It was Marseille away, in case you’ve been wondering. That was Liverpool’s last Uefa Cup fixture.
Cast your minds back to March 2004, and the Reds were run ragged in the south of France by Didier Drogba and, ahem, Steve Marlet as they exited European football’s second-tier competition at the fourth-round stage.
Emile Heskey had fired past Fabien Barthez to put them in front, but Igor Biscan was sent off for pulling back Marlet, and Drogba smashed home from the penalty spot. Abdoulaye Meite, a future Bolton and West Brom defender, headed the winner, as a team featuring Mathieu Flamini, Habib Beye and Mido triumphed 3-2 on aggregate. It was the tie that many claim persuaded José Mourinho to sign Drogba - who had dominated Sami Hyypia in the Anfield leg - and Marseille went on the reach the final, where they lost 2-0 to Rafael Benitez’ Valencia.
A year on, and Benitez was lifting the Champions League for Liverpool – becoming the only manager in history to have won two European trophies in successive seasons with different clubs – but tonight he oversees his first match in Europe’s second competition since that final with Valencia in Gothenburg. It wasn’t supposed to be like this.
Abject in their Champions League group, where they finished a distant third to Fiorentina and Lyon, the Reds embark on their Europa League campaign with a home game against the Romanians Unirea Urziceni tonight. For a while it has been the fixture that dare not speak its name among Liverpool supporters – who have put off thinking about playing amongst European football’s nearly men, also-rans and up and comers almost as much as Gordon Brown puts off thinking about the general election – but now the inconvenient truth has arrived, and there is a steely determination to do well. The Reds are in it, so they might as well try and win it.
Contrary to popular prediction, over 40,000 tickets have already been sold for tonight’s first leg, with many expecting Anfield to sell out before kick-off. Liverpool budgeted for reaching the second round of the Champions League this season, but a run to the semi-finals of the Europa League would make up that shortfall, not that they can overlook the test of Unirea.
The Romanians won 4-1 at Rangers’ Ibrox and beat Sevilla in their Champions League group before they too went the way of Liverpool. They lost familiar face Dan Petrescu as manager in December, but current boss Ronny Levy does have some history with the Reds; his Maccabi Haifa side took the lead at Anfield in a qualifier for the 2006/07 Champions League. Only a last gasp Mark Gonzalez goal helped Liverpool to a 3-2 aggregate win in that tie, otherwise they could have been playing Uefa Cup football under Benitez a lot earlier.
That they do now – albeit under its rebranded name of the Europa League – is down to some of the poorest performances of the Spaniard’s five-and-a-half year reign at the club during the Champions League campaign, but there’s nothing that can be done about those now. Right now there’s a trophy to fight for, and the chance to salvage some glory from the most disjointed of seasons.
If Liverpool were to win the competition, then they’d become the most successful team in Uefa Cup/Europa League history with four wins, following on from successes in 1973, 1976 and 2001. Added to their five European Cups, which puts them third on the all-time list behind Real Madrid and AC Milan, their status among the game’s elite would be cemented.
Motivation enough to turn in a high-quality performance tonight? Time will tell, but Liverpool shouldn’t be feeling sorry for themselves as they enter the Europa League.
They might not be too keen to defend the trophy next season should they win it this, but attacking the competition head-on should be their only option.
It is the least that their supporters expect.
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