Fagan's Liverpool beat Roma in Rome on penalties

For two seasons after Paris, Liverpool won the league and went out of Europe in the quarter-finals. In September 1981 Bill Shankly died. In December, in Tokyo, Liverpool lost the Intercontinental Cup 3–0 to Zico's Flamengo. They won the league in 1982, and went out of the European Cup in the quarter-final to CSKA Sofia, beaten 2–0 after extra time in Sofia after winning the first leg 1–0 at Anfield.

In November 1982 Ian Rush scored four at Goodison, and Liverpool won the league again in 1983. The European Cup ended in the quarter-final once more. Widzew Łódź won 2–0 in Poland, and Liverpool's 3–2 win at Anfield was not enough.

Paisley's last final

Bob Paisley had said that 1982–83 would be his last season. On 26 March 1983 Liverpool beat Manchester United 2–1 after extra time in the Milk Cup final at Wembley. Norman Whiteside scored for United, and Alan Kennedy and Ronnie Whelan for Liverpool. When it was time to collect the trophy, the captain, Graeme Souness, stepped aside and sent Paisley up to get it. In nine seasons he had won six league titles and three European Cups.

His successor came out of the same Boot Room. Joe Fagan, who had played most of his football for Manchester City, joined Liverpool's staff in 1958, worked alongside Shankly and Paisley there, and became Paisley's assistant in 1979. He was 62 when he took over in July 1983, and he had not been keen to do it.

The run

Liverpool beat Odense 1–0 away and 5–0 at Anfield, then drew 0–0 with Athletic Bilbao at Anfield and won 1–0 in Bilbao. In the quarter-final against Benfica, now coached by Sven-Göran Eriksson, Kenny Dalglish came back for the first leg after nine weeks out with a broken cheekbone. Liverpool won 1–0. "He gave us more skill and from our point of view he won us the game," said Fagan. In Lisbon Liverpool won 4–1. Whelan scored twice and Craig Johnston and Rush got the others, and Dalglish set up three.

The semi-final was against Dinamo Bucharest. Sammy Lee scored the only goal of the first leg at Anfield on 11 April. It was a rough game. Off the ball, Souness hit Dinamo's captain, Lică Movilă, and the referee did not see it. "He kicked everything that moved and three times caught me with punches off the ball," Souness said later. "I'd had enough." In Bucharest on 25 April Rush scored twice, Liverpool won 2–1, and they were through 3–1.

In Roma's stadium

Their opponents in the final were Nils Liedholm's Roma. It was Roma's first European Cup final, and it was to be played in their own stadium, the Stadio Olimpico. Their side had Franco Tancredi in goal, and Falcão, Toninho Cerezo, Bruno Conti, Roberto Pruzzo and Francesco Graziani.

As the teams lined up to go out, the Liverpool players sang Chris Rea's "I Don't Know What It Is But I Love It". "It was just one of those spontaneous things really," said Mark Lawrenson. "The Roma players must have thought we were off our heads!"

Fagan picked Bruce Grobbelaar, Phil Neal, Alan Kennedy, Lawrenson, Whelan, Alan Hansen, Dalglish, Lee, Rush, Johnston and Souness. The crowd was 69,693.

Liverpool scored early. Johnston crossed from the right, Tancredi dropped the ball under a challenge from Whelan, and Neal scored. Shortly before half-time Conti crossed and Pruzzo equalised with a glancing header. Steve Nicol came on for Johnston, Michael Robinson replaced Dalglish in extra time, and after 120 minutes it was still 1–1.

Penalties

Grobbelaar has told the story of Fagan's words before the shootout in more than one way. In one telling it was: "Listen, we shouldn't be in this position, nobody will blame you." In another, Fagan told him to try to put the Roma takers off.

Nicol went first and put his kick over the bar. Agostino Di Bartolomei scored for Roma. Neal scored. Then Conti shot over. By Grobbelaar's own account, Conti and Graziani were the two takers he picked out.

Souness scored, and so did Ubaldo Righetti. Rush scored. Graziani took Roma's fourth kick. "When I saw Graziani crossing himself four times I tried to do something different," Grobbelaar said later. "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." On his line he wobbled his legs, and Graziani missed.

That left Alan Kennedy, who had won the final in Paris three years before, and he scored. Liverpool won 4–2 on penalties.

"People said it was unsporting," Grobbelaar said, "but my logic was if an international player can't hit the target from 12 yards, it's not my fault."

Souness, the captain, had played his last game for Liverpool. That summer he joined Sampdoria.

Three trophies

It was Liverpool's fourth European Cup in eight seasons. They had already won the league for the third year running, finishing three points ahead of Southampton, and the League Cup, beating Everton 1–0 in a replay at Maine Road after a goalless final at Wembley. Fagan was the first manager of an English club to win three major trophies in one season, and he had done it in his first.