Souness recalls Liverpool's '78 success

The odds were stacked in Liverpool FC's favour after they battled their way through to the 1978 European Champion Clubs' Cup final; the Reds had won the tournament the previous year, were up against a Club Brugge KV side in their first decider and, moreover, were playing at Wembley.

Nonetheless, it took until the 65th minute for Graeme Souness to tee up Scotland team-mate Kenny Dalglish for the only goal of the game as Ernst Happel's side set out their stall to stifle. No great surprise, then, but – as he told UEFA.com – a big deal for midfielder Souness, who had joined the club from Middlesbrough FC in January that year.

Graeme Souness
It was a dream come true. I'd watched the 1977 final [when the Reds beat VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach] in Australia. Funnily enough, I was watching it in a German bar in a place called Wollongong – a mining town – and they weren't very happy, but a year later I was playing at Wembley.

They gave off a feeling of invincibility, that Liverpool team of the time. There was just no way we were going to lose that game. We were the outstanding favourites; we were the holders, out of a 95,000 crowd there would have been 85,000 Liverpool supporters.

At that time, Liverpool were so used to going to Wembley for big finals. Some clubs would go down and have a three-or-four-day build-up to the final and a fancy hotel – we just went down on the Friday and it was like another away game to us.

Brugge started in a nervous fashion, getting men behind the ball and that's how the 90 minutes were: us on the front foot and them not wanting to step out and make a game of it. Then we get the goal and even then, I don't remember them chasing it much. We were such a good team at that time. When we went on the European stage, we could pass teams to death because we were such a good passing side as well. And Wembley is a passing pitch.

As for the goal, I can remember it was more or less on the 18-yard line. The ball was in the air and as it was dropping I just managed to get my pass off at the right time and the weight on it was right; Kenny was able to do the hard bit and lift it over the goalkeeper. One-on-one with the goalkeeper, there was no one better than Kenny.

Afterwards we went back to a hotel with the wives and girlfriends and we spent a few hours there, celebrated with lots of champagne. Then I took my medal to my mum and dad and my landlady who I lived with when I was at Middlesbrough. I went to see the three of them and woke them up at some ridiculous hour, ordered champagne and made them drink it with me. Very, very special times, and I'm so lucky to have experienced it.