Two good to be believed

May 21 2007 by David Prentice, Liverpool Echo

“I had managed to get tickets for all my Sunday team, Falcon. They were all in a row at the front with their flags and I’d planned to show it to them first.

“But then the official who was presenting the trophy picked it up and looked like he was going to raise it first.

“He raised it, shoulders square and was about to raise it aloft. I just thought ‘I’ve worked years to be here.’

“I’d walked up all those steps, and this old geezer was about to take away my destiny from me. So I just gestured to him ‘give us that trophy here’ and fortunately he did. I might have had to throw in a Kirkby kiss if he hadn’t!

“I wanted it in my hands and I wanted to feel what it felt like.

“Obviously I’d held it in 1978, and I got to touch it in 1977 even though I wasn’t playing, but being skipper was definitely different.

“For a couple of weeks before the final it’s all you think about and dream about. And I’d done it.

“It’s definitely the greatest personal moment of my career.”

It’s an experience Steven Gerrard has also lived through – and now he has the opportunity to duplicate that moment in Athens on Wednesday.

Can Liverpool win?

“Well put it this way,” explained Thompson. “Milan have got about seven or eight players who played in Istanbul. They are two years older now and they’re certainly no better now than they were then.

“That will give Liverpool confidence that they can do well, particularly late in the game, and especially if it goes to extra time.

“But we are better equipped now than we were in 2005.

“We won’t witness a game like that again, to drag ourselves from the depths of despair to something wonderful is a once in a lifetime moment, but I would like to think we won’t have to dredge those depths this time.

“I think we have all the attributes to win it. And Steven Gerrard can make history by becoming the only Scouser to lift the European Cup twice.

“I desperately hope he does.”