michels stated that the victory was proof that ajax could match teams in europe: "the liverpool game was for me an important moment to be acknowledged and recognised internationally. not only the first game, because that could have been an accident – with the weather conditions etc. no, the performance we achieved in liverpool under bad circumstances – i've never seen such a hectic situation. we drew that game 2–2 and never really had problems. for me, it was the proof that we were at the international level."