16th September 2004 - A day I thought I would never see

[erimus74]

Or my younger brother, our Kev, my dad, in fact thousands of Boro fans at home & around the world probably never expected to see the Boro play in REAL european competition, yet here we are 6 months after wining our 1st major trophy, well 2nd we won the Anglo Scottish Cup in 1975, starting off on our european adventure
 
Our 1st ever European cup venture, how many Boro fans actually thought this would happen

First round of the UEFA cup we needed to beat Banik over 2 legs to progress to the Group stages

1st leg at the Riverside seen Boro go in at HT 0-0 but made up for it in the 2nd half as the Boro ran comfortably 3-0 winners with our top strikers in Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink scoring Boro's 1st goal in europe just before the hour mark & a brace from Mark Viduka, in the 63rd & 80th minute

Steve McClaren picked the following team for the historic occasion

M. Schwarzer
S. Parnaby
C. Riggott
G. Southgate
F. Queudrue
S. Nemeth
R. Parlour
G. Boeteng
B. Zenden
M. Viduka
J. F. Hasselbaink

Subs
C. Nash
C. Cooper
Doriva
J. Morrison
S. Downing
J D Job

Attendance - 29,746

[Mike Peeler]

Well said Erimus -In our house Wembley was always a dream, winning a cup was an even bigger dream, and playing in Europe well that never in fairness even crossed my mind until I got older and understood things more.

Buzzing to have witnessed them all, when plenty before will have never got the chance to live those dreams.

[Ural Quntz]

....or after I suspect

We were so fortunate