text: 1984 european cup final the 1984 european cup final was an association football match between liverpool of england and roma of italy on 30 may 1984 at the stadio olimpico , rome , italy . it was the final match of the 1983 – 84 season of europe 's premier cup competition , the european cup . liverpool were appearing in their fourth final , having won the competition in 1977 , 1978 and 1981 . roma were appearing in their first european cup final . each club needed to progress through four rounds to reach the final . matches were contested over two legs , with a match at each team 's home ground . liverpool 's matches ties ranged from close affairs to comfortable victories . they beat athletic bilbao by a single goal in the second round , while they beat benfica 5 – 1 on aggregate in the quarter - finals . roma 's matches were all close affairs , winning their ties up to the semi - final by two goal margins . they beat dundee united 3 – 2 on aggregate in the semi - finals , although it was later revealed that roma had bribed the referee in the second leg of the semi - final . this meant that two british clubs were denied finals of european cup competitions that year after nottingham forest were knocked out by anderlecht in the uefa cup semi - finals after had bribed the ref . as the final was held at roma 's home ground they went into the match as favourites , despite liverpool 's previous record in the competition . watched by a crowd of 69 , 693 , liverpool took the lead in the first half when phil neal scored , but roma equalised before half - time through roberto pruzzo . with the scores level at 1 – 1 through full - time and extra - time , the match went to a penalty shoot - out . liverpool won the shoot - out 4 – 2 to claim their fourth european cup . route to the final liverpool liverpool gained entry to the competition by winning the 1982 – 83 football league , entering as english champions . their opponents in the first round were danish champions odense . the first leg in denmark at the odense stadium was won 1 – 0 by liverpool . a 5 – 0 victory in the second leg at their home ground anfield ensured they won the tie 6 – 0 on aggregate . in the second round liverpool were drawn against spanish champions athletic bilbao . the first leg in england ended 0 – 0 , but liverpool won the second leg at the san mamés stadium 1 – 0 courtesy of an ian rush goal to win the tie 1 – 0 on aggregate . liverpool 's opponents in the quarter - finals were portuguese champions benfica . liverpool won the first leg in england 1 – 0 after another rush goal . the second leg at the estádio da luz in portugal resulted in a comprehensive 4 – 1 victory for liverpool . thus , they won the tie 5 – 1 on aggregate . in the semi - final , liverpool 's opponents were romanian champions dinamo bucurești . an ill - tempered first leg , which saw liverpool captain graeme souness break the jaw of dinamo midfielder movilă , was won 1 – 0 by liverpool . the second leg at the dinamo was won 2 – 1 by liverpool after two goals from rush . liverpool won the tie 3 – 1 on aggregate to progress to their fourth european cup final . roma roma qualified for the competition by winning the 1982 – 83 serie a becoming italian champions . swedish champions ifk göteborg were their opposition in the first round . roma won the first leg 3 – 0 at their home ground stadio olimpico after three second half goals from francesco , bruno conti and cerezo . despite losing the second leg 2 – 1 in sweden , roma progressed to the second round , winning the tie 4 – 2 on aggregate . their opposition in the second round were bulgarian champions cska sofia . roma won the first leg in bulgaria 1 – 0 and another 1 – 0 victory in the second leg in italy meant roma won the tie 2 – 0 on aggregate . dynamo berlin , the east german champions were the opposition in the quarter - finals . roma won the first leg 3 – 0 , after goals from francesco graziani , pruzzo and cerezo . they were beaten 2 – 1 in the second leg at berlin 's home ground the , but won the tie 4 – 2 on aggregate . the opposition in the semi - finals were scottish champions dundee united . the first leg was held at dundee united 's home ground , tannadice park . dundee united won the match 2 – 0 , meaning that roma had to win by three clear goals to progress to the final . roma did indeed score three goals to win the tie 3 – 0 and progress to the final , by virtue of a 3 – 2 aggregate victory . in 1986 , roma president dino viola was banned by uefa for bribing referee michel with £ 50 , 000 before the match , something his son later admitted to happening match background liverpool were appearing in their fourth european cup final . they had won their three previous appearances in 1977 , 1978 and 1981 . roma were appearing in their first european cup final . their only success in european competition was in the inter - cities fairs cup , which they won in 1961 . liverpool had finished the 1983 – 84 football league as champions . they had also won the 1983 – 84 football league cup beating everton 1 – 0 in a replay after the final finished 0 – 0 . their success meant that liverpool entered the match with the chance to win an unprecedented treble . roma had finished second during the 1983 – 84 serie a and won the 1983 – 84 coppa italia , they had qualified for the european cup winners ' cup as a result , but victory would enable them to compete in the european cup the following season . the final was held at the stadio olimpico in rome , which was roma 's home ground . uefa decided that the match would still be played at the stadium , despite it being roma 's home ground . therefore , the match was effectively a home match for them . the stadium was significant for liverpool as well , as their victory in 1977 came at the ground . with home advantage roma went into the match as favourites , and were 13 – 8 with bookmakers to win the match . summary the opening passages of the match were tentative . faced with a hostile atmosphere , liverpool were content to sit back and frustrate roma . despite this tactic , liverpool took the lead in the 15th minute . souness and sammy lee exchanged passes before passing to craig johnston on the right hand side of the pitch . johnston played a high cross into the roma penalty area , which was challenged for by roma goalkeeper franco tancredi and ronnie whelan . the result was that tancredi dropped the ball , roma defenders tried to clear the ball , but michele nappi 's attempted clearance bounced off tancredi 's back and fell to liverpool defender phil neal who scored to give liverpool a 1 – 0 lead . two minutes later , souness volleyed the ball into the roma goal from close range , but his goal was disallowed for offside . roma had a chance to equalise in the 27th minute , but liverpool goalkeeper bruce grobbelaar saved conti 's low shot . neal was shown a yellow card in the 32nd minute for bringing down conti , and a few minutes later liverpool had an opportunity to extend their lead . liverpool striker rush charged down dario bonetti 's clearance and ran onto the ball , but his shot was saved by tancredi . with minutes remaining until half - time , roma equalised . sebastiano passed to conti , who ran down the left - hand side of the pitch . his first attempt at crossing the ball into the penalty area was blocked by a combination of neal and mark lawrenson , but his cross rebounded back to him . his second attempt found roberto pruzzo in the penalty area , whose glancing header went into the liverpool goal to level the scores at 1 – 1 . roma came out for the second half buoyed by their equaliser and they started the half the better of the two sides . despite this , they were unable to break down the liverpool defence , with lawrenson in particular performing well . roma began to control the midfield with the brazilian duo falcão and cerezo combining to combat souness in the liverpool midfield . roma 's best chance of this period was a 25 yards ( 23 m ) shot from falcão which grobbelaar saved . roma began to lose control after their period of control , with both sides abandoning their initial game plans for fearing of conceding a goal . liverpool substituted striker johnston with defender steve nicol in the 72nd minute . the best chance of the half came in the 85th minute ; kenny dalglish found nicol in the roma penalty area , but his shot was saved by tancredi . the scores stayed level throughout the remainder of the half , which meant that the match would go into extra - time . extra time provided little action ; the only player that looked like changing the scoreline was conti , whose runs at neal caused the liverpool defender problems . despite this , the score remained the same through the 30 minutes of extra time and the match went to a penalty - shoot - out . liverpool were the first to take a penalty , but nicol put his shot over the crossbar . graziani stepped up to take roma 's first penalty , but roma captain agostino di bartolomei took the ball from him and took the penalty instead , scoring to give roma the lead . liverpool 's next penalty was taken by their regular penalty taker neal who scored to level the shoot - out . conti took the next penalty for roma , but like nicol he put his shot over the crossbar . souness and ubaldo righetti converted their respective penalties to make the scoreline 2 – 2 . rush scored liverpool 's next penalty to make the score 3 – 2 . graziani stepped up again to take roma 's fourth penalty . while he was placing the ball on the penalty spot , liverpool goalkeeper grobbelaar was wobbling his legs in the liverpool goal , hoping to distract graziani . the tactic appeared to have worked as graziani placed his penalty over the crossbar . alan kennedy was the next player to take a penalty and if he scored liverpool would win the match . kennedy scored the penalty sending tancredi the wrong way . liverpool won the shoot - out 4 – 2 , thereby winning their fourth european cup . details