Connect with us

Football

How Anfield was the setting for historic Match of the Day debut – 60 years ago!

Published

2m ago

on

/ 5596 Views

Liverpool made History on August 22, 1964, when they hosted Arsenal at Anfield, becoming the first Game to be broadcast on Match of the Day.

The Reds and the Gunners will be in the mix at the top of the table this season, though not many will have high expectations of Arne Slot in his debut campaign.

Both started the 2024/25 season with a victory, but 60 years ago, Liverpool were significantly better off than their north London opponents.

The Reds finished the 1963/64 season as First Division champions, 12 points and seven places above the Gunners.

Their title defence began at home to Billy Wright’s Arsenal side, and it was a historic afternoon as Match of the Day was broadcasted by the BBC for the first time, in black and white:

The two sides emerged from the old tunnel at Anfield to the Beatles’ ‘She Loves You’, with Liverpool missing Ian St John through appendicitis and Alf Arrowsmith due to injury.

Tommy Lawrence took his place in goal behind Gerry Byrne and Ronnie Moran, with Bill Shankly fielding a now-unorthodox formation including the likes of Ron Yeats, Ian Callaghan and Roger Hunt.

Hunt opened the scoring in the 11th minute after a slow start, firing an acrobatic volley into the far corner from Callaghan’s cross.

Gordon Wallace added another after the break before a quick-fire double from Geoff Strong and Joe Baker restored parity for Arsenal heading into the closing stages, only for Wallace to score a dramatic winner from range.

“Well, I’d call it the Match of the Century, I don’t know about the Match of the Day!” joked commentator Kenneth Wolstenholme at full-time.

Liverpool unfortunately ended the campaign in seventh as Man United won the title, though they did lift the FA Cup and reach the semi-finals of the European Cup.

Arsenal, meanwhile, finished 13th, just three points behind Shankly’s Reds.

In the BBC’s first edition of the show, this was the only game to be broadcast, with extended highlights offered to viewers.

Match of the Day eventually began to broadcast highlights from a variety of Games across the First Division and remains that way to this day, with Gary Lineker the host in its 60th year.

Slot’s men opened the first MOTD of the 2024/25 season after their 2-0 win at Ipswich, and hopefully, they can do so again with a victory over Brentford at Anfield on Sunday.

Tags:

Trending