Liverpool’s miraculous 2005 Champions League final win told by those who took part

This article was first published in 2020.

In the summer of 2004, the new Liverpool manager Rafa Benitez flew home from Austria after his first competitive game in charge and his mind was ticking.

It had been a comfortable 2-0 victory against Grazer AK at the wonderfully named Arnold Schwarzenegger Stadium, taken from the town’s most famous son.

Steven Gerrard had scored twice and, in Benitez’s words, the team had done “OK”. Yet a lot was happening behind the scenes and not all of it was settling.

He had left Michael Owen on the bench that night because he needed the funds to complete a deal for Xabi Alonso and he did not want England’s star striker cup-tied. Owen would soon move to Real Madrid.

Potential new owner Steve Morgan used the journey back to Merseyside as an opportunity to sell his vision of the future, though he would fail to buy the club he supported.

It would have been unthinkable at this point that 10 months later, Benitez would lead Liverpool to their fifth European crown. The aim at Anfield was always success but small progressions would have been accepted, considering Liverpool had been only the fourth-best team in the Premier League under his predecessor Gerard Houllier.

In 2004-05, European football suited Liverpool. Though a path to the knockout stages was only established in the last Champions League group match against Olympiacos via one of the most dramatic Gerrard goals. Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea were then all dispatched without Liverpool losing a game.

Benitez’s team had reached the final in Istanbul, where the opponents were six-time champions Milan.

With Liverpool returning to the Turkish city for their Champions League game against Galatasaray, this is the story of a football miracle, told to James Pearce and Simon Hughes by the people who were on the pitch, in the dugout and in the stands.

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Jamie Carragher:

“Despite being one of the most successful clubs in European football, in every round that season, it felt like whoever we faced were favourites. Nobody other than Liverpool supporters seemed to believe in us. People were always saying that we’d get knocked out in the next round but that suited us down to the ground. It was a motivating factor in our success. Rafa was desperate to prove the doubters wrong. Stevie and I certainly were. It gave us the extra yard when it mattered on so many occasions.

“Knocking out Chelsea (in the semi-final) was massive but beating Juventus gave me confidence that we could beat Milan because Juventus were Serie A champions. To be honest, Juventus didn’t cause us huge problems. Yes, we were under pressure in the second half at Anfield especially but it wasn’t a tie where I thought we were out of our depth, even though we had players missing and they were at full strength.

“I always felt that against Italian teams, except for the first half in the final against Milan. The pace that Italian teams played the game was so slow that I always felt a bit underwhelmed. It was the same against Roma and Inter Milan when they were champions of Italy.

“I believed that we were able to beat them because of the intensity of our game compared to theirs. That’s why I think Arsenal were the best we played against because they played with so much pace, it doesn’t give you time to think. With Italian teams, I felt like I was in the right position.”

Didi Hamann: “We had beaten good teams along the way. We had earned our place in the final. We were there on merit. Even though we were up against a special team, I sensed a confidence going into the game.”

Djimi Traore: “We were the underdogs but that suited us as a group. We had been in that position against Juventus and Chelsea. It meant there was less pressure on us. Our preparations for the final were so good. Rafa is meticulous and he went into all the small details. We were ready.”

Neil Mellor: “At the start of the season, it sort of felt like it was accepted that we were in transition. No one seemed to fancy us at any point.”

Pako Ayestaran: “It was an incredible challenge. Milan were really strong across every area of the pitch, with few obvious weaknesses. The defence was experienced and difficult to break through. All of the midfielders could keep the ball and (Clarence) Seedorf could hurt you working in the half spaces. In front of them, Kaka was the best player on the planet at that moment between the lines. Then, the two strikers (Hernan Crespo and Andriy Shevchenko) were world-class. It was a team that retained possession but also had the speed to hurt you on the counter-attack, so, you had to think about stopping two styles of football. And that is very difficult.”

Liverpool’s players flew to Istanbul two days before the final and the non-playing members of the squad followed on the morning of the game. Ten days had passed since the last game of the Premier League season. They had finished fifth with 58 points, the club’s lowest points total in six years…

Stephen Warnock: “Not many people know this but I was originally told I was in the squad. Rafa always put 18 names on a list, no more. I went home and told my parents to get their flights booked. They were over the moon. Three or four hours later, Pako Ayestaran called me to say I wasn’t in the squad, that there was an error on the sheet. My head went. It wasn’t the first time it had happened.

“Earlier in the season, I was told I wasn’t in the squad to play Spurs. I was due to train instead on the morning of the game. It was one of my mate’s birthdays the night before, so I went out and had a few drinks. The following morning, I was sat on the bench at Melwood with my training gear on when Rafa came over asking what I was doing. ‘You’re playing today,’ he says. I’m thinking, ‘No I’m not, I’m half-cut’.

