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• Defender says team were angry after Swansea draw
• ‘It is far from good enough – we have to move up a level’

The Liverpool defender Daniel Agger says his side must raise their game if they are to avoid yet another season without Champions League football.

The Denmark international pulled no punches in his assessment of his side’s goalless draw with Swansea City at the weekend – a result which means the Reds have now failed to pick up maximum points in four of their six Premier League games at Anfield this season.

“Sometimes we looked like headless chickens running around after the ball,” Agger said. “It is far from good enough. Everyone was angry and disappointed – some more than others – but that is the way it is.”

Despite their indifferent form, Kenny Dalglish’s men are only three points off the Champions League places in sixth – but with a game at Chelsea next and then the visit of Manchester City, the leaders, Agger admits now is the time to raise the standard.

“If we play like this, we won’t do it [qualify for the Champions League],” he said. “We have got to move up a level or two. I won’t say it is not possible, because it is, but it is up to the players. We are the only ones who can make a difference. We definitely have to do a lot better.”

Liverpoolguardian.co.uk

We take a look back over the past 7 years at the all-English clashes in the Champions League knock-out stages

Forty-five years ago Liverpool blew away Inter at Anfield, though it would be another 12 before they conquered Europe

From time to time Sir Alex Ferguson says controversial things but it is hard to argue with the thane of Old Trafford when he declares the Champions League to be the best competition in the football world. Ferguson has always loved big European nights and the one at White Hart Lane on Tuesday rolled back the years.

Forty-five years to be precise, when for a reporter covering his first European Cup match Anfield was not a bad place to start. Liverpool were playing Internazionale in the 1965 semi-finals and, as Tottenham did this week, beat them 3-1 to wide acclaim. Bill Shankly’s team were competing in the tournament for the first time and, like Harry Redknapp’s Spurs in the Champions League, were learning as they went along.

One of the lasting images from that evening is of the blank looks on the faces of the Milanese dignitaries in the directors’ box as the Kop warmed up before the kick-off with a rendering of “Ee-aye-addio Mussolini’s dead!” Shankly knew a trick or two. The previous weekend Liverpool had won the FA Cup and he had Gerry Byrne and Gordon Milne, who were missing the game through injury, parade the trophy after the Inter players had taken the field. By the time Liverpool came out the place was heaving and the opposition were as good as a goal down.

Liverpool produced a stunning performance that night. Roger Hunt, Ian Callaghan and Ian St John scored the goals that wrecked one of the game’s most impregnable defences. Without the goalkeeping heroics of Giuliano Sarti Liverpool would have had at least five. Afterwards the Inter coach, Helenio Herrera, admitted to Shankly that “we have been beaten before, but never defeated. Tonight we were defeated”.

For Shankly and Liverpool anticlimax followed in the return leg, which Inter won 3-0 to reach the final, where they beat Benfica. Before the game Shankly complained that his players had been kept awake at their hotel near Lake Como by the local monks ringing their bells all night. Much later an investigation by a Sunday newspaper suggested that the referee, Spain’s José María Ortiz de Mendibil, had been got at, Inter scoring their first goal directly from an indirect free-kick and their second after Tommy Lawrence had had the ball kicked away from him as he was bouncing it.

There was no dispute about the goal that won Inter the tie, however, a superb surging run over the halfway line by Giacinto Facchetti, who sprinted all of 70 yards before beating Lawrence. In each of Tottenham’s Champions League encounters with Inter Gareth Bale has almost been Facchetti revisited. The Italian, like Bale, was originally a left‑back with strong attacking inclinations. Bale, like Facchetti has the strength, skill and vision to go with his daunting pace.

Facchetti eventually became the libero who was to persuade Franz Beckenbauer that this was also where his future as a player lay. For the moment Bale is more likely to become an out-and-out winger given his scoring potential and the fact that in two games against Inter he has made mincemeat of Maicon, who is reckoned to be one of the best right-backs around. That said, the Brazilian caught the eye in the World Cup largely through his attacking forays. Bale asked serious questions about Maicon’s defensive abilities.

Maybe the shortage of full-backs in modern football who can defend as well as their forebears once did has helped Bale’s swift rise to prominence. In between games against Inter the Welshman was subdued for once by Everton’s Phil Neville, who used the familiar full-back ploy of showing him the touchline and keeping him there.

Tottenham, as Ruud Gullit said on Sky, have been a breath of fresh air in this season’s Champions League. It was much the same with Liverpool in the mid-60s but they needed another 12 years to acquire the patience and wisdom, under Bob Paisley, to become masters of Europe rather than a spectacular one-night stand. Spurs still have to find ways of beating Chelsea and Manchester United, either of whom could be their nemesis in this season’s tournament if they all get that far.

Yet Tottenham are entitled to bask awhile in memories of their biggest European Cup night since Bill Nicholson’s Double winners came close to eliminating Benfica in the 1962 semi‑finals and at least nobody at White Hart Lane on Tuesday was singing “Ee-aye-addio Berlusconi’s bonked!”

Not that there were many Italians on the pitch to be offended.

Champions LeagueLiverpoolTottenham HotspurInternazionaleDavid Laceyguardian.co.uk