DAVID BECKHAM'S injury left fans distraught in the least likely of locations. The red half of Merseyside.
Still reeling from Tuesday's Champions League exit against Bayer Leverkusen, Liverpudlians realised they would have faced in the two-legged semi-final a Manchester United side missing Beckham and Roy Keane.
Throw in the psychological hold that five straight victories gives Liverpool, and they would surely have been favourites to win the Battle of Britain.
Most Kopites are still astounded as to why that game will never take place. This might sound like heresy but had Gerard Houllier still been under doctor's orders to keep a low profile back home, the Reds might now be through.
I doubt if Phil Thompson would have sounded off about Liverpool being nine games away from immortality halfway through a tricky two-legged tie. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't have taken off a world-class defensive midfield player, Didi Hamann, with half-an-hour to go, while the opposition needed two more goals to win.
And I'm almost certain he wouldn't have pitched in a lightweight in Vladimir Smicer to stop a big, strong German side going for the jugular as Liverpool protected their lead. It was nothing short of a bizarre tactical substitution and it came as no surprise the Germans went on to win.
Had Houllier kept Hamann in front of that defence I'm convinced Liverpool would be facing a depleted and psychologically damaged United side for a place in the European Cup final.
You can't put this defeat down to Michael Owen's misses. Liverpool scored twice, leaving the Germans needing four goals they never should have got. And you can't put it down to Liverpool's first stab at the Champions League. As UEFA Cup winners, they had more European experience than a German side which has won virtually nothing.
I can only put it down to Houllier's howler, possibly borne out of a newly-found sense of invincibility, and a romantic desire to defy the critics who brand Liverpool boring.
As you rightly said Gerard: "Winning is beauty." Well, right now Liverpudlians are feeling pretty damned ugly.