The 1981 Intercontinental Cup was an association football match between Liverpool of England and Flamengo of Brazil on 13 December 1981 at the National Stadium in Tokyo, Japan.

On 27 October 2017, following a meeting held in Kolkata, India, the FIFA Council recognised the winners of Intercontinental Cup as world champions.

Flamengo qualified by winning the primary South American cup competition, the Copa Libertadores.

They beat Chilean team Cobreloa 2–0 in a playoff after the previous ties finished 2–2 on points to win the 1981 Copa Libertadores.

Liverpool were unable to respond in the second half and with no further goals scored, Flamengo won the match to secure their first victory in the Intercontinental Cup.

Flamengo players Adílio and Lico were cut by a rock brought onto the pitch by Cobreloa defender Mario Soto during the second leg.

They won 3–0 in extra time courtesy of goals from Craig Johnston, Terry McDermott and Kenny Dalglish.

[10] Before the match, Liverpool manager Bob Paisley was informed of the death of goalkeeper, Bruce Grobbelaar's father.

The pass went over Thompson's head and Nunes placed the ball beyond Grobbelaar with his first touch to give Flamengo the lead.

"[11] He also noted that "The Brazilians, playing their 77th game of the season, stroked the ball around with loving care and always had time to spare.

However, despite two shots on target from striker Craig Johnston, who was playing his first match for Liverpool, they were unable to score a goal.

In the second half we managed the game.”[7] Zico felt the Liverpool players had underestimated the ability of Flamengo: “Liverpool were the best team in Europe and they continued being so, they had high-quality players, great technical ability, but Flamengo played much better football and maybe they didn't expect we would be so strong.” Zico was awarded a Toyota Celica as a result of him being named man of the match.

Liverpool captain Thompson was equally unsure about why they had failed to match Flamengo: “We let them dictate the pace of the game.

[12] Liverpool midfielder Graeme Souness praised the performance of Zico: “I wanted to see how he would react to a physical challenge, but I couldn't get close enough to him to find out.