'Rome '77 is in the top three club matches I've watched'
It was a night when Barry Davies' duty to be objective was severely tested.
May 25, 1977. A date that would become etched in Liverpool FC history and an evening that the commentator, at the Stadio Olimpico to call the action for the BBC, will never forget.
Bob Paisley’s Reds reached a height that had previously been insurmountable. European Cup winners for the first time with a 3-1 victory over Borussia Monchengladbach. Glory on the grandest stage to follow up dominance at home.
Davies was privileged to witness it all first-hand, travelling to the Eternal City to describe the joust between Merseyside’s finest and the cream of the Bundesliga before toasting Liverpool’s triumph at the team hotel.
Four decades later, he drew on his rich anthology of memories to recall an occasion that few others have ever matched. The game that brought ‘the smile of the season, the performance of the season, the trophy of the season’…
What are your memories of that night in Rome?
It’s a match I remember very well. I’d certainly put it in the top three of club matches I remember most. There were lots of factors around that, but basically it was one of the great nights. I was very happy to be in Rome doing that match.
Talk us through the game from your viewpoint…
There were so many factors around it. On Saturday, Liverpool had lost the cup final – they went into that match with the possibility of winning a treble. They had lost it in a slightly unfortunate manner in that the winning goal was a fluke really. I saw the players after that game and they did look absolutely shattered by it. So I was amazed to find that when we came up to what was then Speke Airport, they seemed to be in pretty high spirits. That was a brilliant recovery. I suppose in a way they were conscious that they could at least make up for it with a double, and obviously the European match was the high point of the season.
It was a very good match, one of the better European finals. Until the amazing story of Istanbul, it was the best of the Liverpool finals. I was lucky enough to commentate on three. The atmosphere in the stadium was something I will never forget. The red tide of Liverpool had taken over and washed itself all over Rome. How people got tickets, I have no idea – the crowd was way bigger than anybody anticipated from a Liverpool point of view. The players said afterwards how much they felt responsible, that so many people had come that they were going to have to do well.
It was a special night. It’s not a question of bias. I suspect one or two people listening might have thought I was too biased towards Liverpool, but I think when you get a match like that you are required to look at it through Liverpool’s eyes. I thought [Allan] Simonsen’s goal was the best of the game and I think that shows I was pretty objective.
The whole atmosphere was really great; the crowd played an enormous part. So many of them came to the hotel afterwards and stayed until the early hours of the morning, in some cases until the late hours of the morning. Some of the players were still sitting around when the sun came up. It was just a very convivial atmosphere. That’s one of the reasons why I remember it. Good performance, good match, wonderful crowd, and Liverpool got their just desserts.
How much of an achievement was it at that time, because it was only the third time a British team had won the European Cup?
It started a run of English success – Bob Paisley was the first English manager to win it. It was a huge achievement. It was Kevin Keegan’s last match and Bob Paisley was trying to do something that Bill Shankly was not able to do. Some lines stay with me; when Emlyn Hughes went to collect the trophy, I saluted ‘the smile of the season, the performance of the season, the trophy of the season’. So that’s what I thought about it at the time.
As a commentator, are you allowed to be biased in scenarios like that, an English side in a big final?
I think bias is probably too strong a word. I went to great lengths during my football commentary that people didn’t know who I supported and not many know now! The first thing a commentator says that is complimentary to one side, the supporters of the other side could well take that as an anti-comment about their team. It’s the same as commentating on England – it’s a requirement to look upon it through English eyes but to be objective as to how the game is going. At times I was fairly critical of England over the years. There was no reason other than to look at it from a Liverpool point of view because everybody wanted them to win it. The fact that it was an English side playing and it happened to be Liverpool, who I had seen quite a lot over the course of the season because they were being so successful, there was a natural feeling of wanting Liverpool to win it.
Where does that Liverpool team rank, for you?
I said, as a club match I would put it in the top three that I watched. As a team, it was an extremely good side that played entertaining football and had a lot of good, interesting characters about it. Of course, they went on to win it again the following year. Then I went to Paris with them in 1981. It was a high point. I was as close to a Liverpool supporter that night as I was allowed to be by the job that I was doing.