“I don’t want to wake up tomorrow morning in the UEFA Cup.”
Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard would defiantly drop such a sound bite on the eve of the Reds’ crucial Champions League group-stage clash with Olympiakos back in 2004. Also admitting at the pre-match press conference that he would have no choice but to consider his future if Rafa Benitez’s side failed to qualify for Europe’s elite competition, it was the aforementioned quote that dominated the back pages the following morning.
Needing to win by two goals against the Greeks to qualify for the knockout stages at their expense, it seemed Gerrard’s words would come back to bite him as Liverpool trailed 1-0 at half-time to a Rivaldo free-kick. Yet the Reds’ talismanic captain would grab the game by the scruff of the neck as he scored his most iconic goal late on to clinch the needed 3-1 victory.
