Alun Evans had been out for four months. In his first start back, he scored three times against Bayern Munich.
The 3–0 victory at Anfield on 10 March 1971 gave Liverpool a commanding advantage in their Inter-Cities Fairs Cup quarter-final. It also made Evans the club’s first player to score a hat-trick in European competition.
This was a return from a substantial interruption. Injured against Dinamo Bucharest in November, Evans had undergone a cartilage operation. He reappeared as a substitute against Tottenham four days before Bayern’s visit. Bill Shankly then put him back in the starting side for a match against Sepp Maier, Franz Beckenbauer and Gerd Müller.
Evans scored the first after half an hour. Steve Heighway supplied the assist, and the forward’s shot from inside the penalty area put Liverpool ahead. They reached the interval with that goal separating the teams.
The second came soon after the restart. Evans reacted quickly at close range to hook the ball in, beating Maier to the opportunity. Liverpool now had a two-goal lead, and their returning striker had both.
His third came with seventeen minutes left. Maier could only parry a shot, and Evans followed in to complete the hat-trick. Liverpool had turned a difficult European assignment into a three-goal advantage without conceding.
The performance stood out in a career whose early promise had been considerable. Shankly had brought Evans from Wolverhampton Wanderers in September 1968, and he had scored on his debut. By the end of 1970–71 he would have fifteen goals in thirty-four appearances, his most productive Liverpool season.
Recalling the Bayern night years later, Evans remembered the reception after the match as well as the football. He had arranged to meet his father in a pub near Anfield before travelling back to Kidderminster. Finding it packed with Liverpool supporters, he was quickly surrounded. The evening’s goals had followed him through the door.
Liverpool completed the tie with a 1–1 draw in Munich a fortnight later, Ian Ross scoring their goal. The aggregate margin was 4–1. Evans’s return at Anfield had supplied almost all of it.