A 'ghost goal' and a 'mythical lady'

BBC News

03-05-2025

"We don't know whether it was a goal or not. I'm sure people will talk about it - but we're going to the final. We're going to Istanbul."Those were the words of captain Steven Gerrard 20 years ago today after Luis Garcia's 'ghost goal' carried Liverpool through the Champions League semi-final, beating Premier League winners Chelsea by a single goal over two legs.Gerrard was right, people did talk. In the weeks that followed, a myth swept the Merseyside city and it went something like this...A former Liverpool secretary - an elderly lady now retired - was said to have been sitting directly in line with the goalline. Asked about the moment that carried a generation of Liverpool fans to their first European Cup final, she is said to have answered with a resounding 'yes, it did cross the line'.Case closed, then. If anyone is going to end doubt, surely it is a gran-like figure, one you would trust with your savings, house keys and matchday ticket?Or maybe it is just a football myth, one swept from the dust of one of the greatest nights in Anfield history.It is somehow romantic that a night so vivid in colour and packed with narrative contains such a plot twist.
Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho spoke pre-game about how his league winners would stand up to the swirl of an Anfield semi-final.But this semi-final was different.A generation of supporters who knew what European Cup finals looked like only through VHS video replays could sniff the chance to live one out in its true form.By lunchtime, Liverpool city centre cut the look of a place where a day's work had been finished early, with bars filling and fans preparing for the night to come.As 6pm rolled in, flags, banners, songs and expectation filled the streets around Anfield. By shortly before 8pm, Anfield was as alive as it has ever been. It was ferocious.By 8.04pm, the ferocity paid its first - and most telling - dividend, a 'ghost goal' to send Liverpool to an Istanbul final which they should have lost in every lifetime bar the one we live in.Anfield was not going to be denied.There was intimidation - each and every time a Chelsea player collected a ball for a throw-in, he did so faced with a cluster of charged home fans doing everything bar sitting on their hands.There was hope - why should the images of European Cup success live only in the heads of parents and grandparents when just one win sat between a modern-day re-run?And there was passion - song after song, roar after roar, every 50-50 duel on the pitch treated like a cup final of its own by those in the stands.There can be little wonder it was decided the ball had crossed the line.For decades, players - in both red and opposing colours - have talked about the ball being 'sucked' towards goal at The Kop end. It was on this night in telling fashion, prompting an extraordinary outburst of celebration initially, which would then give way to over 90 minutes of nerves and anxiety.There were tears. Mourinho stood with his arms around his distraught players after the final whistle, while Anfield took on the look of a red-and-white hurricane. Those wearing blue had lost and were lost within it all. A tidal wave of home emotion and a ghost all in one night - it is indeed a lot to deal with.Garcia's prod, a three-goal fightback in the final and a shootout win. It is like it was all meant to be.Had VAR existed, such history may never have been written.But who needs VAR when a mythical lady could see what no-one else could anyway?