Tonight marks a significant emotional point in my recent love affair with Liverpool Football Club.
Four years ago we played Benfica in the 'round of 16' following our immensely triumphal Turkish summer. Hopes were strong even if the team wasn't, and I got the wife and I two tickets in the Anfield Road Lower to watch our inevitable glory. I'd spotted Stelios Giannakopolous buying a drink and sitting with the fans, and the mind wandered pensively to who we might be signing in the summer.
But such positive thoughts were numbed by a thoroughly inept and castrated performance against an efficient if not exciting Benfica team. Already 1-0 down from the leg in Portugal, we bowed out 'with a whimper'. To me, nobody read Garcia's great movement and Gerrard was yet again left alone to summon any kind of courage in the middle of the park. Such was the antithesis of irrestible Scouse connection we felt after that 'Night in Istanbul', I felt guilty for taking my wife to such a pathetic show.
Tonight is the rematch I guess, but one I am more fearful of than relishing. We have come full circle in those last four years. We really built on our fifth European Cup by signing the likes of Crouch, Sissoko, Kuyt and Reina; fluking the FA Cup; making the Top Four a comfortable home; and even pushed for the title last year. Whilst we might be going downhill in dropping to the Europa League it is our chance to stop the rot and bounce back towards a very welcome trophy.
Whilst it is hard to settle for second best, winning the UEFA Cup (as I still call it) will be a show of strength to potential new players that we can still mix it.
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