Liverpool FC Forum

To draw the current Italian champions in the first knockout stage is a tadge unlucky imo especially given how we pis*ed our group. Inter currently lie in second place in Serie A a point behind leader’s AC but with a game in hand. They are good enough to give us trouble if we don’t turn up.
This is the team I’d go with

                           Alison

Trent.          Matip.        Van Dijk.        Robbo

                    Fab.           Thiago

                             Elliott

        Salah.            Jota.              Diaz

That's one heck of an attacking line up away from home......maybe we need to be a little circumspect...?

What the hell ..lets go for  it 

Too early to play Diaz and Elliot in a game like this, stick with Mane with Diaz on the bench to learn, Hendo for Elliot.

Inter will show us respect and are probably more worried than we are, I guess Klopp's biggest question is how far forward to play TAA and Robbo or show respect and not press as much as usual. Personally I'd start high and see how Inter react.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic turned on team-mate after being left fuming by Liverpool before before costly row overshadowed historic win
Liverpool's forthcoming Champions League clashes with Inter Milan mark the latest chapter in a long-running but dramatic European history between the sides

ByDan KayLive Content Editor
06:00, 16 FEB 2022
SPORT

Liverpool caused fuming Zlatan Ibrahimovic to turn on team-mate before costly row overshadowed historic win

Liverpool’s peerless continental record has long been a source of immense pride to all at Anfield.

Six European Cup triumphs, three UEFA Cups and two Super Cups puts the Reds streets ahead of any of their domestic rivals when it comes to Europe, with closest contenders Manchester United only having won the top prize half as many times.

The Old Trafford club of course are able to boast that they were the first English club to be crowned champions of Europe when they beat Benfica at Wembley in 1968, ten years after the tragedy of Munich.

Liverpudlians old enough to remember the heady month of May 1965 know that but for highly suspicious officiating surrounding the Reds’ European Cup semi final against Inter Milan, Bill Shankly’s men could have been the first to achieve that landmark.

So when in 2007/08 the sides were paired together in the last 16 of the Champions League, their first meeting since that initial controversial encounter, plenty of fans who hadn’t even been born when the sides last did battle knew that a revenge mission had been bequeathed to them.


The name Jose Maria Ortiz de Mendibil, the man who took charge of the semi-final second leg back in 1965, and tales of what might have been were passed down from generation to generation and have become seared into LFC infamy such is the depth of feeling caused by that rancorous night in northern Italy, with Shankly admitting after retirement the Spanish referee was the one figure from his long career in football who still haunted him.

Liverpool had gone into the match with a 3-1 first leg lead, achieved during one Anfield’s most celebrated nights when Shankly’s men - having only been promoted from the Second Division three years earlier and then been crowned top flight champions in 1964 - returned home as heroes having finally won the FA Cup for the first time in the club’s history only three days before following extra-time victory over Leeds United at Wembley.

The club’s first ever season of continental football had seen them despatch Reykjavik of Iceland, Anderlecht of Belgium and Cologne of Germany to set up a last-four showdown with the reigning European champions Internazionale of Milan and the Italians were blown away after Shankly stage-managed an already-febrile Anfield crowd towards reach fever pitch by sending injured players Gerry Byrne and Gordon Milne around the pitch before kick-off with the newly-acquired FA Cup.

Roger Hunt’s fourth-minute volley ignited the atmosphere further and further goals from Ian Callaghan and Ian St John helped set up a commanding 3-1 victory to take to Italy for the second leg, although the Reds’ lead would have greater had a Chris Lawler solo effort not been harshly ruled out by Austrian referee Hainer for a dubious offside. It would prove costly eight days later in Milan.

In their first real taste of trademark intimidation tactics for European away games, Liverpool players and fans were demonised in the Italian media and by fans, who greeted them at the airport with cries of "assassins" and placards claiming 'Liverpool wild savages' and 'Liverpool take dope, the latter in reference to the accusations carried in some Italian newspapers that Shankly's side had taken pep pills to overpower Inter at Anfield.

The Reds boss later claimed he had been told before the game that no matter what happened, his side “wouldn’t win” and in front of a hostile 76,601 crowd firing rockets and flares (“It’s just like a volcano!” reported the BBC’s David Coleman), that rapidly became evident once the match got underway in the very same stadium where that season’s European Cup final was due to be staged later that month.

Two highly contentious goals in the opening nine minutes - the first an indirect free kick by Mario Corso chipped directly into the net followed 45 seconds later by Joan Peiro robbing Liverpool goalkeeper Tommy Lawrence as he bounced the ball and clipping home to the astounded anger of the bewildered Reds players - levelled the tie on aggregate before Giacinto Facchetti grabbed the aggregate winner on the hour mark.