“I told him that I didn’t think it was a good idea and in the end, he brought me on as an early substitute because John Arne Riise got injured. I was up against Aaron Lennon, who was on fire at the time. It was the last thing I needed with a hangover. We drew 2-2.

“Before Istanbul, I was angry. I wasn’t given a reason why I was out other than a mistake had been made. Rafa put Josemi in the squad. He’d been out injured for most of the season.

“None of my family travelled to Istanbul. They were gutted for me. Boarding the flight on the morning of the game with the other lads not involved, I was still fuming. I’m a local lad — a Liverpool supporter. Not many players get to be involved in a Champions League final.”

Carragher: “In each of the Champions League finals I played in, we travelled two days before rather than one day. The game was on a Wednesday and we went to Istanbul on the Monday. That’s a lot of time to kill. The wait seems to last forever. If I had the choice, I’d travel the day before because that’s the routine in the Champions League, so you’re sort of used to it. Why do anything differently?

“When I heard Tottenham went to Madrid two or three nights before last season’s final, it made me question whether they were doing the right thing. I know it’s the biggest game of your life but there’s a danger you sit in your room over-thinking what might happen. To try and stop that happening in Istanbul and in Athens two years later, we went ten-pin bowling.”

Mellor: “I’d helped put us through in the group stages by scoring against Olympiacos and had started when we lost in Monaco but I got a serious knee injury and that ruled me out of the run to the final in the knockout stages. I was in the middle of rehab and hoping to get fit again for September. My last game of the season was at Burnley in the infamous FA Cup defeat in January.

“This meant I was a part of the non-playing squad that flew separately. There was me, Chris Kirkland, John Welsh, Darren Potter, Zak Whitbread, David Raven, Paul Harrison and David Mannix. The more senior players were (Fernando) Morientes, (Florent) Sinama-Pongolle, (Anthony) Le Tallec and Salif Diao with his bandana. There was chaos at John Lennon Airport. A proper party atmosphere. It felt like the whole of Liverpool was leaving the city.”

Steven Gerrard (speaking to Simon Hughes in 2015): “I remember saying to Carra, ‘There can’t be anyone left in Liverpool. They must all be here’. Supporters were everywhere. In the airport, on the streets as we made our way to the hotel. In the hotel as well. It became a bit of a distraction because they were singing all the way through both nights. It was relentless. People were constantly on the lookout for tickets.

“The club had given us 25 each, which was a fair number but never enough. I think Carra had 50 on his list. My phone never stopped ringing. Struan (Marshall — Gerrard’s agent) called and told me John Terry and Thierry Henry had been in touch, wishing me good luck. It was big of both of them to do that.”

Stephen Monaghan: “People were telling us to be careful in Istanbul but the atmosphere around the city was brilliant. We’d played Galatasaray away a few years before and there hadn’t been an ounce of trouble. The Turkish people were very welcoming. Everyone was having a bevvy and enjoying themselves. Everywhere we went, Istanbul was red. It wasn’t the easiest place to get to but everyone wanted to be there. It had been 20 years since Liverpool had played in a European Cup final. We hardly saw a Milan shirt.”

Gerrard: “I remember looking at (Paolo) Maldini in the press conference the day before and thinking to myself, ‘He looks confident’. I wasn’t nervous but apprehensive, ready to get going. Maldini had been through this process many times before, winning it four times, I think. Then he said something that fired me up even more: ‘Good luck tomorrow’. He knew they were favourites. It said to me: ‘Milan think they’ve won this’.

“The ground was miles and miles out of Istanbul. The journey was weird because we didn’t have the usual sights you usually see in European away games: police sirens, stones against the window — that sort of thing. It was only when we got to the ground we saw just how many Liverpool supporters were there. It was a sea of red, 40,000 of them.”

Monaghan: “We met this Turkish fella, who offered to drive us all to the ground in his 20-seater van, so we filled it up with ale. The ground was in the middle of nowhere and it was one lane in, one lane out. The traffic was horrendous. We ended up walking the last bit. When we got in the ground, I was looking around thinking, ‘Where are the Milan fans?’. They had one section behind the goal at the far end. But at least three quarters was Liverpool. We were behind the goal to the left about 10 rows up.”

Rafa Benitez was criticised throughout a disappointing league campaign for rotating his team so often. After joining from Valencia in the summer of 2004, he told his players that he viewed modern football as a squad game. This kept Liverpool’s players — as well as the opponents — guessing, even in a final…

Carragher: “I thought we had half a chance, that it would be a tight game and we might nick it. That was the way under Houllier and Benitez though, for some reason, under both managers in finals, it turned into mayhem. It became like a kid in the schoolyard, with emotion taking over.

