Liverpool star always gets stick from Arsenal fans for FA Cup luck that couldn’t happen now - The Mirror

ARSENAL VS LIVERPOOL FA CUP MEMORIES: The pair lock horns in the third round of the FA Cup on Sunday afternoon, with many minds cast back to their meeting in the 2001 final

Imagine what some of football’s most memorable matches would look like if they were re-refereed with VAR. In fact, no don’t. There isn’t a can big enough for all those worms.

It is safe to say that quite a few results would be different though, not least the 2001 FA Cup final, the second leg of Liverpool ’s cup treble from a remarkable 63-game season and Michael Owen’s finest hour. For those of an Arsenal persuasion though, it is a day that should have had a different script.

For them, the key moment came in the first half in Cardiff. With Arsenal dominating the 17 minute old game in the south Wales sunshine, Thierry Henry skipped around Liverpool goalkeeper Sander Westerveld and struck his shot goalwards. It was close to the near post, but it didn’t go into the net. How?

As the first replay would immediately show, the ball had struck the outstretched arm of the sliding Liverpool defender Stephane Henchoz, clearly stopping it going into the goal and denying an irate Henry his moment. The Frenchman stared aghast at referee Steve Dunn and his assistant, he pointed to one of his arms and then threw both of them in the air in disgust.

Henchoz, a sheepish look writ large across his rosy-cheeked face, just picked himself up, got a pat on the head from centre-back partner Sami Hyypia and prepared for the corner. And in a 2001 football world that was kind of it. Unlucky. On with the game we go.

“I always get the stick from the Arsenal fans,” Henchoz told The Broken Metatarsal podcast in 2020. “Sometimes in life you have to be lucky, but that’s football, that’s part of the game. It would have been a penalty and a red card, and it would have been a problem for the team because it was quite early in the game. But these things happen.”

They happen these days too, and if they are as obvious as the Henchoz incident then they end with that penalty and red card. If they end with something less definitive then… well, who knows. One thing is for certain, social media would have been ablaze had it existed.

To Arsenal’s credit they didn’t let the error faze them, and Arsene Wenger ’s side were the clearly superior outfit throughout the contest, with Hyypia clearing three efforts off the line before Freddie Ljungberg looked to have set up victory with a well-taken goal 18 minutes from time, Liverpool’s resistance broken.

There was something written in the stars about the Reds that season though, and with Owen en route to winning the Ballon d’Or this was a game that wasn’t over. “Michael was on fire all season,” continued Henchoz in that interview. “He scored so many great goals, vital goals, and it was no different in the final. Two great goals, especially the second because he scored it by himself. He made the difference on that day.”

A sharp finish from Markus Babbel’s knockdown and a superb sprint away from Arsenal’s ageing defence after Patrik Berger’s ball over the top, both in the final seven minutes, would ensure Owen’s special slice of Liverpool and FA Cup history. Meanwhile Henchoz’s name and his left arm will forever be infamous in London’s N5.

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