When European champions Liverpool sold Kevin Keegan to Hamburg during the summer of 1977, the question at the time was, how would they replace a centre-forward that had scored 100 goals over the previous six seasons?
Concerned supporters needn't have worried, though. Keegan's successor, Kenny Dalglish, may not have been able to fire the Reds to the Division One title, but his goals in the quarter-finals and semi-finals against Benfica and Borussia Monchengladbach respectively helped the holders to reach the final for a second successive campaign.
Their opponents in front of 92,000 fans at Wembley 36 years ago today were Belgian outfit Club Brugge, who had seen off Atletico Madrid and Juventus on their route to the showpiece encounter, but they did have a host of injury concerns going into the fixture.
As a result, Club Brugge's Austrian manager Ernst Happel set his side up to contain, which made for a cagey evening in North-West London.
Liverpool dominated the majority of the first half, but they struggled to create many clear-cut openings. Their best fell to Ray Kennedy, but his rising effort from a narrow angle flashed wide of the target, while Graeme Souness volleyed over from 25 yards out.
The second half continued in similar fashion as Terry McDermott broke through the Club Brugge defence, but he shot straight at goalkeeper Birger Jensen, who was keeping his side in the game.
However, Jensen could do little to prevent Dalglish from scoring the match's only goal in the 64th minute. Souness was the creator, slotting a pass through for the Scottish forward. With Jensen approaching, the Scot deftly chipped his effort into the far corner of the net.
It forced Club Brugge to push on and they almost equalised in the closing stages when Alan Hansen underhit a back-pass for Ray Clemence. The ball dropped for Jan Simoen to shoot, but his low strike was cleared off the line by a retreating Phil Thompson.
That escape proved to be a crucial one as Liverpool held on to win the second European Cup in their history, thanks largely to the clinical instincts of their signing from Celtic during the previous summer.
LIVERPOOL: Clemence; Neal, Hansen, Thompson, Hughes; Kennedy, McDermott, Souness, Case (Heighway); Fairclough, Dalglish
CLUB BRUGGE: Jensen; Bastijns, Krieger, Leekens, Maes (Volders); Cools, Vandereycken, De Cubber, Simoen; Ku (Sanders), Sorensen
Liam Apicella
