Despite being entirely outplayed by Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League last-16 tie at the Parcs des Princes after Harvey Elliott scored that dramatic winner, Liverpool retained their blinkered pre-match status as hot favourites to progress because It Will Be A Totally Different Game At Anfield.
It probably will be: PSG are unlikely to be so good while Liverpool simply cannot be so bad and completely reliant on the heroics of Alisson. But the Special European Nights At Anfield haven’t always been special enough.
Here are eight times this century when Liverpool have f***ed it at Anfield, either in the second leg of a knockout tie or when they needed a victory at home in the group stage.
Liverpool 0-1 Valencia: Champions League penultimate group game, October 2002
No real shame in losing to a Valencia team that finished as runners up in two of the previous three seasons, and Liverpool would have made it through the group had they not drawn away in Basel in their last game, with their second-half comeback from 3-0 down seeing them fall just short.
Liverpool 0-2 Benfica (0-3 agg): Champions League last-16, March 2006
Having knocked out Manchester United in the group phase, Benfica then ousted the reigning champions thanks to a Jamie Carragher error that led to a stunning striker by Sabrosa Simao – who was perhaps using the Liverpool Echo’s insistence that he wasn’t really worth his £12m asking price as he had ‘done nothing to enhance his reputation’ in the first leg as motivation – before Fabrizio Miccoli completed the Reds’ misery with an overhead kick in the dying minutes.
Liverpool 2-1 Atletico (2-2 agg): Europa League semi-final, April 2010
They limped out of the Champions League, winning just two of their six group games, both against Hungarian side Debrecen, picking up just one point from home and away clashes against Lyon and Fiorentina, but found their level in the Europa League.
They eased through against Unirea Urziceni, Lille and Benfica thanks in large part to Fernando Torres, but having scored braces in both the last-16 and quarter-final second legs at Anfield, the Liverpool striker drew a blank against Atletico as Diego Forlan’s extra-time away goal booked the Spanish side’s place in the final against Fulham.
It was the result that essentially ensured Rafael Benitez would leave the club at the end of the season, to be replaced by final-reaching Fulham manager Roy Hodgson.
Liverpool 0-0 Braga (0-1 agg): Europa League last-16, March 2011
BBC Sport soothsayer Mandeep Sanghera described Andy Carroll’s full debut after his £35m January move from Newcastle as ‘inauspicious’. He missed a couple of headers while Steven Gerrard watched from the bench, in what was a particularly low period in general for Liverpool before Luis Suarez really got going.
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Liverpool 3-1 Zenit St Petersburg (3-3 agg): Europa League last-32, February 2013
A valiant effort to overturn the two-goal deficit from a “near-perfect away performance” – never change, Brendan Rodgers – but two Luis Suárez free-kicks either side of Joe Allen’s goal weren’t enough after Carragher ensured his 150th European outing would also be his last as he passed the ball straight to Hulk to gift the Brazilian an early opener that saw the visitors progress on away goals.
Liverpool 1-1 Basel: Champions League last group game, December 2014
A performance described as ‘pedestrian’ and ‘lacking in spark’ where ‘The Kop was silenced except when voicing frustration’ at Rodgers’ side, which was feeling the effect of losing Suarez to Barcelona and signing Rickie Lambert from Southampton, with this draw confirming they fell one point short of Basel and failed to progress.
Gerrard gave them late hope with a stunning free-kick but it was a struggle from the point Lazar Markovic was sent off for an elbow on the hour mark.
Liverpool 2-3 Atletico Madrid (2-4 agg): Champions League last-16, March 2020
It was a tale of two goalkeepers as Jan Oblak was named Man of the Match after making nine saves to deny a Liverpool side with PSG-2025-level dominance, while Adrian – playing in place of the injured Alisson – hacked out a hopeless clearance ahead of Marcos Llorente’s extra-time goal.
A ruthless Atletico added two further goals to pile on the misery, as a Jurgen Klopp-led Liverpool failed to progress from a two-legged European tie for the first time in what was also the first game in Europe at Anfield they had lost under the German. Klopp predictably bemoaned the lack of “proper football” played by Diego Simeone’s side.
Liverpool 0-0 Real Madrid (1-3 agg): Champions League Quarter-final, April 2021
A defensive masterclass by Real Madrid and Casemiro in particular against a profligate Liverpool side that had only recently come out the other side of a run of six defeats in seven in the Premier League. The damage was done in the first leg though, mainly by an on-fire Vinicius Junior.