“I think Rafa knew finals were different to other games in Europe because it was a one-off and maybe this explains why he went with a more offensive starting XI. Milan were not expecting Harry Kewell to play but neither were we! Rafa would try things in training and move players about before naming the team an hour and a half before the game but in Istanbul, he told Stevie the night before he was playing central midfield.

“Didi Hamann didn’t know that he was getting left out. This was the biggest game of my life. Didi had played in the World Cup final, of course. I’m not sure my reaction would have been as calm as his. He was able to get himself in the right frame of mind to influence the game later on but I doubt whether I could have done the same.

“People say, ‘You’ve got to think of the team’ but it’s easy saying that. Footballers are humans, after all. If you’re expecting to play in any final and you get told you’re on the bench, it would be unusual not to be disappointed. If it happened in the Champions League final, you’d think your world has ended. You’ve got to give Didi massive credit for what he did.”

Hamann: “I only found out I wasn’t starting when Rafa announced the team in the stadium an hour and 15 minutes before kick-off. In most of the Champions League games, we played with Stevie either on the right or as the second forward to give him more freedom. It was tough to take. I was disappointed but I had to put that to the back of my mind and support the lads. I knew what Rafa wanted to do. Harry hadn’t played an awful lot but we knew what he was capable of. Whenever a manager leaves you out, the answer is simple — he thinks he’s got a better chance of winning without you.”

Carragher: “I was surprised by our team selection. We’d got to the final by being a tough nut to crack but this team was more expansive. Stevie and Xabi were two of the best midfielders in the world and were for a long time but you never think about them for their ability to look after a No 10 like Kaka. Though Xabi was a holding midfielder, he was more about getting the ball into his feet and letting him play. Stevie was dynamic — he’d want to go and attack.

“The shape of their midfield diamond was designed to bring the best out of Kaka. He was one of those players who seemed to be able to run faster with the ball than without it. What made marking him more difficult was the fact Milan also played with two strikers. If there’s just one, now and again, a centre-back; you can step in and look after a No 10. But if you have two strikers pressing right up against you, that’s not possible.”

Ayestaran: “Rafa and I agreed it was crucial we didn’t allow spaces to open up in the midfield. The best way of achieving that was by making them think about their own defensive responsibilities. That is why we chose Kewell. He had the speed to push (Andrea) Pirlo back and potentially stop him playing his own game. You take this decision believing it is going to work.

“Kewell had all of the qualities Rafa looks for in a winger who was also comfortable in central positions because he liked to be on the front foot and he tried to break defensive lines. He had skill as well as speed. Rafa was a counter-attacking manager and Kewell was an effective counter-attacking player.”

Carragher: “When we signed Kewell (in 2003), I was excited. He could beat people, he was strong, he was great in the air and he could score goals His performances had dropped off at Leeds but they were really struggling as a club at the time. I thought we had a left winger but in pre-season, he was adamant that he wanted to play on the right instead and it didn’t suit him. Maybe he’d lost a bit of edge, or pace through injuries.

“When Benitez replaced Houllier, it was clear that Benitez was a massive fan of his. We met Rafa at the Euros. He was going through the team and he kept talking about Kewell. He’d seen him in the Champions League for Leeds but since then, he’d been a year at Liverpool and it hadn’t gone great. I was thinking, ‘I’m not sure he’s the player Rafa thinks he is…’. It might have been confidence. In some ways, he gave off the impression that he was very confident — that he fancied himself, a bit aloof. But beneath that, maybe he was shy.

“At Liverpool he wasn’t one of the big personalities in the dressing room. He kept himself to himself and he was a nice enough lad. You wanted him to do well because on his day, you knew he was better than what we had. But it never quite happened for him at Liverpool.”

For all of Liverpool’s plots and schemes, there could be no plan for the fastest final goal in Champions League history, one scored by Paolo Maldini inside the first minute of the game. By half-time, the scoreboard read: Liverpool 0, Milan 3…

Ayestaran: “When you concede in the first minute, everything changes. It meant we couldn’t be quite as compact as we would have liked because we were trying to play more passes to give more confidence. Kaka became a major problem and Milan’s next two goals were very similar. Each one involved him using his speed and strength to break through our lines after we’d advanced into promising positions, only for the move to break down because of the strength of their defence.”

Hamann: “Maldini’s was a well-worked goal. I was sat on the bench thinking, ‘OK, better to concede in the first minute rather than the last’ but it was soon clear we were up against it. We didn’t have the drive of Stevie going forward. I always felt that he was at his best when defensive responsibilities were taken off him.

