Use your head like Sadio and subscribe to the Liverpool FC newsletter Sign me up Thank you for subscribing We have more newsletters Show me See our privacy notice Invalid Email

Bruce Grobbelaar is recreating the iconic image of his illustrious Liverpool career.

Back on Merseyside and enjoying a beer in the shadows of the sun-kissed Liver Building, the former Reds keeper is reliving the drama inside the Stadio Olimpico on May 30 1984.

After 120 minutes Liverpool’s European Cup final with Roma was deadlocked at 1-1. Manager Joe Fagan made a beeline for his goalkeeper prior to the penalty shootout.

“Joe put his arm around me and quietly had a word,” Grobbelaar told the ECHO.

“He told me, ‘Look son, you’ve had a great game. I and the coaches and the chairman and the directors, the captain and the team and the 10,000 Liverpool fans are not going to blame you now if you don’t stop the ball from 12 yards.’

“It was as I walked away, feeling much better, that he called after me ‘But make sure you try to put them off.’ That was what was in my head.”

On his walk to the goalline Grobbelaar made his mind up that he was going to do the ‘spaghetti legs’. It did the trick as first Bruno Conti and then Francesco Graziani - two Italian World Cup winners - blazed over the bar.

“The first penalty I moved when I shouldn’t have. It came start down the middle, I should have caught it,” he recalled.

“When Bruno Conti picked the ball up and started dancing down the line, it got to me. He was all bouncy. I just stood on the line and did the legs and he stopped dancing and he put the ball down and I did it again. He put it straight over the top and I thought ‘Hmm, it might work’.

“Then Graziani came up for his kick and what really annoyed me was him putting his arm around the referee and chatting to him all the way to the penalty spot. You can’t put your arm around the referee. That’s ungentlemanly conduct.

“When he got to the spot I came in all wobbly like I did, did the spaghetti legs. He’s crossed himself twice. He was worrying. He was going to put it bottom right but when I moved early he scooped the ball and hit the bar and it went over.”

It was left to Alan Kennedy to convert the decisive spot-kick and secure Liverpool’s fourth European Cup. Fagan had marked his first season in charge with an unprecedented Treble having already lifted the League Cup and clinched the league title.

“That final was like Liverpool against the world,” Grobbelaar said.

“I’ve been to the Colissuem. You know now what the gladiators had to achieve to get their life back as a warrior. It was like that. We were all warriors. It was us small guys against them.”

The two finalists’ preparations for the final could hardly have been more different. The Roma squad headed for a training camp in the Italian mountains, while Fagan took his players to Israel to acclimatise to the heat and gave then permission to let their hair down.

“We were having swimming races – back crawl – with bottles of beer in our mouths,” Grobbelaar said.

“One length and you’ve got to finish the bottle before you get to the other side. It was a fantastic trip. The agent Pini Zahavi took us out and said ‘Listen, come and relax’. We went down to the Dead Sea and covered ourselves in mud. It was fun. We laughed while Roma were hard at work.”

Roma believed it was their destiny to win the European Cup for the first time on home turf. They tried every trick in the book to unsettle the Reds.

“You had to see the training pitch we had,” he added.

“It was worse than the field I played on in Africa. It was really bad – bobbly, be careful where you run, you might twist an ankle. Joe Fagan looked at it and said ‘Let’s just go for a jog.’ We should have had two training sessions at the Stadio Olimpico but we only got one.

“When we did get to train at the stadium I hid in there after our session had finished so I could watch them practising penalties. It was two days before the final and I was doing my homework.”

The hosts weren’t any more hospitable on matchday when Liverpool made their way to the Stadio Olimpico.

“Their fans were throwing rocks at our coach,” he said. “David Johnson actually helped the wives getting out of their bus which was stoned as well. David helped them get into the stadium and then they locked him out! He had to tell them ‘Hey, I’m one of the players, you’ve got to let me in.’

“We had to walk around the running track. We couldn’t go and test our boots or anything because there was a game going on. When we got to the Roma end, they started throwing things at us.”

Liverpool refused to be intimidated. This was a team packed with big characters like captain Graeme Souness. When they gathered in the tunnel before kick-off the Reds broke into a rendition of Chris Rea’s ‘I Don’t Know What It Is But I Love It’ - much to the bewilderment of their opponents.

Grobbelaar explained: “They never came out of their dressing room. We were waiting and Souey said ‘Come on guys, we need a song to keep warm to.’

“It was Chris Rea and we were all bouncing around. Then I went and banged on their dressing room door and their captain came out. Souey said ‘Just look them in the eye and keep on singing.’ You can imagine what they were thinking.”

Added motivation came from what the Reds spotted in the stands.

“Their fans had ‘Roma: Champions of Europe 1984’ printed on T-shirts, scarves, the lot. It’s okay keeping it, but not wearing it,” Grobbelaar said. “They had fans wearing the bloody stuff!”

The manic celebrations post match ended with a naked Grobbelaar getting a ticking off from the Italian police.

“We had to change the venue for our winners’ dinner,” he said.

“They didn’t let us into the place in Rome we planned so we went to some villa up on the hill after we had won. The restaurant we’d booked said ‘no problem’ but after we won it ‘nah’.

“Peter Robinson had some very good friends in high places out there. This guy had a wonderful villa. They got some caterers in and opened the bar for us.

“We were on the second floor. I opened the curtains next to these big windows and I saw a swimming pool outside.

“We dived into the pool naked, had a swimming race and when we reached the end I looked over the ledge to see some boots and a rifle. The police were there saying ‘no, no, no’. We didn’t have any towels so we had to dry ourselves in the curtains!

“The next morning we were down in the pool area with the cup. We had pictures taken and then flew home. It was one of the greatest moments.”

Grobbelaar believes Fagan doesn’t get the credit he deserves for what Liverpool achieved that year.

“Joe Fagan must be mentioned up there with the greats,” he said. “Like Bob Paisley before him, he just let us express ourselves.”

After a spell as goalkeeper coach at Ottawa Fury in Canada, the 60-year-old is in the process of relocating with his family to California.

His autobiography will be published in the autumn and he intends to address the match-fixing allegations which dogged him in the late 1990s. He was cleared of any involvement after two juries failed to agree on a verdict.

“I knew I had done nothing wrong. It was just one person’s word. I had nothing to hide,” he said.

“I went through the process and came out the other side. There’s plenty to say and I’ll look to put the record straight.”

On Tuesday night Grobbelaar, who made 628 appearances for the Reds, will be back at Anfield for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final with Roma. He’s backing Jurgen Klopp’s side to overcome the Serie A outfit.

“I think they can do it,” he said. “One of the biggest reasons why Liverpool went through the last round against Man City was because they never conceded at home.

“If you look at Barcelona, they conceded at home and that gave Roma hope that they could still do something. Conceding at home in a tie like this is a disaster. Keeping a clean sheet at Anfield is crucial.”

Some 34 years after the ‘spaghetti legs’, it emerged this week that Roma fall guy Graziani wants to get back in touch with the keeper who outfoxed him.

Grobbelaar added: “What? A re-match? So he wants to miss all over again?! What about Anfield, at half-time on Tuesday. What kind of half-time entertainment would that be?”