In looking back at the past winners and runners-up in both the Champions League and UEFA Cup, one story jumped out at me more than any other. In what was their greatest season to date, Deportivo Alavés had a magical run all the way to the 2001 UEFA Cup Final.

The 2000-01 UEFA Cup was a pure knockout tournament with a single qualifying round and a first round that included 48 teams. The first round produced few shock results with the exception of Fiorentina being knocked out by Austrian club FC Wacker Innsbruck. Alavés snuck by Turkish side Gaziantepspor by a 4-3 aggregate while their eventual opponents in the final Liverpool FC had to scrape a 1-0 aggregate win against Romanian club FC Rapid Bucuresti. Alavés defeated Rosenborg BK of Norway and FC Internazionale Milan in the fourth round to reach the quarter-final stage. Alavés were not alone in their upset run as smaller clubs Rayo Vallecano (Spain) and FC Kaiserslautern (Germany) both made it to the quarter-final stage.

As fate would have it, Alavés were drawn against fellow Spaniards Rayo Vallecano in the quarter-finals and knocked them out 4-2 thanks in large part to a 3-0 home win. In the semi-finals, Alavés then hammered Kaiserslautern by an aggregate of 9-2. They were almost equally prolific in both legs winning 5-1 and 4-1 to advance to the finals.

The final took place at the Westfalenstadion in Dortmund, Germany on May 16, 2001. What looked to be a mismatch on paper turned into one of the greatest games in the history of the UEFA Cup competition. Liverpool had a potent blend of youth (Steven Gerrard, Michael Owen, Danny Murphy) and more experienced players (Robbie Fowler, Vladimir Smicer, Gary McAllister, Markus Babbel). Powered by players like midfielder Jordi Cruijff, son of the legend Johan Cruijff, as well as right wingback Cosmin Contra and striker Javi Moreno, Alavés were a very attack-minded side. Alavés came back from being down 2-0, 3-1 and 4-3 to level the match a fourth time in the 88th minute. The ending to this story was cruel as the game went to extra time and Liverpool won 5–4 on the Golden Goal rule when Delfí Geli headed a Gary McAllister free kick into his own goal.

Highlights of the match are available via this YouTube video

The win propelled Liverpool to a unique cup treble, as they also won the English FA Cup and the English Football League Cup that season. The UEFA Cup win was also Liverpool’s first European trophy since they won European Cup (Champions League forerunner) 17 years earlier.

Alavés has not reached such a height since that memorable day in May and currently find themselves in the Segunda Division (Spanish Division Two — a step below La Liga). Alavés were relegated from the top flight after the 2003-04 season, only to bounce back up a year later. In the 2005-06 season, they were relegated back to the second level and have not returned since. They currently sit 15th in the Segunda Division, 10 points back of leaders UD Salamanca.

One side-note of interest to North American readers, in 2007 Alavés operated a team in the USL First Division in the United States called the California Victory. The team were based out of Kezar Stadium in San Francisco and wore the Alavés colors. However, when Alavés had a change in ownership, the new bosses pulled support for the club and the Victory folded.

It’s been a great season for many of the domestic leagues in Europe, as their title races have gone right to the wire. Today we are going to focus on the race in the Czech republic where Slavia Prague are on the verge of winning their first league title since 1996 after a 3-1 win at Sigma Olomouc. Macedonian striker Goce Toleski and Marek Jarolim fired Slavia into a 2-0 first-half lead and Martin Abraham sealed their win after Jakub Heidenreich had pulled one back. With one match left, Slavia now top the standings with 59 points while defending champions Sparta have 57 after a disappointing 2-1 home defeat at the hands of third-placed Banik Ostrava.

Adding to the drama is that Sparta Praha have replaced coach Michal Bílek even though he announced his intention to quit at season’s end following the loss on Saturday. “Immediately after the game I announced to the club chief Mr. Kretinsky and players in the dressing room that I will quit at the end of the season,” Bilek said in a news conference following the game. Daniel Kretinsky is chairman of the Prague club. Sparta’s club president Jozef Chovanec will take charge of the team for their final match.

The 43-year-old Bílek had been in charge since September 2006 and won a domestic double last season. The 48-year-old Chovanec won several Czech titles with Sparta as a player and one as a coach in 1997. He managed the Czech Republic from 1998 to 2001 and then spent short spells at FC Marila Príbram and Russian side FC Kuban Krasnodar before taking on the club president role with Sparta.

Further adding to the drama around the final league matches of the season, Sparta must play Liberec in the Czech Cup final on Tuesday before meeting them again in the league on Saturday. However, the outcome of that game will be of little consequence if Slavia win their final game of the season at home against FK Jablonec 97.

One quick sidenote, Slavia recently opened their new stadium, the Stadion Eden, with a friendly against Oxford University Association Football Club. Now at first, this might seem like a strange pairing but Slavia’s relationship with the English club goes back to 1899, when Slavia hosted the Blues as the first English football club to travel to Prague. The players were met at the train station by Slavia delegates and taken straight to the pitch, where they proceeded to secure a 3-0 victory before being entertained in the most expensive hotel in the city.

A few days later, the Blues played Deutscher Club, with whom Slavia had such a heated rivalry that there had been no match between the teams for numerous years. Oxford’s convincing 9-0 victory was thus well received by the Slavia contingent it gave them the bragging rights within the city having secured the better result against the common opponent.

Above is a shot from a webcam overlooking the stadium. There are also a couple of YouTube videos (one of the opening ceremony and one of construction)of the opening ceremonies, as well as a Radio Prague article on the match and of course a Wikipedia article on the stadium itself.

The new stadium was built on the site of a dilapidated ground in the south of Prague which the club had to leave in 2000 after around half a century. They had first moved to the Eden site in the early 1950s when they were forced to leave their stadium at Letná because of a project to build a massive statue of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stadion Eden has a capacity of about 21,000 people and it is the most modern football stadium in the Czech Republic.

Slavia’s lineup for the opening of the stadium included some well-known former players like Lukas Jarolim and Patrik Berger, who now play for Siena and Aston Villa respectively. With a stacked lineup that also included one of my favourite players — former Liverpool midfielder Vladimir Smicer (currently back at Slavia as a player), as well as Ivo Knoflí?ek and former Fiorentina, Metz and Chicago Fire standout Luboš Kubík, Slavia cruised to a 5-0 win over the Oxford lads.