Nine years ago today Liverpool won 7-0 in Maribor, the biggest away win in the club’s long European history.
The date also gave Jürgen Klopp his first game in charge in 2015, John Aldridge a club-record tenth league game in a row on the scoresheet in 1987, and Mohamed Salah his 100th Liverpool goal in a bruising Goodison derby in 2020.
2017: Seven in Slovenia
Liverpool travelled to Maribor having drawn their first two group games, against Sevilla and Spartak Moscow. Any nerves lasted four minutes.
Salah broke down the right and Roberto Firmino finished from close range. Philippe Coutinho volleyed the second from James Milner’s pull-back, and Salah scored twice before the break, first from Firmino’s pass and then from Alberto Moreno’s cross. It was 4-0 at half-time.
Firmino flicked in a header from Coutinho’s free-kick early in the second half. Substitute Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain, set up by fellow substitute Daniel Sturridge, scored his first goal for the club, and Trent Alexander-Arnold added the seventh in the final minute.
No English club had ever won by such a margin away from home in the European Cup or Champions League, and the scoreline equalled the biggest away win in Champions League history.
Seven months later, Klopp’s side were playing in the Champions League final in Kyiv.
2015: Klopp’s first game
It was 2015, and Jürgen Klopp’s Liverpool career began with a goalless draw at White Hart Lane.
Brendan Rodgers had been sacked, and with Daniel Sturridge injured, Divock Origi led the line. Liverpool pressed from the first whistle and almost scored in the tenth minute, when Emre Can flicked on Milner’s corner and Origi headed against the crossbar.
Tottenham came back into the game, and Simon Mignolet kept them out with saves from Harry Kane and Clinton N’Jie. The 0-0 gave Liverpool their first clean sheet in nine matches.
Within five years, Klopp had won the Champions League and the Premier League.
1987: Aldridge makes it ten
Kenny Dalglish’s side beat Queens Park Rangers 4-0 at Anfield in front of 43,735, and John Aldridge’s penalty meant he had scored in ten league games in a row: the last game of the previous season and all nine of the new one. It is still a Liverpool record.
QPR arrived as league leaders. Craig Johnston had an early goal ruled out, then put Liverpool ahead from John Barnes’s pass shortly before half-time. Aldridge scored from the spot after Terry Fenwick handled a Barnes free-kick, his 12th goal of the season.
Then Barnes took over. He played a one-two with Aldridge to make it 3-0, and five minutes from time he won the ball near halfway, ran at the QPR defence, left Fenwick behind and beat David Seaman with a low shot.
The win took Liverpool top, and Dalglish’s side went on to win the title.
2020: Salah’s 100th in a derby to forget
The Merseyside derby was played behind closed doors at Goodison Park, and the 2-2 scoreline was only part of the story.
Sadio Mané put Liverpool ahead in the third minute. Soon afterwards, Jordan Pickford’s challenge on Virgil van Dijk forced the defender off. Van Dijk had been flagged offside, so there could be no penalty, but Pickford could still have been sent off for the challenge. He stayed on. Referee Michael Oliver later admitted the officials had been too focused on the offside and had not thought about the challenge as much as they should have.
Van Dijk needed knee surgery and did not play again that season.
Michael Keane equalised, and Salah restored the lead with 18 minutes left, his 100th goal for Liverpool. Dominic Calvert-Lewin brought Everton level again, and Richarlison was sent off late on for a wild challenge on Thiago. In stoppage time Jordan Henderson thought he had won it, only for VAR to rule Mané offside in the build-up.
1970: Heighway off the mark
Fifty-six years ago today, Steve Heighway scored his first Liverpool goal as Bill Shankly’s side beat Burnley 2-0 at Anfield in front of 40,804.
Ron Yeats headed the opener from Tommy Smith’s cross just before half-time, and Heighway made sure early in the second half. It was Yeats’s only goal of his final season, and his last for Liverpool.
Five weeks later Heighway started the famous fightback against Everton at Anfield, as Liverpool came from 2-0 down to win 3-2.
2009: The beach ball
It was 2009, and Liverpool lost at Sunderland to one of the strangest goals the Premier League has seen.
In the fifth minute, Darren Bent’s shot struck a beach ball and deflected past Pepe Reina. The ball had come from the Liverpool end. Referee Mike Jones allowed the goal to stand, even though the laws said play should have been stopped and restarted with a dropped ball.
It was the only goal of the game.
Born on this day in 1876: Tommy Robertson
Tommy Robertson was born 150 years ago today in Fauldhouse, Scotland.
The winger joined Liverpool from Hearts in 1898 and scored 35 goals in 141 games. He was ever-present in 1900-01 as Liverpool won the league title for the first time, and he returned to Hearts in 1902.
2022: Mané and Salah in the Ballon d’Or top five
In 2022, Sadio Mané finished second to Karim Benzema in the Ballon d’Or, with Salah in fifth.
Also on this day
- 1896: Sunderland 4-3 Liverpool. Archie Goldie and George Allan scored, along with an own goal.
- 1903: Stoke 5-2 Liverpool, with Jack Cox and George Fleming on target.
- 1908: Liverpool 2-2 Woolwich Arsenal. Joe Hewitt and Ronald Orr scored.
- 1914: Tom Miller scored twice in a 2-1 home win over Bradford City.
- 1925: Harry Chambers and Dick Forshaw earned a 2-1 win over Manchester City at Anfield.
- 1931: Gordon Hodgson and Gordon Gunson scored in a 2-1 win at West Bromwich Albion.
- 1936: Liverpool 0-0 Bolton Wanderers.
- 1953: Huddersfield Town 2-0 Liverpool.
- 1959: Jimmy Harrower’s goal earned a 1-1 draw at Stoke City in the Second Division.
- 1964: Ian St John and Roger Hunt scored in a 2-2 draw with West Ham United at Anfield, with Geoff Hurst getting both for the visitors.
- 1981: Kenny Dalglish, Ray Kennedy and Terry McDermott scored in a 3-3 draw at Brighton.
- 1995: Liverpool drew 0-0 away to Brøndby in the UEFA Cup second round, first leg.
- 1996: Robbie Fowler and John Barnes scored in a 2-1 win at Sion in the Cup Winners’ Cup.
- 1998: Everton 0-0 Liverpool at Goodison Park.
- 2010: Everton 2-0 Liverpool, with Tim Cahill and Mikel Arteta scoring.
- 2016: Liverpool 0-0 Manchester United at Anfield.