A lot of their retired stars had returned to the famous old ground to represent Liverpool FC Legends for the LFC Foundation charity fixture against Ajax Legends.
Liverpool supporters would have been over the moon after seeing their former heroes gracing the Anfield pitch one more time at the weekend. A lot of their retired stars had returned to the famous old ground to represent Liverpool FC Legends for the LFC Foundation charity fixture against Ajax Legends. The game had created plenty of buzz among the supporters well before it began. That continued with a massive crowd of little less than 60,000 supporters turning up for the contest.
With the crowd cheering their returning heroes, the game did not disappoint the spectators either. Liverpool FC Legends came from a two-goal deficit at the interval to win the contest against Ajax Legends 4-2 in the end. The goal scorers for the hosts were Gregory Vignal, Djibril Cisse, Nabil El Zhar and Fernando Torres. One of the players whom the fans eagerly waited to see was Steven Gerrard and the former Liverpool captain played a big role in his team’s turnaround. They were managed by Sven-Goran Eriksson, whose half-time tactical changes made a big difference in the come-from-behind win.
After the game, Gerrard expressed his joy in returning to Anfield, as he was also happy to be reunited with Eriksson. “It’s always been fantastic. When this crowd get going, especially in night games, it’s a powerful crowd. Obviously they’re building the capacity as we go along, it was 59,000 today. And I think they helped us turn the game around. 2-0 down at half-time but we felt it was against the run of play,” he told Liverpoolfc.com.
The former midfielder added: “We had to get the next goal and I thought the lads were terrific second half. It’s all for a good cause, we’ve got to remember why we’re here – we’re here for a good cause. There’s going to be a lot of money raised today going to go to some fantastic causes. Sven being here today was very special; as soon as I knew he was going to be the gaffer today, I couldn’t wait to come and play for him one more time.”
Reflecting on the second-half fightback, Gerrard gave a lot of credit to Eriksson for his tactical tweaks at the half-time break. “He [Sven] changed a lot of things at half-time, I think he knew we didn’t have any width in the first half and we were trying to force it through the middle. He made a lot of changes at half-time, gave us more width, asking us to stretch it more. He’s still got it! He’s still got the magic at half-time, he made a difference,” he explained.
The 43-year-old former England international wants to savour every moment since he is well aware that these moments will not happen that often in the future. Asked whether he is savouring these events more as he gets older, Gerrard replied, “Yeah, because I know I’m only going to play in front of this crowd another couple of times maybe. That’s if I stay off the carbs and stay off the beers! I was just looking round at the end thinking to myself, ‘This is going to [happen] less and less so just savour every moment.’ It was brilliant.”
More Football Stories:
Jurgen Klopp to leave Liverpool: How did the world react to Klopp’s shock announcement?
Manchester United news: Why did Altay Bayindir decide to become a goalkeeper?
Who is Lucas Bergvall’s girlfriend? Know all about Mackenzie Medlock
What is Lucas Bergvall’s net worth, salary, transfer value and endorsements?
Premier League: Which players have scored the most goals in a single season?