The European Cup final between Liverpool and Juventus will forever be remembered for violent clashes that led to the death of 39 fans
Mark Lawrenson has recalled spending the night in a hospital ward alongside dying football fans after the Heysel Stadium disaster that killed 39 fans in 1985.
The incident occurred before Liverpool’s game with Juventus and, despite around 600 being injured after a crush between fans and major stadium wall collapsing, the game went ahead – much to Lawreson’s dismay as he recalled in a chat with Planet Football.
“Our dressing room was just under the wall that collapsed and cost so many fans their lives,” he said. “We were getting reports that some people had died and bits of news coming our way that was hard to believe, to be honest.
“I have two abiding memories from that night. The first was the Brussels chief of police coming into our dressing room and insisting that despite everything that had happened, we would play the game.
“We found that hard to believe given the fact there were people lying dead on the terraces above us, but he was adamant. We suggested Juventus might not want to play the game, but they were ready to play and we had to prepare to play a European Cup final.
“The police argued that if the game was abandoned, there would be more trouble on the streets outside and for that reason, they wanted the match to proceed, but it was a strange, eerie night.
“You go from hearing the news that fans had died on the terrace above us to being told the match was going ahead and we went through the motions of preparing for a game of football that would be one of the most important we would play in our lives.”
Juventus won the final 1-0 with a Michel Platini penalty but few remember May 29, 1985, for the game itself, including Lawrenson who admits to have never watched it back.
“I have never watched a second of the game since and I probably never will,” said the former defender. “It’s almost like that night never happened and for so many reasons, I wish it didn’t.
“I lasted less than two minutes. I had been carrying a shoulder injury and decided to take a chance on getting through it, but I went to tackle Platini and the shoulder popped straight out.
“That was it for me and this surreal, ugly night had taken another unexpected turn.”
The disaster involved Liverpool fans breaching a poorly guarded section of Juventus fans positioned next to them in the Belgian arena, and with it mainly Italians dying, Lawrenson described how he had to be smuggled out of the hosptial to avoid anyone seeking revenge.
“I was taken to the hospital and then things got even more bizarre,” he continued.
“I was still in my Liverpool kit and we get to this hospital and the ambulance backs up to what I can best describe as an area that looks like a supermarket holding bay and I’m dragged into the hospital.
“There I am in my full Liverpool kit, my boots still on, tie-ups for my shin pads and surrounding me in the hospital are the dead and the dying Juventus fans. It is a horrific chain of events.
“I’ll never forget what confronted me when I woke up. I was in this hospital bed and all my Liverpool kit had been taken off me. I never saw the kit again, by the way, but that’s a side story.
“As I looked around this hospital ward, I saw 23 empty beds and I was the only one using the ward.
“At the end of my bed was a soldier with a machine gun, or what I thought was a machine gun. He didn’t speak any English, I didn’t speak any Italian, and we looked at each other and realised we were on the same side of the argument.
“The door was bolted locked and this soldier was there to protect me from angry Juventus fans.
“In the morning, Roy Evans came in with my wife and brought me some clothes. The trouble was, it was a Liverpool tracksuit, so we had to turn it inside out to get me out of this hospital without anyone noticing me. They sneaked us out through a back door. It was quite a story.”
