Exactly 16 years ago today, Udinese welcomed Lech Poznan to the Stadio Friuli for the return leg of their UEFA Cup round-of-32 tie.
In what was the final edition of the tournament before its rebranding as the Europa League, Pasquale Marino's side reached the knockout stage after overcoming Borussia Dortmund on penalties in the first round and negotiating a group containing Tottenham, Spartak Moscow, NEC and Dinamo Zagreb.
The first leg in Poland ended 2-2 after Udinese squandered a two-goal lead (Fabio Quagliarella and an own goal).
The return leg in Udine started badly as Lech – with a young Robert Lewandowski in attack – opened the scoring through Peruvian striker Rengifo after just 13 minutes. However, Udinese knew they had time and stuck resolutely to the task. The equaliser duly came shortly before the hour mark through Simone Pepe.
With the away goals rule, Udinese would have gone through with that scoreline. The Poles threw everything at them looking for a goal to flip the verdict but the Udinese rearguard withstood all attacks and made sure of qualification when Antonio Di Natale finished off a counter-attack in stoppage time.
In the next round, Pasquale Marino's men were drawn against the holders Zenit St Petersburg and advanced on the back of a 2-0 home win and a battling 1-0 defeat in Russia.
In the quarter-finals – the apex of Udinese's European adventures – the journey was ended by eventual finalists Werder Bremen. After losing the away leg 3-1, Udinese took a 3-1 lead in Friuli, only for the Germans to score twice more and progress to the semis 6-4 on aggregate.
Udinese 2-1 Lech Poznan (HT 0-1)
Scorers: Rengifo 13, Pepe 57, Di Natale 90+1.
Udinese: Belardi; Zapata, Coda, Domizzi, Pasquale (Lukovic 77); Inler, D'Agostino, Asamoah; Pepe (Isla 63), Quagliarella (Floro Flores 46), Di Natale (C).
Subs not used: Koprivec, Obodo, Zimling, Felipe.
Coach: Marino.
Lech Poznan: Turina; Djurdjevic, Arboleda, Bosacki, Wojtkowiak (Kikut 83); Injac (Wilk 71), Murawski (C), Bandrowski; Lewandowski, Stilic; Rengifo.
Subs not used: Kotorowski, Kucharski, Peszko, Tanevski, Cueto.
Coach: Smuda.