“Kaka and Pirlo were having a big influence on the game but I honestly don’t think Milan were three goals better than us in that first half. Just before the second goal, we should have had a penalty when (Alessandro) Nesta handballed it. Milan went straight down the other end and scored. Once the third one went in, I was like: ‘That’s it, no way back’. We were a bit naive. The pass from Kaka was brilliant and the finish from Crespo was outstanding but we’d been caught chasing the game just before half-time.”

Traore: “Conceding so early in the game killed the plan. Our strength on that run had been defending and keeping things tight. The early goal hurt our confidence and gave Milan a big boost. Their offensive players caused us a lot of problems. Tactically, they stopped us from playing. The two strikers, Crespo and Shevchenko, exploited the space and Kaka had too much freedom to play in the middle of the park. Kaka was one of the best players in the world at that time. It was tough for our defence. Milan kept on hurting us. They deserved their big lead.”

Carragher: “I’d love to know what the possession stats were because it felt like we had plenty of the ball but they were too cunning for us. It was breaking down in the final third because we didn’t have the quality that they had. We had Milan Baros up front supported by Kewell through the middle and and Riise on the left.

“You’d play Riise in a tough away game to help your full-back. You wouldn’t give him the ball and say, ‘Beat a man, make a clever pass; do something…’. We weren’t hurting them. Even though it was 3-0 at half-time, it wasn’t like we were defending for our lives, camped on the edge of the penalty box. What killed us was their ability to counter-attack. They were devastating.”

Vladimir Smicer: “I didn’t expect to even be on the bench. I’d missed the first six months of the season because of knee surgery and my contract was due to expire. Ten days before the final, we had played Aston Villa at home and that was supposed to be my chance to say goodbye to the fans at Anfield. I didn’t even make the squad and I was angry. I thought it was over. Then Rafa put the list up for Istanbul and I was on it. I was so happy.

“I was warming up with Djibril Cisse and Didi Hamann, and I was very surprised that Rafa picked me to go on after Harry Kewell got injured midway through the first half. The same man 10 days before didn’t even name me in the squad in a nothing game! Now, in one of the most important games in the club’s history, he chooses me.

“The day before the final, it was my birthday. I turned 32. In the final training session, I’d been the joker. I felt good. When I went on, I felt free in my head. I really wanted to play. I was determined to enjoy it. We were already 1-0 down and by half-time, it was 3-0. I don’t think we actually played that badly — it was just that Milan were so good. Kaka was brilliant.”

Gerrard: “The first half was a nightmare. Kaka destroyed us with his pace. Harry went off as well and I felt for him because it looked like he was throwing the towel in when he wasn’t. He was struggling with his fitness and Rafa gambled and it didn’t pay off. People forget but we should have had a penalty as well when Luis (Garcia) had a shot and it struck Nesta’s arm but the referee waved play on and suddenly, it was 2-0 and 3-0. I thought we were dead and I wanted it all to end.

“Something had to be done about Kaka because he was getting in behind me and Xabi but Carra and Sami (Hyypia) weren’t able to try and stop him because they were occupied by Shevchenko and Crespo. Kaka was easily Milan’s best midfielder. (Gennaro) Gattuso made a lot of noise but he never worried me. He’s not the sort of midfielder to play a brilliant pass or score many goals.

“He played up to the fans but as an opponent, he didn’t scare me. I remember him smirking after it went to 3-0. One or two things happened before the end of the half which really angered me. Pirlo started trying nutmegs and as we walked off, some of the Milan players were waving to their families. It seemed to me they thought the game was done as well, that it was party time.”

Liverpool’s dressing room at half-time was quiet. How are players meant to react when they are being embarrassed in the most important game of their career? What can a manager do to change the direction of history? What happened next is a mixture of truth, myth and legend…

Gerrard: “I was furious but I couldn’t find the words. It didn’t seem possible that we could score three goals against this Milan defence. Rafa was having a quick chat with Pako. The last Milan goal was right on half-time, so this clearly worsened our situation. Perhaps, at 2-0, you can make a few tweaks but this needed something drastic to save us. He’s always got plans, Rafa, but I can’t imagine that he’d envisaged this happening. He had to think quickly.”

Carragher: “You question yourself and ask, ‘Did that really happen?’. It wasn’t as though players came through the door raging, pointing fingers at each other. There was a level of acceptance, that we were doing our best but Milan were too good for us. It wasn’t the sort of performance you’d expect from a Liverpool team in Europe because we were known for being stubborn. It did feel as though we were beaten.

“You don’t say it but you think, ‘How bad is this going to get?’. It would have been easy to think we’ve got nothing to lose but you have got something to lose when you’re losing that heavily. Losing 5-0 or 6-0 would have been humiliating in a European final.”

