Liverpool are looking for another famous Anfield night in the Champions League on Tuesday as Paris Saint Germain come to town.
The Reds are favourites to go through to the quarter-finals, having beaten the Parisians 1-0 during last week’s away leg.
However, having dominated much of the game at the Parc des Princes, PSG are confident heading to Merseyside this week.
The French champions should be wary, though. They may be downplaying the importance of Anfield, but the famous old stadium has swallowed up better teams over the years.
Barcelona’s 4-0 walloping in the 2019 Champions League semi-final is the most famous such occasion, but 10 years earlier Liverpool also claimed the scalp of Real Madrid by the same scoreline.
There are parallels with this year’s PSG clash. The Reds had gone away from home to win the first-leg 1-0. They then took Real back to Merseyside and killed them. The man who put the final touch on that magnificent victory was a certain Andrea Dossena.
Photo by AMA/Corbis via Getty Images
Photo by AMA/Corbis via Getty Images
Andrea Dossena: from Champions League to League Two
Dossena was relatively unknown to Liverpool fans when he rocked up as Rafa Benitez’s new left-back signing from Udinese in 2008.
Almost 27 at the time, Dossena was well-established back home in Italy having played almost 200 games for Hellas Verona, Treviso and Udinese. He was also a senior international with the Italian national team.
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It had been anticipated that Dossena would battle it out with the injury-prone Fabio Aurelio to start for Benitez, but as the Italian failed to settle, it soon became clear that he would not last long at Anfield.
Ultimately, the full-back made just 26 appearances during his first year at Liverpool, and only five in his second, before leaving for Napoli in January 2010.
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However, brief and disappointing though it was, Dossena still had himself a week to remember in March 2009.
The left-back came on as a substitute in consecutive games against Man United and Real Madrid and put the cherry-topping fourth goal on the scoresheet for Liverpool in both. They were his only two goals for the Reds.
Then, just like that, he was gone. Dossena’s time in English football was not quite done, though, with an intriguing move in late 2014 providing a fascinating appendage to his career.
Dossena returns with Leyton Orient
Dossena had a better time of things once he returned to Italy in 2010. He quickly became a starter even won a Coppa Italia in 2012.
But Dossena clearly felt he wasn’t finished in England and with Benitez joining Napoli and shipping him out, he returned to the Premier League with Sunderland in 2013.
After managing just a handful of appearances for the Black Cats, though, Dossena left after one season. Without a club until November, he then chose to join League One strugglers Leyton Orient.
Things did not go well for Dossena at Orient, however, who ended up playing only 15 times for the club under Italian coach Mauro Milanese, scoring once.
And with Orient relegated to League Two at the end of the season, Andrea headed back to Italy with lower league side Chiasso.
Since retiring in 2017 Dossena has gone into management, with his most recent stint at Serie C side SPAL ending only last month. Still, he’ll always have that fantastic week and those two, super finishes for Liverpool.