FeatureThe trophy that first crowned Liverpool as Europe's best in 1976

The weighty silver vase pictured below is the Challenge Europeen Interclubs award for 1976 and on October 12 that year, seven months before Emlyn Hughes lifted Liverpool's maiden European Cup in Rome, it was presented to Anfield officials at a lavish ceremony in the French capital.

Organised by France Football magazine and sponsored by adidas, the competition was more commonly known as the 'European Team of the Year'. It ran from 1968 to 1990, with the winner being the best performing team over an entire season in domestic and continental competition.

It was calculated using a points system collated by correspondents of the magazine. In 1975-76, having won the First Division title and UEFA Cup, Bob Paisley's Reds came out on top to become the first English club to win it outright.

During the dominant period that followed, Liverpool went on to reclaim the prestigious honour a further three times (1978, 1982 and 1984) - only Ajax won it more - and finished runners-up once (1986).

In those later years the trophy changed from the one shown here to a smaller gold-plated adidas trefoil, but the 1976 version has been preserved in the club's museum collection and will always take us back to the dawn of our most glorious era.

This article has been reproduced from tonight's Liverpool v Real Madrid matchday programme.

• To visit the new and improved LFC Museum, which is included in all Anfield tours and experiences, book via liverpoolfc.com/stadium-tours