Part of the unique appeal of two-legged European knock-out football has always been the dramatic way an away goal can suddenly shift the entire complexion of a tie.
Think Philippe Coutinho’s sublime disguised chip at Old Trafford which killed Manchester United’s hopes of a Europa League comeback stone dead during Jurgen Klopp’s first season and, conversely, Marcos Llorente's extra-time strike for Atletico Madrid during the infamous March 2020 Champions League last 16 knock-out tie which loosened Liverpool’s grip on club’s sixth European Cup won so memorably in Atleti’s own Wanda Metropolitano stadium nine months previously.
The concept of the away goal has become increasingly unpopular over the years however, with some feeling one of main founding principles of its introduction - the idea it would stop teams playing defensively away from home and reward those prepared to take the game to their hosts - has gone the other way, with a perception some sides now play more conservatively on their own ground (particularly in a first leg), seemingly being more concerned about not conceding than scoring themselves.
Those who held that point of view will therefore have been delighted with UEFA’s announcement last summer that they were scrapping the away goal rule with immediate effect, although Liverpool Champions League winner Jamie Carragher was among those against the idea and urged UEFA to reconsider.
In an official statement, UEFA president Aleksander Čeferin said, “The away goals rule has been an intrinsic part of UEFA competitions since it was introduced in 1965. However, the question of its abolition has been debated at various UEFA meetings over the last few years.
“Although there was no unanimity of views, many coaches, fans and other football stakeholders have questioned its fairness and have expressed a preference for the rule to be abolished.
“The impact of the rule now runs counter to its original purpose as, in fact, it now dissuades home teams – especially in first legs – from attacking, because they fear conceding a goal that would give their opponents a crucial advantage.
“There is also criticism of the unfairness, especially in extra time, of obliging the home team to score twice when the away team has scored.
“It is fair to say that home advantage is nowadays no longer as significant as it once was.
“Taking into consideration the consistency across Europe in terms of styles of play, and many different factors which have led to a decline in home advantage, the UEFA Executive Committee has taken the correct decision in adopting the view that it is no longer appropriate for an away goal to carry more weight than one scored at home.”
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UEFA also noted statistics showing how the gap between home and away wins had receded since the 1970s and referenced better pitch quality, standardised pitch sizes and VAR as further factors they believed reduced home advantage, while confirming away goals would also no longer be a separating criteria when two or more sides were level on points at the end of a group stage although the number of away goals scored in all group matches could still yet be used from the additional separating criteria available if teams remained locked together.
In truth, virtually every system has it flaws and inconsistencies. It could be argued that teams at home in the second leg will now have an unfair advantage when ties go to extra time because they will play 30 minutes more than their opponents on their own pitch and in front of their own supporters.
This correspondent is an unashamed fan of the away goals rule being of the opinion it provides the kind of dramatic, knife-edge moments and sense of peril that you just don’t get in league or other knock-out football.
But whether fans, players and managers like it or not, it has been consigned to history so, ahead of the first European knock-out ties to be played without it in over 50 years, we’ve taken a look back at the times the away goals rule has been kind - and not so kind - to Liverpool.
It was in fact during the Reds’ first ever continental campaign in 1964/65 that the catalyst for change which led to its introduction happened.
For the first decade or so after the European Cup began in 1955, ties which were level were decided with a play-off, often hosted on a neutral ground, which would then be decided by the toss of a coin if the sides still couldn’t be split after extra time. The drawing of lots had been in used in some international tournaments going back as far as 1928.
Bill Shankly’s men’s first foray into Europe after being crowned champions in 1964 in only their second season after promotion from the Second Division saw them despatch Reykjavik of Iceland and Anderlecht of Belgium in the opening rounds before being paired with German champions Cologne in the quarter-finals.
After goalless draws at the Mungersdorf Stadion and Anfield, the sides were sent to Rotterdam in Holland to determine which of them would make the last four where first half goals from Ian St John and Roger Hunt seemed to have put the Reds in command only for Karl-Heinz Thielen and Johanns Lohr to restore parity.
After thirty additional minutes still could not produce a winner, Ron Yeats and Cologne captain Wolfgang Overath gathered alongside referee Robert Schaut from Belgium in the centre circle, surrounded by players from both sides with 47,862 watching on from the stands and terraces, to watch a coin be tossed by the official to finally settle matters after 300 minutes of gruelling football.
