise the league or because Leicester were able to win it it doesn’t mean we would. Ok, 2014 was very close but we had the best player in the world and no cups, yet we didn’t win it. If we let Neil dictate Liverpool’s fortunes it’s possible that not only could we have a situation where we don’t win the league for 26 years but also one where we don’t win the CL, Uefa, FA or League cup either. The past 26 have been grim but imagine listening to Neil and taking those away too. Jesus! We’d be worse off than Everton.
So, one, it’s a risky strategy and two, I like winning cups regardless of what I say at different stages of the season. I think those people are right who believe in Shankly’s mantra that Liverpool exists to win trophies. Neil’s rising up the ranks. We should all keep a keen eye out that he gets nowhere near the staff of the club itself. If he does, the good times like this Thursday could become a thing of the past. Consigned to a life of being the nearly men. Maybe the 2010 semi being forgotten at TAW and elsewhere is a deliberate attempt by Neil to enforce his view that ‘it’s all about the league’. P.s can some of his mates remind him of his views the night we’re all partying after beating Sevilla, haha. P.p.s For the record, I said earlier in the season the Europa means nothing to me and I found it embarrassing to win. I’ve changed my mind though.
With you on your p.p.s, Robin. Found the Augsburg games just a bit sad. But then we drew United. Then the Dortmund game happened. Things change.
Tremendous James reference and it’s spot on. Some Liverpool fans probably would prefer to forget what horrendously wrong, spoilt brats they were at that time.
Is it true Hodgson was lined up before the semi btw? As if a European final played against Fulham needed to be any stranger. And people thought the Gotze-Bayern-Dortmund thing before Wembley was weird.
I get the point that this is a pretty forgotten tie. So much was happening at this moment in time, there was virtually zero incentive for us to go out and win this other than it being our best chance at a trophy. Honest to God, if you were ranking potential seasons for a WWCH show, this is arguably the best and worst candidate for one because so much went on and almost all of it was just horrible.
Another thing from that Europa League run that sticks out: look at who is in that Benfica team we beat in the quarter-final. If I remember correctly, that was a really good side from top to bottom.
Benfica at home was boss I thought. Looked a proper Benitez Liverpool team on the night with Torres looking brilliant and Lucas having his all time greatest game from what I can remember. As far as Europa quarter finals go though it’s safe to say it was blown out the water by the other week.
Rushed my passport renewal through just in case we scraped the win and made it to Hamburg for the final. I felt I’d jinxed it all summer by doing that. Then there’s that magpie that landed on the goal-line in front of us on the Kop – it felt like an omen for the next couple of years.
Forlan shattered everyone; he’d been getting the obvious abuse all match, so it looked particularly sweet for him swinging his shirt around.
Time to get it right on Thursday. The atmosphere is far less toxic for a start.
Liverpool wins. Such a nice ring to it.
Liverpool loses. Stuff of horrors.
I remember that game now. Honestly, I don’t know how I could forget. But I did. Having read your post, its all coming back in a rush. Every odd was against us. But we still restricted them to a 1-0 home advantage. We had a chance. But the fire was missing at Anfield. I can’t remember the crowds response, but we just couldn’t keep up.
Disruption is inevitable. Leicester and Tottenham are the latest to prove that, at the expense of The Big 4. We couldn’t win in 14 despite having the world’s best striker. Leicester didn’t have one player in the super price category. They still did it.
But then, if they can do it, so can we, right? The last two games against Villareal and Swansea were that Liverpool, sort of. Its all about the fire. Every guy in the squad has to have it. Not decided by their playing time, but by their sheer will to make the club succeed. This Liverpool can win trophies. Jurgen has to get us there.
Have no memory of the first leg bar Torres not being able to play against his old club (suspension ?),
My overriding memory of the second leg is the Aquaman goal where his footing just gave way as he struck the shot and it actually added some power & accuracy to the effort, I backed that fella to the hilt to come good in many arguments/conversations and thought this moment was the start of him,
He’s the only player Ive watched YouTube clips of when we were rumoured to sign him and naievly thought we were onto a good thing with him, it needed a special player to replace Xabi and what we got was a really nice footballer scared of his shit of a tackle,
Looking back i was willing Aqua on so much just to spite the Rafa out brigade as they were using the sale of Xabi as another stick to beat Him with and in fairness it was hard to argue at the time that it was a good decision,
I fired out a about 100 text messages when that strike hit the net,
Even now some reds who I have a lot of time for just can’t appreciate Rafa, it’s maddening at times, even after all these years it grates me, they bought into the fat Spanish waiter persona getting peddled at the time,
A thoroughly decent man & a fine manager.
I remember this game feeling like Rafa’s last stand – as many on TAW have noted, it was very much a sense of wanting to prove other supporters wrong, and a European trophy would have been a final ‘have that’ to the Rafa Out crowd. That Forlan goal felt like the end of an era, you knew the gig was up.
The only good thing about us losing that semi was that we never got the chance to be possibly beaten by Hodgson’s Fulham in the final.
A Danny Murphy winner as well probably… Christ alive.