After six years with Gérard Houlier at the reins, Liverpool FC entered the 2004/05 season with a fresh man in charge - Rafael Benítez. The Spaniard had won La Liga the season before with Valencia CF and must have impressed the Liverpool FC board after he completed the double over them in the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League group stage.

Rafa became the first Spanish manager in the history of the Premier League.

Benítez went shopping for new signings in his former league, with several signings all joining from La Liga. His first arrivals were his fellow countrymen Josemi, Xabi Alonso and Luis García, from Málaga CF, Real Sociedad and FC Barcelona respectively. Djibril Cissé was also amongst the new arrivals, signing before Benítez was in charge.

This season saw the departure of Ballon d’Or winner and academy graduate Michael Owen, who went in the opposite direction, leaving Liverpool FC for Real Madrid CF. Antonino Núñez joined the Reds as part of the deal. Amongst the other departures were Markus Babbel, who returned to Germany to play for VfB Stuttgart when his contract expired, and Danny Murphy, who departed for Charlton Athletic FC.

Benítez's first success of the season was convincing Steven Gerrard to stay with the team despite some strong interest from Chelsea FC.

Thanks to a fourth-place finish in the season prior, the Reds were set for a return to the UEFA Champions League after a season in the, then, UEFA Cup, now known as the UEFA Europa League. However, they had to overcome the Austrian league and league cup champions Grazer AK in the third qualifying round if they wanted a place in the group stages.

The first leg took Liverpool FC to the Austrian city Graz, as a brace of powerful strikes from Gerrard secured a 2-0 victory away from home in Benítez’s first match in charge of the Reds. The ‘Rafalution’, as Kopites dubbed it, had begun.

Gerrard’s beautiful strike from 25 yards gave Liverpool FC the lead after 23 minutes, and his fine volley in the second half secured the first leg for Benítez’s men, giving them a 2-0 advantage ahead of the second leg at Anfield.

Owen stayed on the bench as speculation about his move to Madrid heightened. However, four Reds made their debuts, with Cissé and Josemi starting the game and academy lads Darren Potter and Stephen Warnock making appearances off the bench.

The sides met again two weeks later on Merseyside with a place in the group stages up for grabs. The Reds held the advantage as Grazer AK needed to overcome a two-goal deficit to keep their hopes alive. An impressive strike from Mario Tokić gave Grazer AK the lead early into the second half, prompting an anxious second half for Liverpool FC’s supporters.

The game ended in controversy with the Austrian side’s captain Rene Aufhauser being booked twice by the referee within the space of ten minutes. However, the official did not show his red card to the captain despite his two yellows.

Liverpool FC survived the scare of going a goal down in the second leg and made it into the group stages, despite their disappointing performance giving Benítez his first taste of defeat in charge of the Reds. Thankfully, it was not a costly loss.

After overcoming the Austrian champions, Liverpool FC were set for the group stages of the UEFA Champions League. In the second round of teams drawn, the Reds joined Spanish side Deportivo de La Coruña in Group A. They were joined by Greek giants Olympiacos FC and the previous year’s runners-up AS Monaco.

The stage for the first matchday was Anfield, with AS Monaco making the trip over the English Channel to meet the Reds. AS Monaco were a different outfit to the side that almost won the competition the previous year - five of their stars who were overcome 3-0 by José Mourinho’s FC Porto in the final, had now left the club.

The boss of the French side was Didier Deschamps, who had a brief stint in his playing career in the Premier League with Chelsea FC and won the FIFA World Cup with France as a player in 1998 and a manager in 2018.

Deschamps said in the build-up to the match that Reds’ skipper Gerrard would be the biggest threat to his side. After 22 minutes of play, his worries came to fruition as a flurry of quick passes between Gerrard and Luis García allowed the skipper to play the ball into the penalty area for Cissé to fire home and make it 1-0 to the Reds.

A second goal in the closing minutes of the game from Czech striker Milan Baroš, and an overall confident display from the team, secured the three points for Liverpool FC. They were off to a fantastic start.

Matchday 2 took Benítez’s side on a 3,000-mile round trip to Piraeus, Greece, to take on Olympiacos FC. The Reds’ form away from home had been poor in all competitions, having not won any of their three away fixtures before this match.

Benítez made three changes to his side from the team that overcame AS Monaco two weeks prior. The most notable change was the absence of Gerrard, who was out with an injury. An early Ieroklis Stoltidis header for the Greek side was the only goal of the evening and the Reds poor away form continued.

On Matchday 3, the Reds welcomed Deportivo de La Coruña to Anfield for their first ever meeting, but there was seemingly a lack of confidence from the Redmen as they failed to score, capturing a point in a lifeless 0-0 draw against the Spanish side. Lionel Scaoloni, who came on for the visitors, is also now a FIFA World Cup winning manager having guided an Argentina side with Alexis Mac Allister in it to glory in 2022.