Reflecting on the incident years later, Yeats said, "I got in first to the referee and said 'I'll have tails'. Lucky for me the referee said, 'OK. Liverpool tails, Cologne heads.'
"Up it went and it stuck in a divot. I said to the referee, 'Ref, you're going to have to retoss the coin'. And he went 'You're right, Mr Yeats.'
"I thought the German captain was going to hit him. He was going berserk because it was falling over on the heads. He picked it up, up it went again, and came down tails.
"We were coming off and who is standing there but Bill Shankly. I was first off the pitch and he went 'Well done, big man. I am proud of you. What did you pick?'
"I said 'I picked tails, boss'. I was waiting for the adulation but he just went 'I would have picked tails myself' and walked away."
Ties earlier in that season's competition between Anderlecht and Bologna and Dukla Prague and Gornik Zabrze had been decided by the same method but with the European governing body seemingly unhappy that a semi-final place had been determined in such a haphazard way they decided to introduce the away goal rule, which meant in the event of the scores being level after both legs any goals accrued while a side was playing away from home would count double.
However it was only initially applied in the European Cup Winners Cup for the following 1965/66 season and was not used in the European Cup until 1967/68 and then only for the first round, being extended to the second round the following season and only being applied for the later rounds in 1970/71, when Everton became the first English team eliminated from the competition by it at the quarter final stage by Greek champions Panathinaikos.
The Reds’ second ever European Cup campaign in 1966/67 had begun with a first round tie against Romanians Petrolul Ploesti and, after a 2-0 win at Anfield in the first leg, Roger Hunt’s 50th minute strike in the 3-1 return leg defeat would have been enough to take Shankly’s men through but the away goals rule was a still a year away from being introduced in the elite competition so the sides had to reconvene at Brussels’ Heysel stadium where first half goals from Ian St John and Peter Thompson sent Liverpool to Holland face Ajax and a 17-year-old superstar in the making called Johan Cruyff.
With the away goals rule yet to be introduced in the European Fairs Cup (the forerunner to the UEFA Cup and Europa League), Ron Yeats and Liverpool would literally and figuratively get to see the other side of the coin three and a half years after their good fortune in Rotterdam against Cologne when losing the toss of a disc at Anfield after both legs of their 1968/69 first round tie against Athletic Bilbao of Spain ended 2-1 to the home side.
Twelve months later, the Fairs Cup had followed suit with its two sister competitions in adopting the rule and Liverpool immediately fell foul of it but would ultimately benefit more often than not, progressing five times by virtue of it as opposed to four eliminations.
1969/70 Fairs Cup second round vs Vitoria Setubal
Having lost the first leg 2-1 in Portugal, Liverpool looked dead and buried when Setubal went two up on the night and three goals clear on aggregate following Geoff Strong’s own goal eleven minutes after half time.
Tommy Smith pulled a goal back from the penalty spot however and when substitutes Alun Evans and Roger Hunt both scored in the final three minutes to level the aggregate the score at 4-4, a jubilant Kop was looking forward to extra time to see if an incredible comeback could be completed.
They were not the only ones uncertain over exactly how these still relatively new rules were supposed to work as the players of both sides stayed on the pitch clearly expecting extra time to be played and had to be told to go back to the dressing rooms by the referee, an announcement having to be made over the tannoy asking the 41,633 Anfield crowd to go home as Setubal had won the tie.
An ebullient Bill Shankly refused to acknowledge afterwards his side had been beaten by the Portuguese visitors, saying, “We were beaten by a penalty, an own goal and the rules of the competition.”
1972/73 UEFA Cup semi-final vs Tottenham Hotspur
Liverpool’s first successful experience of the away goals rule came en route to the club’s first ever European trophy.
Only two seasons after the Reds’ first continental clash against English opposition had seen Billy Bremner’s first leg header at the Kop end send Don Revie’s Leeds United into the Fairs Cup final, Shankly’s men were paired with Spurs at the same stage of the same competition, now renamed the UEFA Cup.
