David Fairclough's late finish sent Liverpool into the European Cup semi-finals on 16 March 1977. Introduced for John Toshack in the second half, he scored the decisive third goal in a 3–1 victory over Saint-Étienne, turning a precarious quarter-final into a 3–2 aggregate success.
Liverpool began the evening a goal behind from the first leg in France. Kevin Keegan, absent from that match through injury, supplied an almost immediate response at Anfield. Receiving a short corner from Steve Heighway, he advanced before sending the ball beyond Ivan Ćurković from a tight angle.
The early breakthrough wiped out the deficit, and Liverpool still led 1–0 at half-time. It did not, however, remove the danger posed by Saint-Étienne's first away goal. When Dominique Bathenay struck from distance early in the second half, the calculation changed sharply: Liverpool now needed two more goals to progress.
Ray Kennedy provided the first before the hour. The ball reached him from Toshack and his finish put Liverpool back in front on the night. At 2–2 on aggregate, though, the French side's away goal still placed them ahead. A winning scoreline at Anfield was not yet a winning scoreline in the tie.
Bob Paisley then replaced Toshack with Fairclough. The substitute's opportunity arrived with six minutes remaining, when Kennedy sent the ball beyond the visitors' defence. Fairclough pursued it, controlled it under pressure from Christian Lopez and got clear enough to direct a low shot past Ćurković.
For the first time that evening, Liverpool held an aggregate lead. The third goal transformed the remaining minutes: now it was Saint-Étienne who had to find an answer. Liverpool kept the advantage through to the final whistle in front of 55,043 spectators.
The match's reputation rests on more than a late goal. Liverpool had erased one deficit, then discovered that Bathenay's intervention demanded another recovery. Kennedy's equalising contribution across the tie and Fairclough's finish supplied both stages of that response. The reward was a semi-final against Zürich, with the club's pursuit of its first European Cup still alive.