Antonio Nunez: “I was thinking, ‘We could lose this 5-0 or 6-0’. Milan were playing so much better than us. I was wondering how the coach would face this situation and whether he would be angry. But Rafa was very calm. He was acting like the game was under control. He knew the things we had to change and the mistakes we had to correct. He transmitted calmness and confidence.”

Rafa Benitez (speaking to James Pearce in 2015): “My concentration was just completely on the game. I was trying to find solutions to our problems. We made too many mistakes in that first half and we paid for them because this AC Milan team was so good. We had to fix some problems. It was not easy.

“They had the best team in the competition — pace, ability, talent, power and a good manager. I wanted to play with Xabi and Steven in the middle and Kewell behind Baros to control Pirlo but Kaka had too much space behind our midfield. Harry’s injury, which meant he had to go off, also changed our balance. There was a lot to solve.”

Gerrard: “When Rafa came in, he said, ‘Silence… Traore shower, Didi on… three at the back’. He wanted Didi and Xabi to sort Kaka and he wanted me and Luis to try and play around Pirlo. He wanted Seedorf going backwards as well. The shape became more of a 3-4-2-1. We hadn’t played it before but Rafa’s decisiveness gave us a lift because at least there was a plan.”

Traore: “The mood in the dressing room was very down. Personally, I felt like I had let down a lot of people — my team-mates, the coaches, my friends, my family. Rafa had told us before the game that this was a once in a lifetime opportunity and we needed to grasp it but we were sat there losing 3-0.

“Rafa said to me, ‘Traore, shower’. I was upset but I knew I hadn’t performed well. He explained that he was bringing Didi on and we were going to a back three with wing-backs. It made sense to have Riise as the wing-back on the left as he was better than me offensively. They didn’t need me. I was in the shower but I hadn’t actually turned it on. I was just reflecting on everything that had happened.

“I felt sad and mad when I got a knock on the shoulder from Pako: ‘Djimi, you’re back in’. I had to get my kit back on and refocus. Those moments were like the story of my life in football — full of ups and downs. Mentally, I was strong and it’s in my character to fight back. I sat there listening to Rafa’s speech. He explained that I’d be on the left side of a back three.

“Rafa’s English wasn’t the best but he was very good at getting instructions across quickly. After the tactics, he talked about the mental side of the game. He was calm. He said, ‘OK, we’ve lost the first half but we need to win the second half’. He talked about everything we had been through together as a group and how we needed to go out there and do it for the fans and for our families. That was his message. He gave us a bit of hope but personally, I never thought we would come back. That Milan team was so experienced and full of big players.”

Hamann: “Rafa told everyone to have a drink and sit down. Then I remember him going into the shower area briefly with Pako before coming out and said that I was coming on for Traore and we were going to three at the back. The idea was to have Xabi and me in the middle and give Stevie more freedom to attack. I was only in the dressing room for a couple of minutes because I went out on to the field with Pako to warm-up. When the rest of them came out, I was surprised to see Traore. The last time I’d seen him he was going for a shower! I asked Carra what was going on and he told me that (Steve) Finnan had a groin problem.”

Benitez: “My speech to the players was about confidence and belief. I had to be the first one to believe we could still do it or it would be impossible. ‘The first goal of the second half is the key’ was my message to them. I told Pako to be ready and do the warm-up with Hamann because I wanted to bring Hamann on for Traore and to play three at the back. I tried to give the team confidence and then we spoke about changing the system.

“When I finished the team talk, Dave (Galley), the physio, told me that Finnan had some problems and he would not be able to stay on the pitch at 100 per cent in the second half. So at the last minute, I changed Finnan instead of Djimi; the same system, three at the back, but different players. My concern was our balance on the right. We played with Smicer, who had not been playing regularly, as a winger, and then had Luis Garcia and Gerrard between the lines.”

Ayestaran: “We tried our best to convince the players there was a good reason for the scoreline, rather than Milan simply being better than us. It was crucial we tried to correct the gap between midfield and defence. I remember saying, ‘If you score the first goal, there is always a chance’ but I didn’t really believe it. I wanted to give the players a positive focus, to try and win the second half.”

Steve Finnan (speaking to James Pearce in 2015): “I always say I changed the game that night. If I hadn’t got injured, we wouldn’t have won the European Cup. That injury I got was the best thing that ever happened to Liverpool. I didn’t want to come off but I knew I had a problem. At the time, I wasn’t happy but it was the right decision. With me coming off, Rafa changed the system. Didi was so important to the comeback that followed.”