Left back Alec Lindsay’s early goal in the Anfield first leg gave Liverpool a slim advantage to take to White Hart Lane where World Cup winner Martin Peters levelled the tie four minutes after half-time.
Six minutes later however Steve Heighway put the Reds back in front on aggregate from close range after Kevin Keegan had broken clear and although Peters scored again, Shankly’s men held out to book their place in the two-legged final against Borussia Moenchengladbach where a 3-2 triumph brought a European title to Anfield for the first time.
1974/75 European Cup Winners Cup second round vs Ferencvaros
Bob Paisley’s first European match as Liverpool manager in the previous round had produced the club’s record ever scoreline with an 11-0 rout of Norwegian minnows Stromsgodset, the modest north easterner saying after the game in which only goalkeeper Ray Clemence and midfielder Brian Hall had not scored, “It’s a bit embarrassing, but then if we had messed around people would have said they did not get value.”
The following round against Hungarian side Ferencvaros - who in 1968 had become the first European side to win at Anfield - proved a much tougher task however as, after Kevin Keegan’s 36th minute opener, the Reds wasted opportunities to extend their lead and were sucker-punched by Maté’s 90th minute equaliser.
A hot-tempered return in Budapest ended goalless with Tommy Smith claiming to have been hit by a bottle thrown from the crowd as a niggly game got increasingly fractious towards the end and Liverpool were out.
1980/81 European Cup semi final vs Bayern Munich
Liverpool were enduring a rare undistinguished league campaign - their final placing of fifth was the only time the Reds finished outside the top two between 1972 and 1992 - but, having won the League Cup for the first time after a Villa Park replay victory over West Ham, were eyeing a third European Cup in five seasons after seeing off Oulu Palloseura of Finland, Alex Ferguson’s Aberdeen and Bulgarians CSKA Sofia to set up a semi-final against Bayern Munich.
A goalless draw in the Anfield first leg led the German giants - who had won a hat-trick of European Cups between 1974 and 1976 - to print travel details for the final in Paris ahead of their return leg in the Olympiastadion while Bayern captain Paul Breitner criticised Liverpool’s performance in the first match as “lacking imagination” but it only acted as extra motivation for an injury-hit Liverpool side.
Reserve defenders Richard Money and Colin Irwin made up half the back four in the absence of Phil Thompson and Alan Kennedy while the task was made even harder when Kenny Dalglish had to be substituted after only 10 minutes with an ankle injury.
His replacement, young Scouse forward Howard Gayle, ran the hosts ragged and was denied a clear penalty after being hacked down in the penalty area, being substituted himself for Jimmy Case on 70 minutes after picking up a harsh booking before seven minutes from time, Liverpool scored the away goal which put the seal on one of the club’s greatest ever European performances.
With Bayern pushing forward in search of the winner, David Johnson found Ray Kennedy in space 15 yards out and the stand-in skipper controlled the ball on his chest before burying a volley with his weaker right-foot beyond goalkeeper Walter Junghans.
Karl-Heinz Rummenigge equalised four minutes later but Paisley’s men saw the closing stages through to set up a meeting with Real Madrid in the French capital, with the Liverpool manager hailing the heroics of his side afterwards.
“That’s got to be our best performance It was as good as when we won in Rome”, Paisley said.
“It was full of character. It was not our classiest performance but it was a tremendous effort.
“Two players came off and another two could have joined them. For a Central League side we didn’t do bad.”
1997/98 UEFA Cup first round vs Celtic
Michael Owen, only a few months after announcing himself on the world stage at France 98, had given Liverpool an early lead at Parkhead with his first European goal for the club but a Jackie McNamara equaliser and Simon Donnelly penalty looked set to give Celtic a lead to take to Anfield until the final minute of the first leg.
Receiving the ball from Rob Jones on the right flank twenty yards inside his own half, Steve McManaman set off on a sensational diagonal run half the length of the pitch towards the Celtic goal before reaching the edge of the penalty area and firing a left foot shot into the net off the far post to equalise.
A goalless draw in front of an electric Anfield atmosphere saw the Reds progress to the next round and a tie against Strasbourg of France.
1998/99 UEFA Cup second round vs Valencia
The doomed joint-manager experiment of Roy Evans and Gerard Houllier was in its final stages but the former’s stellar 35-year Liverpool career would have one final hurrah just a week before his departure.