Ian St John thought he had levelled the tie only to see his effort mysteriously ruled out and said afterwards he had no idea what the infringement might have been and claimed Mendibil would not look him directly in the eye all night.

The Spanish official never admitted to any wrongdoing and continued to officiate in European competition for almost another decade but Italo Allodi, then secretary of Inter, was later accused of taking part in match fixing scandals throughout his career including during the mid 1960s although never found guilty.

The late Tommy Smith, who can be seen on video footage of the game protesting in the strongest possible terms and manhandling the referee, was never in any doubt at what had occurred, saying years later, "What happened in that second leg of the European Cup semi final in the San Siro left me feeling cheated.

"The Italians didn’t win it – the referee won it for them – and the only surprise was that they didn’t carry him off shoulder high at the end.

“I hoofed him in the left ankle but he just kept on walking, just as he did when I was screaming el bastido at him.

"I also dragged him around [to face me] after the second goal but he just fluttered away.

“He almost got hit by a bottle thrown from the crowd at one point and I’ve always said that if it had hit him he would have been unconscious and it might have opened up some inquiry into the whole business of that night.”


Inter Milan would go on to retain the trophy in their own stadium three weeks later with a 1-0 win over Benfica but 33 years later that remained their most recent European Cup triumph while Liverpool had long since learned the hard lessons about what was needed to succeed in continental combat, having become champions of Europe for the fifth time only three years earlier with that never-to-be-forgotten fightback from three goals down in Istanbul against Inter’s city rivals, AC Milan.

The ‘Nerazzurri’ were reigning Italian champions having the season before led by former Sampdoria star Roberto Mancini won their first on-field title since 1989 (they were awarded the 2006 Serie A crown after the ‘Calciopoli’ match fixing scandal) but knew they were facing a tough task against Rafa Benitez’s Reds who had competed in two of the previous three Champions League finals.

It was proving to be a turbulent season at Anfield however with the honeymoon period following Tom Hicks and George Gillett’s takeover twelve months previously having well and truly ended.

The inter-club politics which would ultimately prove to have a fatal impact on Rafa Benitez’s reign in charge had already begun to rear their ugly head with a row with Hicks the previous November having led to a surreal press conference when he repeated the phrase "I am focused on training and coaching my team" 15 times, with Liverpool supporters soon afterwards taking to the streets in support of the manager and against the club owners.

The hoped-for assault on the Premier League title had not materialised with the Reds sitting in fifth, nineteen points behind league leaders Arsenal, and the weekend before Inter travelled to Merseyside for the first leg, Championship side Barnsley stunned Anfield with a late 2-1 win in the FA Cup fifth round.

Liverpool’s patchy form had been evident as well in the Champions League before Christmas when only one point from the opening three games put hopes of qualification for the knock-out stages in jeopardy but an impressive 4-0 victory in the winner-takes-all final group match away to Marseilles featuring a sublime solo goal from Fernando Torres took the Reds through to set up a long-awaited rematch with the Italians.

The club record signing had made an encouraging start since his £20m move from Atletico Madrid and, having recovered from a groin injury, was about to slip into the rich vein of form that would cement his place as the new darling of the Kop.

Roared on by a capacity Anfield crowd which knew the Champions League was now Liverpool’s only hope of silverware that season, Benitez’s side tore into their Italian visitors from the start with Torres’s pace and movement terrorising the Italians and one of their World Cup winning defenders in particular.

Marco Materazzi had made global headlines after his run-in with Zinedine Zidane in Germany only 18 months previously but was already well-known on Merseyside after spending a season with Everton in the late 1990s.

Now an experienced International defender, he appeared rattled by Torres from the start and, after picking up an early yellow card for pulling the Spaniard’s shirt, he received his marching orders from Belgian referee Franck De Bleeckere after repeating the trick only half an hour into the game to give Liverpool a numerical advantage and a real opportunity to build a healthy lead to take to Italy for the second leg.

The Inter Milan team of the 1960s were known for ‘catenaccio’ - ‘blanket defence’ - and the modern day version needed little encouragement now to retreat even deeper than they had started the game while looking to sit in and frustrate Liverpool.

Chances for Kuyt, Torres, Hyypia and substitute Peter Crouch all went begging while Patrick Vieira escaped a strong penalty shout after handling in the box and, with only five minutes remaining and the tie still goalless, Roberto Mancini’s side were eyeing a huge escape and a major psychological advantage ahead of the San Siro return in three weeks time when the Reds finally struck.

With Liverpool keeping the Italians pinned into their own final third, a Jermaine Pennant cross from the right flank reached Dirk Kuyt at the far post and the Dutchman once again showed his knack of delivering when it mattered in big games by controlling on his chest and firing a shot into the turf and beyond helpless goalkeeper Julio Cesar into the net.

