On this day in 2001 we played our first ever game in the Champions League proper. Obviously we'd ruled the same competition in it's old guise of the European Cup but under this name, we hosted Boavista and drew one all with Michael Owen cancelling out their very early opener.
We had played a couple of qualifiers against Haka to make it to the group stage as well.
We ended the first group stage unbeaten. Drawing twice with Boavista, both games were one all. Doing the double of Dynamo Keiv and taking four points off Dortmund. We were rewarded with the second group phase where we played Barca, Roma and Galatasaray. The Roma game at Anfield was our only win in that group but also the night Gerard Houllier returned from his heart attack. And it helped us progress to the quarter finals where we played Leverkusen and our European naivety showed with the Didi Hamann and Vladi Smicer sub.
But as a club we certainly improved in the Champions League and within four years of making our debut in the competition, we were winning it.
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