Liverpool FC now sat two points behind AS Monaco after three games and were the only English side that had lost a game in the competition so far.

The reverse fixture between Liverpool FC and Deportivo de La Coruña at Estadio Riazor was the setting for Matchday 4 and the Reds needed a win to keep the spark of a place in the knockout stages alive.

Liverpool FC began quickly in this one, nearly scoring 30 seconds after kick-off, though Baroš could not get a shot away before the ‘keeper was at his feet. However, under pressure from the Reds, the home side conceded an own-goal through defender Jorge Andrade, giving Liverpool FC the lead after 15 minutes.

By half-time the Reds should have closed the game, with a plethora of chances to double the deficit, though they headed down the tunnel only one goal ahead.

The travelling Kop made their voices heard throughout, singing the name of their new boss, and the Reds spent most of the second half defending their own goal, with the Spanish side enjoying the most of the possession. Their defensive efforts were ultimately enough and Liverpool FC claimed a vital three points to keep their hopes of qualifying alive.

They travelled to Monte Carlo to face AS Monaco again on Matchday 5, but with strikers Cissé and Baroš both injured Bentítez turned to Academy goal-getter Neil Mellor. He would famously go on to stun champions Arsenal FC at Anfield the following weekend with a long-range winner in stoppage-time, but Mellor and the Reds drew a blank against AS Monaco.

Josemi was forced off to get 20 stitches in a head wound and Javier Saviola got the only goal to leave Rafa’s Reds in a precarious position going into Matchday 6 against Olympiacos FC at Anfield. They had to win if they were going to qualify for the knockout stages, but if their Greek opponents scored Liverpool FC would then need to beat them by two clear goals.

Benítez’s side were coming off the back of a 1-1 draw away at Villa Park and sat seventh place in the Premier League after 15 matches. It was going to take a huge performance to overcome Olympiacos FC.

It was a huge night at Anfield as 42,000 Reds drowned the stadium in noise, but Kopites nerves were rampant. Liverpool FC got off to a quick start: Baroš had a goal chalked off and Sami Hyppiä came close to heading home the all-important first goal.

Then, after 26 minutes of play, Brazilian legend Rivaldo was awarded a free-kick right on the edge of the area. In true Rivaldo fashion, he curled the free-kick past Chris Kirkland into the back of the net, right in front of the Kop, and Liverpool FC’s worst possible outcome was now their biggest reality. The Reds needed three goals to keep their European dreams alive and by the half-time whistle, many had already written Liverpool FC off.

After a poor 45 minutes, Benítez had to make changes. Left-back Djimi Traoré made way for striker Florent Sinama-Pongolle and the Frenchman made an instant impact off the bench. Two minutes after play restarted, Harry Kewell burst past his man to the touchline and drilled a low ball into the feet of super sub Flo-Po, who calmly finished from six yards to get the equaliser.

Anfield’s spark was reignited and soon after Gerrard fired a stunning volley that Olympiacos’ keeper Antonis Nikopolidis failed to control. It ended up in the back of the net, but a foul in the build-up from Baroš on Gabriel Schürrer meant the goal would not stand and the Reds still needed two.

Down to the final 15 minutes of play, Liverpool FC's fate looked to be sealed. The second substitution of the evening brought Mellor into play in place of Baroš and, just like Benitez’s first sub, he gave the Reds the lifeline they needed. The striker’s instincts saw him react quickly to the rebound from an Antonio Núñez header and he put the Reds 2-1 ahead, with only one goal needed for an incredible comeback.

Anfield got louder as a fired-up Liverpool FC chased the final goal they needed. Then, in the 86th minute, Mellor headed a Jamie Carragher pass into the path of Gerrard and he unleashed a rocket of a shot that flew past Nikopolidis and into the Kop net. It was a formidable strike.

Anfield erupted. The dream of going to Istanbul was still alive.

Liverpool FC had defied the odds and were heading into the knockout stages thanks to the impactful changes from Benítez that saw Sinama-Pongolle and Mellor give the Reds the goals they needed before Gerrard had Sky Sports co-commentator Andy Gray, a former Everton FC striker, getting caught up in the atmosphere and shouting ‘you beautyyyyy’ as the ball hit the net.

Nobody knew it at the time, but Liverpool FC’s 3-1 win would prove to be one of the most important nights under the Anfield floodlights in the Club’s proud European history. But to get to the final in Istanbul there was still a lot of work to do.

• Keep your eyes open for part 2, which features the knockout stages games against Bayer 04 Leverkusen and Juventus FC…and Rafa accidentally ending up in a pub full of Reds!