The classic match: “I don’t know what it is, but I like it” – the story of Roma 1984

Having claimed their first European Cup in the Eternal City seven years ago by defeating Borussia Monchengladbach, the Reds returned to the Italian capital looking to capture their fourth crown and complete a superb treble in the process.

Fagan’s side have already secured the league championship – their third in a row – and beat local rivals Everton to win their fourth successive Cup.

So when they faced Romanian champions Dinamo Bucharest in a tight and tense European Cup semi-final, they were confident of reasserting their status as the continent’s best team.

Liverpool’s task, however, was a daunting one. Standing in their way were Italian champions AS Roma, who would have home advantage for the final.

The Stadio Olimpico was transformed into a sea of ​​red in 1977, but was anything but welcoming on 30 May 1984.

Home fans, eager to see their side crowned kings of Europe in their own backyard, began arriving hours before kick-off, creating an intimidating atmosphere that might have been too much for the lower sides to handle.

Fagan’s Liverpool, however, was a different proposition. Five of their starting XI have won the European Cup before, and a fabled ‘training camp’ in Tel Aviv ensured any tension ahead of the final was truly extinguished.

After a typically brief team talk – “they’ve got to be good but they can’t be as good as us…” was the gist, according to those in attendance – Fagan’s players were in a relaxed mood as they headed in the tunnel.

Memories differ as to exactly who started the singing, but by the time the two sides lined up to take the field, a chorus of Chris Rea’s hit I don’t know what it is but I like it called from those in red.

“I don’t know what it is, but I like it…

“I don’t know what it is, but I want it to stay…”

“It was just one of those spontaneous things really,” quarterback Mark Lawrenson recalls. “The Roma players must have thought we were out of our minds!”

Liverpool’s composure extended onto the field. Phil Neal gave them the lead after 15 minutes, prodding home when Roma goalkeeper Franco Tancredi flicked a deep cross into the box, while captain Graeme Souness, playing his final game for the club before a summer move to Sampdoria, was huge in midfield.

“You don’t get the likes of Graeme Souness anymore,” says Lawrenson. “I think he had maybe his biggest performance in that game.”

Roma, however, were a complete team, with Brazilian duo Paulo Roberto Falcao and Toninho Cerezo patrolling the midfield and Italian World Cup winners Bruno Conti and Francesco Graziani in attack.

And Nils Liedholm’s side equalized before half-time when Roberto Pruzzo headed home.

A tense, scoreless second half was followed by an equally hectic overtime period, in which neither team could find an opening.

And so to penalties. Substitute Steve Nicol went up first for Liverpool but it went over the bar and Roma captain Agostino Di Bartolomei converted for the Italians.

Neal got Liverpool off the mark before Conti, perhaps spooked by the goalmouth antics of Liverpool goalkeeper Bruce Grobbelaar, missed the target with his shot to level things.

Both Souness and Ian Rush scored for Liverpool, with Ubaldo Righetti doing so for Roma, but when Graziani stepped up for the home side, Grobbelaar was determined to make his presence felt.

“Fagan told me before the shoot-outs to try and delay them,” he recalls. “When I saw Graziani sign four times, I tried to do something different.

“I bit the net. Spaghetti is hard until you put it in water and then it starts to boil, and that’s what I did, totally spontaneously.”

Grobbelaar’s “spaghetti legs” did the trick, Graziani firing the penalty against the bar to give Liverpool the chance to win with their fifth and final strike.

Responsibility fell to left-back Alan Kennedy, who had been the Reds’ match-winner in the 1981 final against Real Madrid in Paris but was a surprise choice as a fifth man.

“My penalty shootout record wasn’t very good,” says Kennedy. “We trained the week before and we were absolutely abysmal. How Joe Fagan chose me, no one knows!”

Kennedy, however, kept his composure admirably to go home and left, in the words of ITV commentator Brian Moore, “Rome troubled and Merseyside jubilant…”

Souness, fittingly, would lift the trophy, the Scot guiding the Reds back to the top of European football in his final game for the club.

Behind the captain, experienced performers such as Kennedy, Neal, Kenny Dalglish, Alan Hansen and Sammy Lee could celebrate yet another continental triumph, while the likes of Grobbelaar, Lawrenson, Nicol, Rush, Craig Johnston, Ronnie Whelan and Michael Robinson s -could enjoy their first.

“It was an opportunity,” says Lawrenson. “You probably don’t appreciate it at the time, but looking back, you do.

“Beating a team in front of your own fans in a European Cup final? It’s an achievement, isn’t it?”