On this day in Liverpool history - 5th April

On this day in Liverpool history - 5th April

Monday, 5th April 2010

Arrivederci Juve
2005 - We beat Serie A champions elect Juventus 2-1 at Anfield in the first leg of our Champions League Quarter-final clash. Sami Hyypiä struck a delightful volley from a corner before Luis García's wonder strike put us two ahead at the break. Scott Carson let in a goal from Fabio Cannavaro to give the Italians hope, although we held firm in the Stadio delle Alpi to reach the Semi-finals for the first time in twenty years.

The club honoured the memory of the 39 victims of Heysel with a number of commemorative gestures in the lead-up to the match, including a fans match at the Academy and a Kop mosaic, while a banner carrying the theme ‘In Memoria e Amicizia' was carried by Phil Neal and Michel Platini, captains back in 1985, from the Kop to the away end prior to kick-off.

Happy birthdays all round
1945 - Tommy Smith was born in Liverpool. The ‘Anfield Iron' signed on as a professional on his seventeenth birthday, and went on to win four League titles, two FA Cups, two UEFA Cups, European Cup, UEFA Super Cup and two FA Charity Shields in his time with Liverpool, netting 48 times in 638 games.

1976 - Fernando Morientes was born in Cáceres in Spain. He struck twelve times in 61 reds appearances following his £6.3m arrival from Real Madrid in January 2005, but moved on to Valencia in July 2006 after failing to fully convince in a reds shirt. He had helped us to claim the FA Cup and UEFA Super Cup in his time at Anfield.
1968 - Former second string defender Alex Watson was born in Liverpool. He made just nine first-team appearances, before joining Bournemouth for £150,000 in January 1991.

The end of Rushie's record
1987 - A legendary goal streak was broken at Wembley. Ian Rush opened the scoring in our Littlewoods Cup Final against Arsenal. Unfortunately, Charlie Nicholas struck twice to take the trophy to Highbury. This was the 145th match in which Ian Rush had scored, but the first of those that we lost. Future red Michael Thomas came off the bench for the victors.
2005 - Rushie resigned as Manager of Chester City. He said, "The club's decision yesterday to terminate the contract of my assistant Mark Aizlewood without my knowledge was the last straw."

We're on our way to Wembley
We have twice played FA Cup Semi-finals on this day.
1986 - We beat Southampton 2-0 at White Hart Lane after extra time, thanks to a brace from Ian Rush. Future red Mark Wright broke his leg during the match.

1992 - Our tie with Portsmouth at Highbury also ended goalless after ninety minutes, before Pompey went ahead through the young Darren Anderton in extra time, with the reds down to ten men due to an injury to Steve McManaman. Ronnie Whelan chose the perfect time to score his only goal of the season after Alan Knight had pushed a John Barnes free-kick onto the post to take the tie to a replay, which we went on to win.

En route to another final
2001 - We came back from the Camp Nou with a goalless draw in our UEFA Cup Semi-final first leg meeting with Barcelona, to set us on our way to a third UEFA Cup triumph. The Spanish giants had only twice previously failed to score at home that season. Future reds keeper Pepe Reina was in the home goal, while Bolo Zenden made an appearance for the home side from the bench.

Derby joy
1978 - David Johnson bagged the only goal of the game at Goodison Park to become the first player to net for both sides in the derby, having also struck the only goal of the game at Goodison in November 1971.
1901 - We also beat the Blues, with Charles Satterthwaite and Sam Raybould netting in a 2-1 friendly win at Anfield.

Gerry's farewell
1969 - Gerry Byrne played his 333rd and final reds game as Roger Hunt struck the only goal of our home League meeting with Wolverhampton Wanderers.

Red debutants
2008 - Damien Plessis debuted in our 1-1 League draw at Arsenal, just three days after a similar result there in the Champions League. Peter Crouch gave us the lead before Nicklas Bendtner equalised.
1920 - Forward Dick Johnson made his reds bow as we were held to a 2-2 draw at Anfield by Oldham Athletic. Harry Chambers netted both our goals, with keeper Ken Campbell playing for the 142nd and final time before joining Partick Thistle.

Thumped at Old Trafford
2003 - We lost 4-0 at Manchester United following Sami Hyypiä's fourth-minute dismissal after he tussled with Ruud van Nistelrooy in the box.

1980 - We also lost at Old Trafford, with Kenny Dalglish opening the scoring in a 2-1 defeat. United capitalised when winger Steve Coppell took advantage of Alan Kennedy pulling up with a damaged hamstring to cross for the equaliser.

Stig in the dumps
1995 - Stig Inge Bjørnebye broke his leg as we beat Southampton 3-1 at Anfield. Ian Rush bagged a brace, to add to a Robbie Fowler penalty.

A win at last
1912 - We beat Sunderland 2-1 at Anfield to record our first victory in twelve matches as we ended the season in seventeenth place. Half-back Harry Lowe struck his first reds goal with Samual Gilligan also on the scoresheet.

Reds awards
2002 - This was a day of awards. Gérard Houllier and Phil Thompson were jointly awarded the Manager of the Month prize for March while Steven Gerrard was nominated for the PFA Young Player Of The Year award, which he had won the previous year.

Hardy's first as a Villain
1913 - Keeper Sam Hardy won his first cap as an Aston Villa player, and fifteenth in total, as England beat Scotland 1-0 in a British International Championships game at Stamford Bridge.

A Victory defeat for Ephraim
1919 - Right-back Ephraim Longworth played for the Football League in a Victory match, which a Scottish League team won 3-2 at Ibrox. On the same day, inside-forward Harry Lewis struck for the sixth consecutive game, as we beat Southport Vulcan 4-2 at Anfield in a Wartime League fixture. Tom Miller and Harold and Walter Wadsworth also scored.

Sami clogs off the mark
1997 - Sami Hyypiä scored his first goal in the Dutch Premier League. Unfortunately, Willem II lost 3-1 at SC Heerenveen.
2008 - Sami signed a new contract with the reds until the summer of 2009.