Gerard Houlier said many things on Tuesday morning in the trophy room and then the players' bar at Anfield. One that was not reported yesterday, mainly because of the cryptic manner of its delivery, was Houllier's belief that "the first leg is the most important in any two-legged tie".

That is not the home or away leg but the first leg. Traditionally people have thought otherwise but Houllier would not expand. "I know why but I'm not telling you."

As Liverpool laboured before and, for a while, after Sami Hyypia's 44th-minute goal Houllier's theory became no more clear. Maybe he just means that winning, or not losing, the first leg is the difference.

How you win it is another matter. Houllier also said on Tuesday that this Liverpool are "10 games away from greatness," which is not the same as being 10 great games away from greatness.

And this was clearly not a great game. Its low point was a 37th-minute clearance from Jerzy Dudek. Having cleanly taken a Ze Roberto corner, Dudek looked up to see all 10 colleagues about 10 yards away. When Dudek's six seconds to release the ball ran out he just belted it into Bayer Leverkusen's half even though there was not a red shirt in 50 yards. Leverkusen are just too similar to Liverpool.But then up stepped the captain Hyypia. He is a veteran of last season's campaign and presumably he understands Houllier.

He certainly knows the course. As he said recently: "One thing we have to remember from last season is that I think we had 10 games left (seven in the league and three cup ties) and we needed to win every game. And we won, except one; we drew against Chelsea . So the positive thing we have to remember is that we could do it then, why can't we do it now?" They have made a start.

The important first leg is over and won.

Guardian Service.