Watch Liverpool and Newcastle's classic 1996 encounter here

Where were you when Chelsea drew 4-4 with Liverpool? Once in a blue moon you watch a game that you will probably never forget. Liverpool beat Newcastle United in a classic encounter in 1996 that has been described as the greatest Premier League match and on Tuesday night Liverpool and Chelsea produced a thrilling, pulsating game that gripped television viewers around the world.

The Gazzetta dello Sport, the Italian sports newspaper, described the second leg of the Champions League quarter-final tie as the match of the millennium. “If some genius had invented a way of harnessing the intensity of a match to a power station, Chelsea versus Liverpool would have lit up London for a month,” it commented.

Les Ferdinand scored 190 times but there is one goal and one game that he has never forgotten. In 1996 Newcastle were locked in a desperate battle with Manchester United to become the champions of England and on a Wednesday night in April Kevin Keegan's team travelled to Anfield knowing that they needed three points to stay in the hunt for the club's first title since 1927.

Keegan's Newcastle teams always attacked and Liverpool had players such as Robbie Fowler, Steve McManaman, John Barnes and Stan Collymore, but nobody expected what happened next as the home side won a thrilling encounter 4-3.

“There was a break in the game in the second half when someone got injured,” Ferdinand said. “I remember standing in the middle of the pitch, listening to the phenomenal noise and thinking, 'Whoever is watching this is watching one hell of a game.'”

Ferdinand scored in the tenth minute to cancel out Fowler's early strike and he remembers Keegan urging his players to keep attacking even when they were leading 2-1 at half-time. Memories of that classic game came flooding back as Ferdinand, who coaches Tottenham Hotspur's forwards, watched Chelsea's draw with Liverpool on Tuesday. “I know I'm biased but our game was better,” he said. “It was the best game I ever played in.”

Collymore had the last word at Anfield 13 years ago, scoring Liverpool's winning goal in the closing seconds with a vicious left-foot strike from close range. Keegan's shock and despair was caught by the TV cameras that zoomed in on him as he tried to hide his face in the dugout. “We were shattered,” Ferdinand said. “The manager walked into the dressing-room and said, 'How can I slaughter you? You've just been part of one of the greatest games of all time.'”

Unfortunately for Newcastle, they ended the season empty-handed. United won the title for the tenth time, with Newcastle four points behind in second place.