Bright lights, smoky atmosphere, charged crowd - everyone loves a bit of European football.
Whether it's the exciting dynamic of playing a team from another country, participating in the type of fixture that is steeped in celebrated nostalgia or the intrigue of strategising a tie over two legs, there's nothing quite like a midweek continental contest at Anfield.
Some of those enjoyable aspects were present when Liverpool faced Everton in the Merseyside Derby on Monday evening. A Kop full of colour following calls for a flag day certainly played its part along with a humming atmosphere against a fierce opponent. The end result was a much-needed 2-0 home win for the Reds - their first in the Premier League since the turn of the year.
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Over the course of the second half of the season, one suspects that Jurgen Klopp's side will face significantly stiffer opposition than a toothless Everton, who's current woeful plight is undoubtedly best served in a separate article, but after frankly embarrassing defeats on the road to Brentford, Brighton and a distinctly average Wolves, beating Everton is a start and a step in the right direction.
The floodlight-powered win was all the more important given the results that preceded it. Defeat for Tottenham at Leicester, draws for Brentford and Brighton and latterly Newcastle United at Bournemouth have all gone in Liverpool's favour and all of a sudden, a season that remains in severe danger of being completely written off has a slither of hope still running through it.
Liverpool will travel to Newcastle on Saturday in search of a first away win in the Premier League since Boxing Day. The Magpies are without a victory in three matches and are starting to look much more vulnerable than they did a month ago. Beat them and win their game in hand and the Reds will have closed a nine-point gap behind the current fourth-placed club to just three. Make no mistake, there is plenty to play for.
If Champions League qualification remains a possible target via league position, it cannot be denied that Liverpool remain outsiders to achieve it, however. Any team finishing in the top four must be able to demonstrate the ability to pull together a sustained run of results, something that has looked beyond Klopp's side all season. Even the season's best run of four consecutive Premier League wins across November and December had a touch of fortune about it in the latter matches and surely a better succession of victories will be required to not only break into the top four but actually stay there until the season concludes on May 28.
But there is another route into Europe's elite competition next season and it's a path that's been taken before. Winning the European Cup in Istanbul. Given how breathtakingly average Liverpool have been so far this season, it is difficult to imagine just how they could land Europe's top prize - and with it, qualification for next year's tournament - but a look back at the last time such a feat was achieved in the storied season of 2005, allows us to quickly draw a number comparisons.
Rafa Benitez' Reds were struggling in the Premier League and already out of the FA Cup when they reached the knockout stages of the Champions League 18 years ago. That they got to that point at all is only down to the second-half heroics conjured up against Olympiacos in the final group stage match and 'that' Steven Gerrard goal.
Their exit from the world's oldest knockout competition came in fairly grim but memorable circumstances. A trip to Turf Moor to face Championship side Burnley had to be rearranged due to bad weather but when it did finally get underway Djimi Traore produced arguably his most notorious act in a Red shirt, performing a bizarre drag-back on his own goal line to gift the Clarets a 1-0 passage into the next round at the Reds' expense.
Benitez' team had faired better in the League Cup, reaching the final, but an extra-time defeat to Chelsea - featuring another own goal, this time from Gerrard - left the Reds praying for a miracle in the Champions League as the Spaniard's first season in the Anfield dugout seemed destined to end in abject fashion.
But by some unexpected twist of fate, those prayers were answered as the Reds bundled along in the Premier League but progressed in the Champions League. First, they comfortably dispatched Bayer Leverkusen with 3-1 victories in both legs. Then things got serious as a confident Liverpool beat a star-studded Juventus team 2-1 at Anfield in front of a pumped-up crowd before heading into the lion's den to secure the 0-0 draw they need at the Stadio Delle Alpi.
Both legs produced unlikely heroes. An injury to Jerzy Dudek before the first leg saw Scott Carson handed the gloves to make his European Liverpool debut on the biggest of occasions. He was on course for a clean sheet before letting a header from Fabio Cannavaro sneak in at his near post, but crucially produced a brilliant one-handed save to deny Alessandro Del Piero earlier in the match.
In the second leg, the Reds were without captain Steven Gerrard, but with Xabi Alonso returning to the team to assist, unsung hero Igor Biscan produced one of his best performances for the club to help nullify the Italians in midfield, while Traore atoned for his Burnley calamity by clearing a late Juve effort off the goalline, via his own post.
Once a team gets to the semi-final of the Champions League anything is possible. That included beating Jose Mourinho's newly-crowned Premier League champions 1-0 on aggregate, to ensure that Liverpool reached their first European Cup final since 1985. Whereas victory against Leverkusen in the Round of 16 had been considered an absolute possibility, seeing off both Juventus and a Chelsea team that finished a whopping 37 points ahead of them in the Premier League were seen as long shots at best.
But Liverpool were destined to reach the Champions League final in Istanbul, where they would not only achieve one of the most remarkable triumphs in the illustrious history of the club, but give the 50,000-odds supporters who made the pilgrimage the greatest week of their lives.
As attention turned to European glory, Liverpool took their eye off the league and finished the season fifth in the table on 58 points and below David Moyes' Everton. Back in 2005, UEFA rules did not stipulate that the current holders would qualify for the following year's competition. Despite UEFA spokesperson William Gaillard insisting that the Reds would be competing in the UEFA Cup the following season, the governing body did finally find a way of ensuring that Liverpool could defend their title, by making them go through all three qualification rounds, start with a trip to TNS in North Wales.
By hook or crook, the Reds had qualified for the following season's Champions League despite finishing outside the Premier League top four - something they might have to do again this year.
A romantic return to the buzzing Turkish city appeared to be off the cards three years ago, but fate has kept the dream alive. The Ataturk Stadium should have been the host arena for the 2020 final, but thanks to the Covid-19 pandemic, it was moved to Benfica's Estadio da Luz instead.
Istanbul was instead awarded the 2021 final but with the coronavirus situation in Turkey still no better, UEFA relocated the showpiece match back to Portugal, this time at FC Porto's Estadio do Dragao. Russia was already nailed on to host the 2022 final and there appeared to be little appetite to upset them on that front, until their subsequent invasion of Ukraine saw them stripped of the honour, with Paris' Stade de France taking up the responsibility instead.
The end result is that Istanbul will finally host a Champions League final again in 2023, 18 years after Liverpool produced the impossible to clinch their fifth European Cup in the same stadium. If you believe in fate, then you can see where this is going.
Rather than going head-to-head with a very beatable team like Leverkusen at the Round of 16 stage, instead Klopp's side must face the team that beat them in last year's final, Real Madrid.
Los Blancos were not considered favourites for the Paris showpiece, that is remembered more for the disorganised chaos off the pitch, rather than what happened on it, but they will head to Anfield next Tuesday as the team tipped to progress to the quarterfinals.
This current Liverpool team, that couldn't beat Brentford, Brighton or Wolves, will need to dig deep into its soul if they want to go deep into this season's European adventure, let alone dare to dream of an Istanbul reunion, but the win against Everton offered up that most important of football assets. Hope.
Hope that the returning Virgil van Dijk, Diogo Jota and Roberto Firmino can get Liverpool onto a winning run before the much-missed Luis Diaz re-joins the party. Hope that the sudden emergence of Stefan Bajcetic can re-energise the Reds' midfield and finally get it functioning properly. Hope that a spirited win against Real Madrid, backed by a raucous crowd can elevate the teams' confidence and kick-start another path to silverware and a seventh European Cup.
Liverpool and Istanbul was a marriage made in heaven and 18 years on, we are still within our rights to hold onto the hope that they will renew their vows in June 10. Don't give up on it just yet.
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