The Kop exploded in relief that their heroes would at least be travelling to Italy with some kind of lead, as well as a precious clean sheet with no away goals conceded, and were even more delighted when Steven Gerrard doubled the lead three minutes later with a superbly-taken opportunistic strike from 22 yards, taking a Pennant pass and angling a drive into the bottom corner in off the post to really put Liverpool in command of the tie.

Having seen all their hard work and dogged defending wiped out in the final five minutes, some of the Inter players were furious with Materazzi after the game, Julio Cesar and Uruguayan Ivan Cordoba blaming his dismissal for the defeat with striker Zlatan Ibrahimovic pointedly telling reporters they should “ask Marco Materazzi why we lost”.

The Italian press were scathing in their criticism, the Gazzetta dello Sport noting "Materazzi's expulsion was the determining factor, but even before then Inter had disappointed”, while Corriere della Sera labelled their performance “a frankly embarrassing effort when compared to the straightforward superiority Inter enjoy over every Italian opponent”.

Some had sympathy for Materazzi however, Gazzetta's senior writer and former editor Candido Cannavò saying Materazzi “should have got hold of a pair of angel wings and put them on before descending into the Anfield inferno. In footballing terms he is in the unenviable situation of a prejudged individual who cannot free himself from the infamy that accompanies him. If you are called Materazzi you truly need an angel's wings to avoid being hunted down by a Belgian referee who will not forgive you the tiniest mistaken movement."

Inter owner Massimo Moratti was quick to absolve his players of blame, calling them ‘heroic’ and blaming referee De Bleeckere’s decision to send Materazzi off for the defeat while manager Mancino was defiantly calling on the spirit of 1965 to rescue his side.

"Sometimes history repeats itself”, he said.

“We can come back from this, just like in 1965. The battle will finish after the final whistle in Milan. Many teams come back. We will have to play a great game, but we have a chance.”

It was clear however that some of his team’s supporters did not necessarily agree with him, groups of them shouting at the players on the flight home to “work harder” with Mancini shouting back that they should “learn how to be fans”.

The late, late Anfield show proved to be just the shot in the arm a Liverpool season which had been drifting somewhat after only three wins in the previous eleven matches needed.

Four consecutive Premier League wins over Middlesbrough, Bolton, West Ham and Newcastle followed ahead of the San Siro return with Torres shifting through the gears and scoring back-to-back Anfield hat-tricks against Boro and the Hammers.

The 3-0 win over Newcastle the weekend before the trip to Italy saw the Spaniard fail to become the first Liverpool player since Jack Balmer in November 1946 to score a hat-trick of hat-tricks but he still scored one and made one another to further highlight how his burgeoning partnership with Steven Gerrard, now often playing in the number ten role, was proving almost impossible for opponents to handle and drawing comparisons with some of the Reds’ finest striking partnerships.

The Kop was now completely in thrall to Torres, with a song emerging which would prove to be the soundtrack to the trip for the 6,000 or so Reds about to head for Milan and also for many Liverpool matches to follow in the next few years.

Referencing the ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’ armband the striker had been pictured wearing shortly before his transfer to Anfield from Atletico Madrid and to the tune of old American Civil War standard ‘When Johnny Comes Marching Home’, it featured an energetic bounce as a repeat verse and went,


The Reds would have do battle in Italy without one of their key players after a family situation arose which led to a dispute with manager Rafa Benitez that may ultimately have led to his departure of Anfield.

Xabi Alonso had made an immediate impact after arriving for £10.7m for Real Sociedad in Benitez’s first few months, capping a highly impressive opening season by scoring the penalty rebound in Istanbul which draw Liverpool level in the Champions League final.

The midfielder’s form had been more inconsistent in the following two and a half seasons and he had been an unused substitute in the first leg against Inter having been left out following the FA Cup upset against Barnsley but was still an option Benitez wanted in his armoury for the San Siro and and the Liverpool manager, who himself stayed with the team in Japan and their bid to win the World Club Championship when his own father Francisco died in December 2005, was not happy when his compatriot told him he was not prepared to travel to Italy unless his heavily-pregnant wife Nagore had already given birth.

"We were going into labour, and I told Rafa that I could not go. I would go when everything was fine”, he later told El Pais.

"Take a plane and meet them there. He didn't accept it. I had to make a decision and I decided to be with my family.

"It wasn't easy, my job isn't a normal job and it was not an ordinary game, however I never have any regrets. If I hadn't have done it then I wouldn't have been present for the labour.”

Alonso would be back in the side for the next game against Reading at Anfield and started the majority of games for the remainder of the season but, after Benitez’s failed attempt to buy Aston Villa midfielder Gareth Barry that summer and arguably Alonso’s finest Liverpool campaign in 2008/09, he left for Real Madrid in a £30m deal with many observers feeling the relationship between them was never quite the same after the row over travelling to Milan.