In the aftermath of the final, the front page headline of Italy’s La Gazzetta dello Sport screamed: “Milan were already celebrating at half-time!” The story included quotes from Djimi Traore. It provoked a furious reaction. Manager Carlo Ancelotti claimed “seeing that story published hurt more than the defeat” and Gattuso described it as “an insult”. “There were no celebrations,” insisted captain Maldini…

Traore: “I said there were signs. It wasn’t the Milan players who started the game; it was more the attitude of the subs and the people on their bench. I always tried to be humble but they were smiling, clapping and acting so happy. You could tell that they thought it was game over. That just gave us even more motivation to come back.”

Riise: “On the way to the dressing room, I heard Gattuso shouting. I didn’t understand Italian at that point but it was obvious that he was celebrating.”

Carragher: “I don’t believe for one minute that the Milan players got carried away and started celebrating, even one of them. They were all experienced players. The average age of their team was 30 compared to ours at 26. You also have to remember what happened before we scored our first. Sami brought someone down and they nearly scored from the free-kick. It looked as though they might score again. It wasn’t a case of them losing their heads and us pushing them back straight away.”

Hamann: “I certainly didn’t see or hear any celebrating from the Milan players. I’d be very surprised if that happened considering the experience they had in their team.”

Outside, the scene among the sea of red was one of utter devastation. The travelling Kop could scarcely believe what they had witnessed. Bookmakers were offering odds of 350-1 on Liverpool lifting the trophy…

Monaghan: “At half-time, it was very quiet. No one spoke. There were heads in hands. Everyone was just numb. Travel all that way, all that money spent, and we’re getting battered. Some left at half-time. My next-door neighbour and his mate decided it was a lost cause and got a cab back into the city. He doesn’t like talking about it. Do I still give him stick? Only every other day.

“It must have been six or seven minutes before people around us started saying, ‘What’s happened here? This is mad.’ Slowly, everyone picked themselves up. Next it was, ‘Listen, if we get the next goal, then you never know’. We’d had famous fightbacks before in Europe. We were trying to cling to a bit of hope.

“That’s when You’ll Never Walk Alone started. That many stories go around. Did the players hear it? I’d like to think they did. It was defiant. We sung it with our hearts. It was about showing the players we were still with them.”

Carragher: “There’s no way you could have heard You’ll Never Walk Alone from the dressing room. It wasn’t one of those moments where Rafa was giving a team talk, the door flung open and we all felt inspired. Maybe, as we walked back onto the pitch, some of us could hear it in the distance.”

Traore: “Yeah, in the locker room, we couldn’t hear anything. But when we came out for the second half, the fans gave us a massive lift. That’s why I love this club so much. Whatever situation you are in, these fans are always right behind you. They didn’t let us down that night. They made us give everything we had. We wanted to repay them.”

Hamann: “The fans were still there but I don’t think many of them believed it was still possible. Out of the despair, there was a feeling of ‘well, we’re here, so let’s make the most of it’. People talk about Rafa being lucky but you’ve got to give him a lot of credit. The changes he made paid off. Bringing on a defensive midfielder when you are 3-0 down in a Champions League final isn’t what every manager would have done.”

Xabi Alonso: “I didn’t think the game was over at 3-0 but I realised our chances were slim. At the back of my mind, I thought about what Deportivo had done to Milan a year earlier (winning 4-0 in a quarter-final second leg to overturn a 4-1 deficit from the preceding tie). I was still in Spain then and it was a big deal. Milan just don’t concede three or four goals and lose having led. They were also fortunate to reach the final after nearly losing to PSV in the semi when they conceded three in Holland. It seemed impossible for us because great teams don’t concede three goals in finals and Milan were a great team.”

Mellor: “That rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone was emotional. It felt defiant. It was the fans’ way of saying. ‘No matter what happens, we’re still here to support you’. It wasn’t like it is before the game, when everyone is bouncing and you sing it to mark your territory. It was sombre. I don’t think anyone seriously thought it would change anything. I was hurting. I remember saying to Kirky (Chris Kirkland), ‘I’d take 3-1 right now’. For some reason, and I’ll never know why, Kirky still fancied us to somehow pull through. I was like, ‘Really?’”

Nine minutes into the second half, Liverpool had their lifeline. Gerrard met Riise’s pinpoint cross from the left with a perfectly placed header past goalkeeper Dida. Luis Garcia raced to get the ball out of the net as the captain manically waved his arms in the air — demanding more noise from the stands…

Gerrard: “I wanted to show the fans that the players were with them and that we hadn’t given up either. The header was instinctive. I went for accuracy rather than power because the cross was that good. Milan started the second half really well and because of that, I think a bit of complacency crept into their game. Their passing wasn’t quite as crisp as it was in the first half and they stopped counter-attacking with the same pace. With Didi behind me, it became easier for us to keep the ball in midfield and get further up the pitch.”

