Amid a steady parade of stretcher bearers carrying out those spectators overcome by the crush at Anfield last night, Liverpool were eliminated from the European Cup Competition. There was no miraculous recovery. Liverpool could only draw with Ajax 2-2. Their hopes had hung on the slenderest of threads. They had to win this match to make history. No side yet in this Cup has recovered from four goals down to win a tie. Although for 80 of the 90 minutes Liverpool battered away, Ajax's competent defence held them. All the eager urging on of the noisy crowd could not help them. There was just no answer to the quick breakaway that enabled Cruyff to score twice. Twice Hunt scored for Liverpool, but it was not enough. Liverpool made mistakes, they let slip a chance or two, but the plain fact of the matter is that Ajax were in defence more competent, the forwards, too sharp when given a chance, were far too good for Liverpool this night. They are a fine side indeed. There never has been a night quite like it. The continuous roar of the crowd, the songs, the chants, and the Kop overflowing with good humour. Yet after 15 minutes there was a mass evacuation of this great stand. Hundreds upon hundreds poured round the touchline, many infringing the pitch at places as the crush became too great. So many were overcome that there were not sufficient stretchers to take away those affected and they were carried out feet first. And on this evening as the fog swirled over Anfield, though not as dense as it was a week previously in the Olympic Stadium in Amsterdam, there was ample evidence again of the power of this Ajax forward line. It was Cruyff and Muller who split the Liverpool defence in the opening minutes. Here was a flash of a side so confident that even in a ground in which the packed crowd was thundering out its roars for Liverpool, could still find Liverpool wanting. But they seldom did again in the first half, though once Yeats had to grab Cruyff by the jersey as this talented forward burst past him with a clear run towards goal. It was only to be expected that Liverpool pressed on with an urgency which was more apparent with every passing moment. And still the goals did not come. St John sent Thompson racing through and the shot ricocheted off the bar.

Hunt left three defenders leaden-footed and Bals clawed down Thompson's shot from Hunt's centre. Then Bals snatched the ball from Lawler at the very foot of the post. Another from Lawler, this time from a fine move from Strong, was again thwarted by this agile goalkeeper. Yet another chance for Liverpool ended with Bals pushing a drive from Strong on to the bar. Any doubts about the toughness of this Dutch side were soon dispelled. They defended ruggedly even though Liverpool played it as hard as they could. Yet it often took ten Ajax players back in the penalty area to thwart Liverpool as shot after shot was stopped by their wall of defenders. Once, however, Thompson got around it and brought Bals to his knees. And still along the touch-line was this parade of the stretcher bearers carrying away those overcome by the great crush in the crowd. Not until the forty-sixth minute did Liverpool get the ball into the Ajax net, so well-guarded was Bals by this umbrella coverage of Hulshoff, Pronk, Soetekouw, and Deuivenbode. And then Stevenson was offside before he shot. Five goals, the magical number Liverpool needed at this stage to win, was never on. It never had been after the first 15 minutes when they failed to unsettle this most competent side. And all that hope was abandoned when in the forty-ninth minute Keizer and Swart engineered a move which brought Cruyff a chance to shoot and score a goal. But how Liverpool tried to recover from a position which even they knew then was hopeless. In the fifty-fifth minute they pulled one goal back. Yeats sent St John scurrying down the left wing. He passed to Hunt who side-footed in his first goal. Then St John caught the defence out of position and Soetekouw cleared off the line. For the second time last night Liverpool were undone. Again it was Cruyff who scored in the seventy-first minute after a move between Swart and Keizer. Thompson and St John helped to provide a second goal for Hunt five minutes from the end, but there was no denying that Liverpool were beaten by a better side. Ajax worthily go forward into the draw for the Quarter-Finals today confident on this showing surely that they are as good as almost any side in Europe.