Yesterday’s Champions League draw brought echoes of both players and matches past. Drawn in Group C, the Reds will have to face PSV Eindhoven, Bordeaux and Galatasaray. It’s one of those groups whose strength is hard to judge.

We’ll be meeting PSV for the first time in Europe. They’ve had much recent success under Guus Hiddink’s tenure, but with Ronald Koeman now in charge will they be able to keep up the same consistency? Koeman of course was the manager of the Benfica team who knocked us out last season.

The trip to Galatasaray will trigger a million and one references to that magical Istanbul night of the 25th May, 2005. The game will be held in “our” Ataturk stadium, Gala choosing the revenue of a much higher capacity venue over the intimidating atmosphere of the Ali Sami Yen. The Lions are difficult opponents on their home turf, beating AC Milan, Lazio, Juventus and Real Madrid there in recent seasons. We managed to escape with a 1-1 draw in the Champions League in 2002 thanks to a late Emile Heskey goal. Former defender Rigobert Song now plays for the Turkish side and should be in the team to play the Reds.

The final side in the group is the evocatively named FC Girondins de Bordeaux, another team we’ll be facing for the first time. Our European record against French teams tends to be win at home, lose away so Bordeaux could pose problems. The five times former French champions have been the home to many great players in the past, such as Alain Giresse, Patrick Battiston, Didier Deschamps, Bixente Lizarazu, Jean Tigana and Zinedine Zidane, though it’s the presence of a European Cup winner in their current squad that draws the eye, our very own Vladimír Šmicer.

Vlad’s career at Anfield was very much a curate’s egg. Clearly very skilled, his proneness to injury and use out of position by Houllier meant we rarely saw the best of him in a red shirt. To me though, when Vlad played well the team played well, as his quick footballing brain lubricated our attacks. When you think of Vlad at his best what comes to mind is a last minute winner against Chelsea and running at Everton, Man Utd and Alaves to draw fouls which earnt red cards. But it’s his contribution to our Champions League win over Milan that will live long in the memory.

Having been told in April by Rafa that his contract would not be renewed, Vlad asked if the boss still needed him around the club or should be just start the summer search for a new club early. Rafa insisted he could still play a part so the Czech from Děčín trained as hard as he’d always done and found himself on the bench for the final. Within 23 minutes he was on for the hapless Kewell and could only look on as Milan tore us to shreds. A tactical change at half time saw Vlad given licence to roam in an advanced position alongside Stevie G and just behind Baros. This fluid formation was perfect for him and he contributed intelligently as we famously fought back to 3-3, scoring our second with a rasping shot from 25 yards into the bottom left corner that Dida couldn’t keep out.

Extra time came and went and when penalties arrived Vlad was an obvious choice. With the score at 2-2 he stepped up and sent Dida the wrong way, sliding the penalty into the opposite corner. He clenched his fists and kissed the Liverpool badge on his shirt in celebration, and with Dudek saving Shevchenko’s subsequent effort Vlad had effectively scored the winning penalty with his last touch in a Red shirt.

It’ll be great to see you back Vlad, you’re one of the good guys.

This entry was posted on Friday, August 25th, 2006 at 8:23 pm and is filed under Matches, Players. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.