Hamann: “We knew to have any chance we had to score the first goal of the second half. Stevie’s header changed the whole complexion of the game. The mood in the stadium certainly changed. You could feel it. Everyone felt that it was suddenly game on. The change of formation worked. It was about finding a way to get Stevie closer to their goal. He was our biggest threat.”

Benitez: “Steven’s goal had such a galvanising effect. Everyone was lifted by his reaction. He started the feeling that the team could come back to win. I felt the momentum change because of the reaction of our fans. They gave us the energy, that support gave the players wings.”

Riise: “When Stevie scored, I knew that it was game on. That gave us so much energy and belief. You could see the change in the Milan players, too.”

Traore: “I started to believe once we scored the first goal. Why? Because of who scored it. I was lucky to play with Stevie for many years. He was the best captain, the best leader, the best player I ever played with. He had all the attributes to deliver at the highest level but he was also a born winner. What a mentality. When we needed him, he always delivered with crucial goals in big games. It was the perfect way to start the fightback. We didn’t celebrate. We all ran back into position to restart the game.”

Two minutes later, Smicer collected a pass from Hamann and after taking a touch to steady himself, hammered a low 25-yarder goalwards. Dida could only palm it into the bottom corner…

Smicer: “I scored a few goals from outside the box but none as important as that one. When I hit it, I knew it had come off the sweet spot. Maybe Dida saw it a bit late and wasn’t expecting it to come so fast. Stevie’s goal gave us belief and when I scored, we all knew it was game on. I was celebrating alone because everyone was running to the halfway line. We were like, ‘Let’s go and get another.’

Carragher: “Vladi had a lot of injuries and this made it difficult for him to get a run of games. His career at Liverpool didn’t start particularly well and the fans got a bit frustrated with him. I think he was brought in to replace Steve McManaman but it never quite happened for him. Before you knew it, he was getting shifted around the team and couldn’t nail a position. He became a very good squad player rather than first-choice. His goal record wasn’t great but I think he was a better player than Luis (Garcia) in terms of his general play.

“Vladi had some great games. On his day, usually as a No 10, he could really hurt the opposition because his movement was clever. He was one of those players where the rest of the team would say, ‘Wish he could do that more often’ after a good performance. Luis’ performance would rise and dip in the course of a single game but he’d still have the capacity to come up with important goals, even if he wasn’t playing well.”

Ayestaran: “Vladi suited European football. His game knowledge was excellent and his movement was intelligent. Each movement had a reason. Maybe he was not aggressive enough to play regularly in the Premier League, even before Rafa and I arrived. But we liked him as a player because we knew he’d keep the ball and his movement could cause Milan some problems. The second goal gave the fans belief that the game was still live. I looked around the pitch and you could see the surprise on the faces of the Milan players. It said, ‘What is happening here?’”

Milan were rattled and Liverpool smelt blood. Carragher surged forward and picked out Baros, who expertly flicked the ball into the path of Gerrard. As he burst into the box, the skipper was sent sprawling by Gattuso. Penalty. Alonso stepped forward…

Carragher: “We’d switched to three at the back, which meant I was naturally in a wider position whenever I received possession. When you play more centrally, there isn’t the same opportunity to drive up the pitch with the ball because the space isn’t there. It was 3-2 and the crowd was bouncing, and I was filled with adrenaline. You get caught up in it. If we didn’t get the equaliser in those moments, I’m not sure whether it would have come later, say in the 80th minute.

“It almost felt like a boxing match and you have the opportunity to knock the opponent out in that round. You know when he’s sat down in the stool he’ll get himself together and fight back. The longer the game goes on, I’m not sure if we have the ability or energy to push them back again. Rafa picked the penalty-takers and he changed it a lot. He’d put the team up on the board and beside it, there would be a set of responsibilities. I think he didn’t want the opposition to be able to second-guess what we were doing.

“Soon, Stevie would become our penalty-taker but there was one game against Spurs when Rafa chose someone else because Paul Robinson was the England goalkeeper and he thought he’d know where Stevie was going to place it. Xabi hadn’t taken a penalty for us that season.

“He didn’t take one in the shootout in Istanbul and he didn’t take one in the FA Cup final a year later, either. I can’t remember him practising them but he always struck the ball well and was a calm head, so that was probably in Rafa’s thinking.”

Alonso: “I am not normally a penalty-taker and even though Rafa gave me the responsibility, I’d forgotten about it until Stevie was brought down. You think, ‘OK, I might have to take a penalty to make it 1-0 or something’ but not to make it 3-3 after being three goals down. Strangely, I did not feel pressure. The Milan supporters were behind the goal but they were far away, so it didn’t have any impact.

