 ALAN KENNEDY confounded Real Madrid and the whole of Paris last night by striking the goal that won the European Cup for Liverpool. The man the Kop have christened Barney Rubble, a left-back with the knack of producing the unpredictable, became Liverpool's ace in the pack in a tense and taut chess game of a final. With just eight minutes remaining, Kennedy went bursting into the Real penalty area when his namesake Ray took a quick throw-in from the left. In a blur he was past the floundering Garcia Cortes and a thundering left-foot shot seared high into the top corner of the net. The Parc des Princes Stadium exploded into red and white, and Kennedy, whose League Cup final goal was so cruelly cancelled out in the dying minutes at Wembley in March, this time was the hero for keeps. Yet Kennedy had been inactive for six weeks during Liverpool's preparations for this game because of a broken wrist, and his chances of playing had looked remote.
 The plaster was removed only last week as Paisley was anxious to play him as a counter to the dangerous forward thrusts of Juanito. Now Kennedy has a golden chance of a place in football history as the man who won the European Cup for Liverpool for the third time, a record for a British club. And ultimately Liverpool deserved their triumph, if only just. They produced a performance of typical professionalism, reducing the threat of the highly talented Real front-line by expert and disciplined defence. Liverpool were not rated as favourites. The feeling of many critics in Paris was that their time had passed. But the message Bob Paisley's men spoke rather than roared to the rest of Europe is one that is becoming haunt-ingly familiar: Write Liverpool off only at your cost. Liverpool's early dominance was a product of their great experience of the heady occasions. They gave themselves a little more time than Real and for 20 minutes were in firm control, creating that critical extra yard of space by intelligent first-time passing. Alan Kennedy's 11th-minute left-footed 30-yarder had Agustin sprawling. McDermott's first-time effort following a neat link between Dalglish and Lee went over, and Dalglish drove an effort on the turn straight at the keeper. | 
