Querying for category daily archives

I’ve created a custom page to display list of daily archives for a particular category

<?php query_posts(‘cat=’.$cat.’&posts_per_page=-1′); ?>

<?php if (have_posts()) : ?>
<?php while (have_posts()) : the_post(); ?>
<?php the_date(”,'<small>’,'</small>
‘); ?>

<?php endwhile; ?>
<?php endif; ?>

The problem I’m having is when I try to add links:

‘< a href = domain.com /<?php the_date(‘Ymd’)?>.php”> <?php the_date(”,'<small>’,'</small>
‘); ?>‘

What shows up in html code is:
< a href=”https://www.mydomain.com/content/20050421.php”></ a>

< a href=”https://www.mydomain.com/content/.php”&gt;

The dates don’t show up at all.

Can anyone help me figure out what I’m doing wrong?