After they had achieved their highest points total in the Premier League and reached the last 16 of the UEFA Cup during the previous campaign, Everton had high hopes of continuing their progress in both competitions at the start of 2008-09.
The Toffees had started sluggishly on the domestic front, winning just two of their opening six fixtures, but they were confident of an improvement in Europe against a Standard Liege side that had only registered three European successes in four years.
However, after they had won the league title during the previous season, 2008-09 was the year where a new generation of top talent really began to blossom at Stade Maurice Dufrasne and it would later be seen that the club was providing the foundation for a number of players to make an impact at the highest level.
For the second leg of their UEFA Cup tie with Everton, their starting lineup possessed the likes of Dante, who has since gone on to become a regular at Bayern Munich, Belgian duo Alex Witsel and Steven Defour, who have 95 caps between them for the national team, and Milan Jovanovic, who earned himself a move to Liverpool off the back of his displays for Liege. They could even call upon Manchester City's recent £32m signing Eliaquim Mangala off the substitutes' bench.
© Getty Images
After four goals were shared in the first game at Goodison Park, there was all to play for in the reverse fixture in Belgium, with the hosts probably deserving of their favourites tag after netting two away goals on Merseyside, but the English outfit held their own in the opening exchanges with Louis Saha blasting a decent opportunity wide of the mark.
However, midway through the first half, Everton were put on the back foot as Liege took the lead. Goalkeeper Tim Howard pulled off a terrific save from Defour but Jovanovic showed excellent awareness to pick out Witsel at the back post, who ensured that David Moyes's men required two goals to have a chance of making the group stages.
Rather than sitting back to protect their advantage, Liege continued to break at will at a ground that had become a fortress in 2008. Witsel and Jovanovic were looking particularly threatening but Everton managed to hold out until the break to keep their hopes alive.
Moyes opted to throw Victor Anichebe into the action after witnessing his team slowly become overpowered in Belgium and his introduction worked as Everton equalised through Phil Jagielka, who capitalised on some poor goalkeeping from Rorys Aragon to convert from close range.
© Getty Images
However, Everton weren't able to make the most of their momentum and Liege's starlets begin to impose themselves on the game once again before finding the goal that would ultimately break the Toffees' hearts with just over 10 minutes remaining.
Leighton Baines was adjudged to have brought down Jovanovic in the penalty area before the Serbian got to his feet to power the ball past Howard, who had guessed the right way, to leave Everton needing a late strike to force an extra 30 minutes.
Mikel Arteta and Tim Cahill had openings in the closing stages that could have helped take the game away from a vibrant Liege side, but it wasn't to be for Everton and they deservedly bowed out of the competition to a team that would later go on to beat Sevilla and Sampdoria in the group stages.
Liege were eliminated from the tournament at the last-32 stage by Portuguese club Braga, while Everton recovered their season by securing another fifth-place finish in the Premier League as well as reaching the FA Cup final, where they lost to Chelsea.
Darren Plant
