Liverpool invited the former England boss over from Sweden to complete his ambition by taking charge of the Legends side and the emotion was clear to see as he walked out to a warm reception at Anfield

Sven-Goran Eriksson was brought to tears by the Anfield crowd as he completed his life-long dream to manage Liverpool.

The 76-year-old watched on as the Reds came from behind to beat Ajax 4-2 in the LFC Foundation Legends game in front of a crowd of almost 60,000.

The former England manager revealed in January that he has ‘best case a year to live’ after a terminal pancreatic cancer diagnosis.

Liverpool invited the former England boss over from Sweden to complete his ambition by taking charge of the Legends side and the emotion was clear to see as he walked out to a warm reception at Anfield.

The boyhood Reds fan said: “I was a little bit crying. That will be a huge memory in life. To sit on the bench for Liverpool has been my dream my whole life and now it happened. Thank you to Liverpool for giving me the opportunity.

“To see all these good players, they are not 20 anymore but they can still play, coming back from 2-0 down was great and it is great to win the game of course.”

Liverpool Legends were trailing 2-0 at the break but they scored four in the second half after their substitutions and some tactical switches paid off, which included Kop icon Steven Gerrard going into a deeper role. But Eriksson was not taking credit for the tactical tweaks.

Eriksson was warmly greeted by fans before the game (
Image:
Paul Greenwood/REX/Shutterstock)
He said: “In a game like this everyone has to play, it was not my genius, we decided before the game we would make these changes.”

Eriksson went on a lap of honour at the end of the game with the players and the emotions got the better of him again. He said it was a beautiful way to finish off a managerial career which saw him have success in his homeland, Portugal and Italy, before he then led England in three major tournaments and had stints at Manchester City and Leicester.

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Eriksson with goalscorer Fernando Torres (
Image:
Liverpool FC via Getty Images)
The chance never came to manage Liverpool, a team he supported as a boy thanks to his own father’s love for the club, but that dream was completed in a special way. Sven Snr was watching back in Sweden as the game was beamed back there live.

“My father saw the game on television I am quite sure,” added Eriksson. “It was full of emotions, tears coming, it has been my dream club all my life. Even when I had [the] England [job] I was a supporter of Liverpool but I couldn’t say it at that time. It is a good finish to finish with Liverpool. It cannot get much better than that.”