Champions League 2001: Leeds United vs Anderlecht

A lot of time had passed since Leeds United's glory night against Lazio in Rome at the start of December, but all that seemed to have changed was an exchange of one form of beleaguerism for another.

David O'Leary was struggling to lift the relative malaise from his team's Premier League campaign. Since beating Lazio, Leeds had won four, drawn three and lost four, only recently dragging themselves up from as low as 14th in the table to 5th. In the FA Cup they'd beaten Barnsley then lost 2-0 at home to Liverpool. New signing Robbie Keane, a striker on loan from Inter Milan, had won Premier League player of the month by scoring six goals in seven games. But that had left talisman Alan Smith on the bench, without a league goal since 30th September. Only Smith, of the two, was eligible to play in Europe.

O'Leary could, at last, call on £18m defender Rio Ferdinand in the Champions League, as UEFA allowed some new names in the squad for the new year. The manager had been defending his new signing's rocky start. "I mightn't know much about this game, but centre-backs, I've an idea about them," said former Arsenal centre-back O'Leary. "To me, Ferdinand is quality." David Batty was available too, returning to fitness and the midfield, and although he and Olivier Dacourt were labouring to build an understanding it meant less call for Jacob Burns against Europe's best players.

Labouring was still the word for Leeds, building up for Anderlecht's visit with a drab 0-0 at home to Derby County. But the last half-hour of that game had been the best news O'Leary had heard since the last flutter of chairman Peter Ridsdale's chequebook. Young winger Harry Kewell, injured since summer but for a brief pre-Christmas cameo that aggravated his achilles problems, had come on and terrorised Derby's right-back Chris Riggott.