Richard Williams
For the second time in five days the sun shone on Liverpool’s attempt to win a cup final, this time breaking through in the early evening after cloud and drizzle had shrouded Westphalia all afternoon. Coming 16 years after the Heysel tragedy cast a deep shadow over one of Europe’s leading clubs, this match won 5-4 by a golden goal (and an own goal at that) in extra time could be seen as carrying more than usual significance.
Just as a Gary McAllister free-kick had unlocked Liverpool’s drive to victory in Cardiff on Saturday, so the Scottish midfielder took advantage of a similar opportunity in the Uefa Cup final in Dortmund on Wednesday to provide the cross from which Markus Babbel opened the scoring.
Liverpool’s fans, outnumbering the Basque supporters by perhaps five to one, set up the sort of noise that recalled their days of glory in the European Cup. Quite quickly, too, they made it clear they did not care much for Jordi Cruyff, perhaps because he once played for Manchester United, perhaps also because he left English football with nothing good to say about the experience.
By contrast, how readily they showed their feelings of affection for another immigrant, Grard Houllier. On Saturday, hours after the final whistle had sealed their FA Cup triumph, groups of fans were singing his praises outside the parish church of St John the Baptist and beneath the bronze statue of Aneurin Bevan. In mid-afternoon onWednesday, in the parkland surrounding Borussia Dortmund’s fine modern stadium, a gaggle struck up a new and striking anthem: “Grard … Grard Houllier … Shankly … Shankly in disguise.”
Only time, and quite a lot of it, will tell whether Houllier has the capacity to erect the kind of edifice that Shankly built at Anfield and which outlived his tenure all the way to the Heysel. But the fact that the possibility is crossing the minds of the club’s fans is an extraordinary tribute to the effectiveness of the work he has done, in the face of considerable scepticism from those who did not see a French schoolteacher as the ideal custodian of the heritage of Shankly, Paisley and Dalglish.
But it is clear Houllier has a great deal of work to do before his Liverpool side can be spoken of in the same terms as their great predecessors. This lot lack the sort of meanness in defence that characterised the teams over which Tommy Smith and Alan Hansen presided.
Nor do Liverpool’s attackers always work hard enough to make their chances count.