By Craig McWalter
March 19 2002

Gerard Houllier provided the perfect inspiration for Liverpool, as the Reds qualified for the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 2-0 win over roma. Liverpool had to beat the Italians by two clear goals to be certain to go through, and they did so with aplomb.

Houllier was given a rapturous welcome, his name sung to the heavens by the Kop and his players responded exactly as the Frenchman would have wished.

Jari Litmanen set Liverpool on their way and Emile Heskey crowned a performance of poise and power with a cracking header.

Roma were many people's favourites to at least make the final, but from the start Liverpool looked in control.

Roma were panicked into conceding a penalty in the seventh minute, as Assuncao clipped Danny Murphy's heels after a hectic goalmouth scramble.

Litmanen dispatched the spot-kick calmly to set the Reds on their way.

Liverpool's dominance of the first 20 minutes was all-consuming, but Roma started to show signs they had survived Liverpool's first rush of blood and the rest of the second half deteriorated into cat and mouse.

Roma brought Vicenzo Montella and Marco Delvecchio on as substitutes at the break, but they failed to change the course of the game.

Totti came mighty close to equalising when he connected first-time with Assuncao's low centre and would probably have scored had the ball not deflected wide off a defender.

Murphy then hit a free-kick from a deep position on the left and Heskey rose high above his marker to bury a perfect header into the net.

Emerson threatened to put a dampener on the atmosphere when he connected with a pass from Delvecchio, but it soared over the bar.

There could have been more goals for Liverpool when Murphy's 30-yard free-kick appeared to connect with a hand above the Roma wall, but Rune Pedersen took no action.