In the late eighties, I remember European football being awash with Italian teams. With my class being full of Milan fans, I felt pain and jealousy that they could watch their team gliding all over Europe.

Liverpool had won the old European Cup four times but I never had the first-hand experience and not even a video to remind me of the greatness of my club. It was good seeing Sunday's newspaper reports of Liverpool winning match after match in the league, but Europe was something else. It was like hearing a mate recounting the great time he had in Disneyland last summer, when the furthest you'd been was the local beach.

The 1990s were not much different. Even success in the league was not guaranteed. Late in the '90s, though, special European nights were being witnessed again. As Roy Evans once said:  ''Anfield without European football is like a banquet without red wine.'' Gerard Houllier's first full season was without the red wine but his team harvested enough grapes for the following season. And the big test arrived when Liverpool drew AS Roma, who were leading Serie A. 

This was the biggest European test since Paris St Germain four years previously. The Romans initially pegged us, and the ref's half-time whistle couldn't come quickly enough. The second half started, and a prodigy called Michael Owen intercepted a loose back-pass and deposited the ball into the net. He scored again and Anfield awaited its biggest European match for years, whilst having a League Cup Final to look forward to the following Sunday. The good times were with us again and the the boss was being lauded from the rooftops. The return did not go exactly to plan as Roma pulled one back, but ultimately it was not enough to deny Liverpool from travelling to Porto.

Porto were then beaten and so were Barcelona in the semis. Liverpool were in their first European final since 1985. Going into the dressing rooms with a 3-1 lead, the UEFA Cup looked in the bag. But two goals in a couple of minutes twisted the tale. Robbie Fowler came in, and duly he scored a peach of a goal. At 4-3 it was surely game over, but young Cruyff headed past Sander Westerveld to take us into extra-time. Gary McAllister's free-kick was helped into the net by a lad called Delfi and Liverpool were back again.

The following years, Liverpool never missed out on European football, but Europe felt more like a bridge too far than an exotic backyard. Then Rafael Benitez took over and what better way to carve his name into our hearts? He took Europe by storm, displayed his tactical nous and provoked Anfield to emulate Inter Milan in 1965 and St Etienne in 1977.