Those who did make the trip to Italy were left under no illusions about the task at hand when the second leg did finally get underway.

Although the Inter ultras unveiled an elaborate mosaic commemorating the Reds’ famous comeback against their bitter rivals AC from three years earlier before kick off, the 80,000 packed into the cavernous San Siro created a hostile atmosphere in the hope of inspiring their heroes to recreate history and become only the second side since their 1965 predecessors to recover a two-goal first leg deficit against Liverpool in Europe.

Pepe Reina was forced to saved low down early on from Julio Cruz before Ibrahimovic slid narrowly wide after being played in and Cruz’s clever flick was denied at the near post by Reina. A slip in the home defence had given Torres an opening before being crowded out but Liverpool had not shown many signs of grabbing the away goal which would make the home side’s task almost impossible until early in the second half the home side’s ill-discipline cost them again, just like it had at Anfield.

Having already been booked before the break, Argentina defender Nicolás Burdisso lunged into a needless tackle on Lucas Leiva on the halfway line five minutes after the break to receive his second yellow to make the hosts’ uphill task even steeper.

Ten-man Inter still had a glorious opportunity to take the lead on the night and halve the deficit when a Martin Skrtel slip put Ibrahimovic clean through only for the Swede to shoot haplessly past the post before Fernando Torres killed the tie on 68 minutes with a clinical finish that highlighted the lethal cutting edge Liverpool now had at their disposal.

Fabio Aurelio won the ball on the left flank and advanced before feeding the Spaniard just outside the box who took one touch to set himself before swivelling and firing a precise low shot beyond Julio Cesar into the bottom corner to send the travelling Liverpudlians behind the goal wild with delight and no little relief that their place in the last eight was now firmly in the bag.

After seeing their side see out the final stages without alarm to secure a 3-0 aggregate win and exorcise the ghosts of 1965, the travelling Kop, having bounced themselves daft during the game, enjoyed musical accompaniment of a different kind during the post-match lock-in with the tannoy playing a medley of Beatles hits including ‘Get Back’ which given the Reds had just secured a third European Cup quarter-final in four seasons fit the mood perfectly.

Inter boss Mancini announced his intention to quit at the end of the season following the game while Benitez hailed the growing power of the Premier League which soon afterwards would for the second season running see three of its teams make up the last four of the Champions League.

“This victory shows the power and strength of the Premier League”, said the Liverpool manager.

“We have fine clubs who are among the best in Europe, a league that is the same and players of quality who are some of the best in Europe.

“The key for us was to be compact in the first half when they were attacking, and to be sure that we hit them on the counter-attack.

“This is the third time we have got to this stage while I have been at Anfield. The first season nobody talked of us winning the Champions League, but we did it.


“Now we have a much better squad and experience and I have great confidence in my team to play in big games.”

It was a memorable night also for Jamie Carragher who became the first Liverpool player to play 100 matches in Europe and the Bootle-born defender claimed the result showed were now a match for anyone on the continent.

This won’t be easy and we will need to be a lot more convincing than we were against Burnley. I certainly wouldn’t start Bobby given his current level of form. I don’t envy JK with team selection. Hendo is also a questionable.

COYR

YNWA

Team.

Alisson,Alexander-Arnold, Konate, Van Dijk, Robertson, Fabinho, Thiago, Elliott, Mane, Salah, Jota.

I like this selection.

Good starting lineup anyway.

Cmon the pool

Surprised with Elliot starting but I can't say it's the wrong decision at all. Good, attacking line-up.

Good to see that Klopp read my post. Didn’t see him selecting Konate and Elliot. Happy enough about Harvey but not sure about Konate.

COYR

YNWA

damjan193 » Wed Feb 16, 2022 8:14 pm wrote:Surprised with Elliot starting but I can't say it's the wrong decision at all. Good, attacking line-up.

Kind of surprised at that myself tbh. It's a big enough game and he is just back from a big injury but he began the season starting every game and it looks like he will pick up where he left off.

devaney » Wed Feb 16, 2022 7:48 pm wrote:Good to see that Klopp read my post. Didn’t see him selecting Konate and Elliot. Happy enough about Harvey but not sure about Konate.

COYR

YNWA

Need some muscle and speed to handle Inter's front 3...as we will not be playing a high line today and Matip probably cannot handle the frequent workload, this is an expected selection for me

That's a big warning for Liverppol here...should be ahead with Sadio then again Inter hit the woodwork could have been a great goal

Inter are a good team and are pushing us. But we are playing well and I think a goal is incoming

Ref really just blown for HT when Salah was clean through on goal?

Tough half, inter are really working and pressing hard.. you can see a few of their players blowing already. We're not playing bad, but the balls bouncing off all our attackers. We just gotta be patient this second half and be prepared for any half chance.

Feck me!! Did we come back out or what