Leeds United have moved two wins away from returning to Europe after reaching the FA Cup semi-finals for the first time in 39 years.Standing in Daniel Farke’s way is Chelsea boss Liam Rosenior, who has his own little-known connection to one of the club’s greatest nights.Leeds can qualify for Europe again by winning the FA CupGettyAnd hopefully, fans could reignite scenes of that epic night in RomeGettyBlues head coach Rosenior made his England Under-21 debut as a player during Sven-Göran Eriksson’s time in charge of the Three Lions.The 41-year-old featured in a 2-2 draw with Germany in March 2005 alongside his Strasbourg successor Gary O’Neil, James Milner, Glen Johnson, Scott Carson, and talkSPORT’s Darren Bent.The latter trio all earned their first senior England caps under Eriksson, who had Leeds to thank for his early passage to the job.The Swede, who sadly passed away in 2024 at the age of 76, became the nation’s first foreign boss when he took charge in 2001.Eriksson’s England reign began five months earlier than intended following his resignation as Lazio coach at the start of January.Just 35 days prior, his Serie A side had suffered a shock 1-0 defeat to David O’Leary’s Leeds in Rome thanks to Alan Smith’s famous goal.26 years later, it remains the Whites’ second most recent away win in the Champions League and one of their best European nights, due to Italian football’s dominance on the continent at the time.In contrast, two decades on, Italy have failed to qualify for a third successive World Cup and O’Leary touched upon that Italian job.“That great man Sven, you know, God bless him,” The ex-Leeds manager and Arsenal legend told talkSPORT’s Sunday Edition.“I hope he’s up there enjoying life. He treated me to a lovely couple of glasses of red wine. He was calm.Eriksson resigned as Lazio boss 35 days after that loss to LeedsLazio boasted a team featuring the world’s most expensive player, Hernan Crespo, and future Ballon d’Or winner Pavel Nedved (left)Getty“The crowd’s giving him so much grief afterwards but he was calm.“The thing he said to me that night, he said, ‘David, hopefully going forward in your life, managers now are coaches, you’ve got to be diplomats. You can’t tell these players off.’“That’s the thing that really stuck with me, what he told me that night.”Leeds United’s big Champions League success“I enjoyed taking those adventures into Italy, and I think the thing that we always did was, like what happened against Arsenal, we didn’t give teams time and space,” O’Leary continued.“I remember coming off in the San Siro half-time, and I knew [Paolo] Maldini from playing against him.Smith struck the winner in the 80th minute to silence the Stadio OlympicoEriksson was typically classy in defeat and left O’Leary with some words of wisdomNews Group Newspapers Ltd“He said, ‘Dave, your team are mad, don’t give us a chance to play in the ball.’ Alan Smith is crazy in that way. “That was the big thing, what I believed in was football, pressing very hard up the pitch, denying them time and space, which you were never used to. That was a big success for us.”Eriksson wasn’t the only future England boss O’Leary Leeds came up against, having previously battled Fabio Capello nine months before.“I remember Capello, we played Roma at home and away, and he said to me after the match, ‘You press us very hard’,” he recalled.“The Italians are not used to that in their football. That’s where, to me, our success came from, really, in many ways in Europe.”