Valencia 2 - Liverpool 0

Valencia: Cañizares; Curro Torres, Ayala, Pellegrino, Carboni; Albelda (De los Santos 84'), Baraja; Rufete (Angulo 74'), Aimar (Mista 70'), Vicente; Carew. 4-2-3-1.
Liverpool: Dudek; Carragher, Hyppia, Diao (Cheyrou 46'), Traore; Murphy (Baros 76'), Gerrard, Hamann, Riise; Diouf (Owen 46'), Heskey. 4-4-2.

Goals:
1-0. 20. Aimar. Shot past Dudek after quick passing move with Albelda and Baraja.
2-0. 38. Baraja. Took short pass from Carew and ran on to shoot wide of Dudek.

Valencia defeated Gerard Houllier's Liverpool 2-0 thanks to first half goals by Aimar and Baraja. The Argentine attacking midfielder passed a late fitness test to make the starting line up, and he opened the scoring after a delightful passing move with his two anchor men Albelda and Baraja. Heskey went close to levelling the scores a few minutes later when he hit the post from a wide angle, but Aimar flet he should have had a penalty soon afterwards when he was brought down by Diao in the area.

Before the half time whistle though Baraja had made it two with a low shot past Dudek, and the tie was virtually over. Houllier took off his two Senegalese internationals Diao and Diouf at the break to bring on Owen and Cheyrou, but it made little difference. Valencia had not lost at home in the 16 Champions League games they have played in the Mestalla stadium, and on ten of those occasions the opposition failed to score, and they were not going to let this one slip.

Both keepers had to show their class in the opening minutes after the interval, Dudek tipping Aimar´s shot over the bar and Cañizares saving from Murphy. Carew sent a glancing header just wide and Ayala shot past the post before Liverpool were left with ten men, Hamann picking up a second yellow card with a quarter of an hour to go. Owen could have had a penalty in the closing minutes but German referee Herbert Fandel decided that the challenge from Curro Torres was legal, and Carew almost scored in the last minute. All these were anecdotes though, and the only important fact is that Valencia took three points on their return to Europe's top flight competition.