Salah has to score that.
Not according to Riccardo Viola, son of then Roma president Dino Viola.
Liverpool’s Champions League meeting with Roma has evoked memories of the 1984 European Cup final between the sides in the Italian capital, when Joe Fagan’s players prevailed with a 4-2 win on penalties after a 1-1 draw.
The final, though, could – and arguably should – have been an all-British affair, with Liverpool facing an extraordinary Dundee United side under the guidance of the ferociously single-minded Jim McLean.
Roma’s progress from the semi-final depended on a win over United in the second leg at their Olympic Stadium amid a poisonous atmosphere, never to be forgotten by those who were present.
Worse still, the outcome was regarded with profound suspicion at the time and the Scottish Football Association asked Uefa to investigate links between the Roma board and the referee for the second leg, Michel Vautrot, of France.
Uefa refused but, two years later, the governing body of European football banned the Roma president, Dino Viola, for attempting to bribe Vautrot.
In 2011, Viola’s son Riccardo, speaking 10 years after his father’s death, alleged in a TV interview that Vautrot had been suborned over dinner on Apr 24, 1984. “Roma gave a middle-man 100 million lire [£50,000] destined for referee Vautrot. That is true and a shameful fact,” Viola said.
“Spartaco Landini, the director of football at Genoa, came to see my father. He told him Vautrot was a friend of his and that we could get at him via another friend, but he would have to be given 100 million lire.
“He said a dinner would be organised with the referee on the eve of the game and a signal to show the deal had been done would be demanded. During the dinner, a waiter went up to the referee, saying, ‘Telephone call for Mr Vautrot.’ That was the pre-arranged signal. “Vautrot left the table and when he returned, said, ‘My friend Paolo rang and he sends you his best wishes.’ Then I got up, rang my father and told him, ‘Message received.’
“All this was done because we had a difficult game against Dundee United. Going out of the competition would have had serious repercussions.”
The possibility of Roma failing to reach the European Cup final had not been taken seriously before their visit to Tannadice for the first leg.
McLean used to refer to United’s meetings with Celtic and Rangers as ‘the corner shop versus the supermarkets’. What nobody guessed was that, by the end of the semi-final, the corner shop would have encountered the football equivalent of Don Corleone.
Bryon Butler, representing BBC Radio Sport, remarked to this correspondent before kick-off that he expected one-way traffic towards United’s goalkeeper, Hamish McAlpine. When half-time arrived with the score 0-0, the southern contingent was entitled to assume that expectations had been vindicated.
McLean, though, ripped into his players with such fury that they resumed the contest with manic energy, scoring through Davie Dodds within three minutes and doubling their advantage through Derek Stark.
United’s experience in the return leg was nightmarish. Roma fans kept up a cacophony outside their hotel on the night before the game and when the players reached the Olympic Stadium after a prolonged bus ride, they were met by intimidation. McLean said later that he had feared “for the game of football itself as I sat through the hate and venom”. He added: “There are times I feel that if we had been the team to meet Roma in the final, I might not be alive today.”
At half-time, a Roberto Pruzzo double had levelled the aggregate score. In the 58th minute, Vautrot awarded Roma what proved to be a decisive penalty, converted by Agostino Di Bartolomei for the winner. In the final, though, Roma were less adept in the penalty decider and the European Cup returned to Anfield for the fourth time in eight years.
Yet it is tantalising to speculate how a Dundee United v Liverpool final would have turned out. The United players were not daunted by English opposition, as they showed in the Uefa Cup against Manchester United in 1984, when they lost over two legs only by the odd goal in nine.
On Tuesday, when Liverpool and Roma take the field, it will be 34 years to the day since Riccardo Viola sat down with Vautrot for that fateful meal.
To this day, the Dundee United players of 1984 believe they could have won the ultimate silverware. It was, instead, their sad fate to be filleted and served up in a Roman restaurant.
Dembele 
100 million for that cunt
Hup!
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Whataboutery.
We are talking about the shocking decisions Murderpool got enroute to the final last year. English clubs have been on the right side of so many disgraceful decisions in Europe over the past couple of years.
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Loads tonight
That was a great Dundee United team .
You are absolutely gone ape
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One of only two UK clubs to beat Barcelona in the Nou Camp - the other of course being Liverpool (twice - 1976 and 2007 - in fact on three previous visits to the Nou Camp before tonight we were unbeaten, but that’s obviously gone out with the trash now).
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A good night in the Cedars lounge. I must check out this Ratoath Inn that you and @Little_Lord_Fauntleroy keep going on about.
Being a Roma and Chelsea fan (quite the contradiction there btw) you probably don’t realise that a benefit of being European royalty is you get favourable refereeing decisions from time to time. Did Roma have a penalty awarded against them in the last minute against Porto this year?
Don’t mention Michael Oliver that will cause him to crash his forklift. 
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Real Madrid are European royalty. Now if Juve had won a couple of those finals they bottled, Michael Oliver may had a decision to make but alas…
We go again. Liverpool 2-2 Barcelona is my OFFICAL prediction
Duff doesn’t think there’s a better left back in the world than Robertson. 
He trains a better one on a daily basis FFS.
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Is it Neuer or Ter Stegen who is the German no 1 now?
Damien Duff seems ideally placed to make the call that Robertson is the best, so.
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He’s not even close to being the best left back on the pitch
He’s surely in the top 2…
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