Liverpool must shed 'nearly men' tag and prove trophy-winning credentials in PSG revenge mission

David Lynch17 September 2018

Considering that Liverpool’s meeting with Paris Saint Germain this week represents one of the early glamour ties of the new Champions League campaign, it is perhaps odd that the two sides have only ever faced off once before.

But it is easy to forget that, quite unlike their hosts on Tuesday, the entirety of the French champions’ past remains relatively recent history.

Formed in 1970 as a merger between Paris FC and Stade Saint-Germain, PSG’s early years were marred by a further split and relegation to third tier, and so fans were forced to wait until the 1985-86 season to celebrate a maiden Ligue 1 title.

By that point, the team who had most frequently conquered Europe in their absence - Liverpool - were beginning a six-year ban from continental competition in the aftermath of the tragic events at Heysel Stadium in May 1985.

And when the Reds eventually returned, they took time adapting to a landscape that had shifted significantly, performing poorly during their initial forays.

However, 1996’s FA Cup Final defeat to Manchester United brought consolation in the form of a place in the Cup Winners’ Cup and, after a kind draw saw MyPa, Sion and Brann dispatched en route to the semi-finals, supporters had an opportunity to dream of more European glory.

Their opponents in the last four would be defending champions PSG; regulars in the upper echelons of Ligue 1 who, at the time, could not have imagined their title win three seasons prior marked the start of a drought that would last until 2013.

Even the loss of soon-to-be World Cup-winner Youri Djorkaeff the summer before had been offset by the arrival of a man who had already lifted the trophy in Brazilian maestro Leonardo.

As ever, though, a Liverpool side famed for their buccaneering approach under Roy Evans felt they had nothing to fear as they headed to the Parc des Princes for the first leg of a semi-final tie that promised much.

Jason McAteer, a member of the Reds’ starting XI that April evening, recalls: “We went into the game in Paris without changing tactics really.

“We were a very expansive, easy-on-the-eye team, loved attacking and our way was that we’d score more goals than them.

“I felt we were a bit naive to be honest with all guns blazing and maybe didn’t show them too much respect.”

The result of that naivety? A 3-0 hammering courtesy of goals from Leonardo, Benoit Cauet and Jerome Leroy that appeared to extinguish all hope of Liverpool announcing their return to Europe’s top table.

Another starter from that game, striker Stan Collymore, recounts a story in which an exasperated Evans asked his players upon their return to England what exactly had gone wrong.

He alleges that David James was the first to speak out, bizarrely declaring that the beds in the team’s luxurious hotel in nearby Versailles were “too comfortable”.

Given the hosts’ first two goals were preceded by a poor punch and then a flap at a cross, perhaps the goalkeeper had a point, but that didn’t raise the mood among the squad.

“I felt a little bit - not ashamed - but when you let people down and you haven’t really got an answer for them,” McAteer explains.

Liverpool almost wiped out a 3-0 deficit in the reverse leg at Anfield
AFP/Getty Images

“We couldn’t really stick up for ourselves, we’d been basically battered 3-0 and it could have been worse. It was like we’d been taught a lesson.”

Two weeks later, Liverpool’s chance to salvage some pride arrived as they welcomed PSG to Anfield, but it appeared a ground so long starved of big European nights had been robbed of another by the first-leg result.

However, Robbie Fowler’s early strike set a defiant mood, and Mark Wright’s powerful 79th-minute header teed up a final 10 minutes that PSG manager Ricardo went on to describe as “the longest and most difficult” of his life.

It could have been even worse for the Brazilian boss had James taken a dramatic shot at redemption in the final seconds of the match, the goalkeeper heading just over from a corner.

Reflecting on the Reds’ near-comeback, McAteer says: “Although the result wasn’t great, it was one of those great nights at Anfield in respect of the noise and the atmosphere that was created by the crowd. It was something that I won’t forget.

“But I [remember] it with disappointment, really. It was another semi-final that we missed out on, we were beaten by Middlesbrough in the League Cup semis [the following year].

In Pictures | Tottenham vs Liverpool | 15/09/2018

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“Losing the FA Cup final as well to Manchester United, missing out on the league narrowly - it was becoming a bit of a theme and I don’t know why it was.”

The parallels with Jurgen Klopp’s current crop - losing finalists in the League Cup, Europa League and Champions League since the German’s arrival - are clear.

But McAteer remains optimistic that the class of 2018-19 are capable of going where Evans’ exciting side ultimately could not.

He says: “Jurgen’s team now, they’re getting all the experience of getting to the finals, they’re just not getting over that line.

“Maybe they just need that one cup final where they win it, they get the formula, the feeling, and then they go and dominate then, which is something that could happen.”

Victory over a newly money, all-conquering version of PSG on Tuesday would go some way to helping Klopp and co prove that things really might be different this time.

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