After a goalless draw at Anfield, Claudio Lopez’s opener on the stroke of half time had put the Spaniards firmly in charge and the Reds had shown very little threat of the away goal which might threaten the host’s progress until stunning them with two goals in the final ten minutes.
Michael Owen left two defenders for dead as he raced to the byline and crossed to the back post where Steve McManaman in his final season at Anfield before his free transfer to Real Madrid arrived to thump home a header to draw Liverpool level nine minutes from time.
With Claudio Ranieri’s side forced to push forward in need of a winner, Patrik Berger cracked home a trademark left-foot drive from 20 yards five minutes later to clinch the Reds’ spot in round three although a David James own goal levelled matters on the night before a stoppage time flare up saw both McManaman and captain Paul Ince along with Valencia defender Amadeo Carboni sent off.
2006/07 Champions League last 16 vs Barcelona
Rafa Benitez’s side fell behind early in the Camp Nou first leg meeting between the last two Champions League winners to Deco’s header but were level before half time when Craig Bellamy, who had already come close with a header from a Steven Gerrard free kick, got on the end of Steve Finnan’s cross from the right to power a header goalwards which goalkeeper Victor Valdes could not prevent crossing the line.
The pre-match build-up had been dominated by a reported row between Bellamy and John Arne Riise during the Reds’ mid-season training camp in Portugal which had seen the Welsh forward attack the Norwegian defender with a golf club and the fates of football demanded Riise should score the winner, Bellamy inevitably being the men to set him up to fire home right-footed after Valdez had blocked from Dirk Kuyt.
With Alvaro Arbeloa producing a memorable debut to keep Lionel Messi quiet, Liverpool became only the second English team to win away to Barcelona after Liverpool in 1976 but were unable to extend their lead in the return leg a fortnight later at Anfield.
Eidur Gudjohnson’s 75th-minute goal levelled the aggregate score to set a few nerves jangling but the Reds held on to knock out the holders and set up a quarter-final with PSV Eindhoven en route a second final in three years.
2009/10 Europa League semi-final vs Atletico Madrid
A season of woe had seen Liverpool drop into the Europa League after elimination from the Champions League in the group stages where victories over Unirea Urziceni, Lille and Benfica set up a last-four meeting with an Atletico Madrid side featuring the likes of Sergio Aguero, the late José Antonio Reyes, Diego Forlan, Simao Sabrosa and David de Gea.
Forlan’s ninth-minute goal settled the first leg in the Vicente Calderon before Alberto Aquilani produced the best moment of his brief Liverpool career following his big money move from AS Roma the previous summer by firing home from the edge of the box at the Kop end on the stroke of half time to level the tie.
Five minutes into extra time, Yossi Benayoun put Liverpool in front with an angled left foot drive past De Gea from Lucas Leiva’s chipped pass into his path but Forlan struck eight minutes later from close range after José Antonio Reyes caught out Glen Johnson to set up the Uruguayan and it was the Spaniards who went to the Hamburg final where they beat Roy Hodgson’s Fulham 2-1 after extra time.
2012/13 Europa League last 32 vs Zenit Saint Petersburg
Brendan Rodgers’s difficult first half season in charge having succeeded Kenny Dalglish had extended into new year with an FA Cup fourth round exit at struggling League One side Oldham Athletic, a 2-0 home defeat to Steve Clarke’s West Brom three days before the first leg trip to Russia dropping the Reds to ninth in the Premier League.
Two Zenit goals in three minutes midway through the second half gave Liverpool a mountain a climb back at Anfield where only once before had Liverpool ever recovered a similar first leg deficit.
When Brazilian striker Hulk ran clear on 19 minutes to slot home at the Kop end, the Reds now needed four goals to progress but got two of them before half time, Luis Suarez firing home a 20 yard free kick before Joe Allen scored his first goal since his summer move from Swansea with a smart finish from close range after his effort from Jose Enrique’s left wing cross was parried back to him.
Suarez scored an even better free kick from 25 yards fourteen minutes into the second half to level the aggregate score from three down and set up a grandstand finish but Rodgers’s men could not find a winner and the Russians went through.