“Dida seemed nervous after his mistake for Vladi’s goal. I decided to strike the ball as I would a pass, only a bit harder. That means there’s more chance of the goalkeeper pushing it back out if he saves it. If you tap the ball, he might collect it or parry it wide. No goalkeeper wants to push it back out because it gives the kicker a second chance. It was a great save but I didn’t think twice about following it up. Desperation to joy in two seconds — that’s how it felt.”

Monaghan: “When Xabi made it 3-3, it was mayhem in our end. Stevie’s goal had got everyone going and then we’d generated this big momentum.”

Liverpool had scored three times in the space of six manic second-half minutes…

Finnan: “I was having treatment, so I missed all three of our goals. But I knew what was happening. I could tell from the roars. I knew it was us scoring because the noise was so great. It was surreal. By the time I got back out to watch, it was 3-3. There was a real mixture of emotions. I was gutted to have to come off in a European Cup final but so happy that we were back in the game. At half-time, the fear was we might lose by five or six.”

Benitez: “The change at half-time had been crucial. Didi, with his composure and his game intelligence, gave the team balance. And with Luis and Steven having freedom between the lines, they didn’t know how to stop them. Riise and Smicer wide gave the team more possession and more control of the game.”

Traore: “Didi was massive for us. He had a lot of experience and was important in the group. He helped me a lot. He was such a clever player. He was so calm on the ball. He knew what needed to be done when he came on. His job was to lock down Kaka and he did that. Kaka’s influence was a lot less in the second half. It released Stevie to push forward. Suddenly, it was 3-3 and there was still half an hour left. Tactically, the game changed again. Milan had to push on and we started to defend deeper and play on the counter-attack.”

Carragher: “The game changes when you’re not chasing any more. It suddenly felt like we’ve got something to hold on to, even something to lose. When they brought Serginho on, it gave them a shot in the arm. He was rampaging up and down the left wing against Vladi, who was at right wing-back and he couldn’t really cope. It was clear we needed to make a change. Rafa decided to switch Vladi with Stevie.”

Liverpool had their backs against the wall. Hearts were in mouths when Dudek spilled Kaka’s cross but Traore cleared off the line to thwart Shevchenko. Carragher then produced a last-ditch tackle to thwart the Ukrainian striker…

Traore: “For me, that was redemption. I was poor in the first half so for me, that clearance was like the best gift I could give my team-mates. I’m proud of that contribution. We had given so much to get back into it. Not just the physical energy but the mental side too and all the different emotions.

“Carra showed us the way. He always gave everything. He was cramping up but he kept fighting. We all sacrificed ourselves for the team. The fact that our captain ended up playing at right-back tells you how much we wanted to win it.”

Hamann: “There were a lot of tired legs. We had spent a lot of time chasing Milan around in that first half and then surviving the onslaught after we got it back to 3-3. We had to dig so deep.”

Mellor: “There were lots of fans near where we were sitting demanding that Rafa brought Cisse on because we looked tired and eventually he made the change (Cisse replaced Baros on 85 minutes). It had been a tough season for him because of the injury he got at Blackburn (where he broke his leg in October 2004). He had electric pace to cause defenders problems but he didn’t have the finishing ability of Michael Owen or Robbie Fowler.”

Monaghan: “Carra was immense. He was knackered but tackled and blocked everything. They played their hearts out. “

As aching muscles were massaged on the field prior to extra time, Benitez passed on instructions…

Ayestaran: “At full-time, the message was clear, ‘Stay in the game’. Neither Rafa nor I seriously believed that we could go and win it because we could see exhaustion in the players. The first few minutes of extra time was crucial. We needed to break up play and not allow Milan to gain momentum and new confidence. Extra time became very tough. We had surprised Milan but they came back at us and probably deserved to win. We were struggling to get the ball up the pitch and reach their goal.”

Carragher: “Rafa didn’t say, ‘Let’s go and win’. It was more a case of, ‘Let’s keep doing what we’re doing’. We were hanging on a bit by the end of normal time and it didn’t feel like we had anything left in the tank to go and beat them. When you have cramp, sometimes you can get up but it keeps coming back, usually in your hamstring or calf.

“I got a sharp pain in my groin. I don’t know whether it was because I kept on trying to clear the ball by stretching. I was more tired the year later in the FA Cup final where, for a week after, my legs were battered. This was more because I’d stretched so many times to make blocks. If it was real cramp, I wouldn’t have been able to carry on.

Gerrard: “Extra time became a battle with Serginho, the Brazilian winger. Ancelotti had brought him on to try and attack Vladi and stretch the game but Rafa reacted to that by swapping me and Vladi. It was like he was on a motorbike. The fella was relentless. I was running on empty.”

Three minutes from the end of extra time, Dudek took centre stage. Shevchenko met Serginho’s cross with a powerful downward header. The Polish ‘keeper did brilliantly to keep it out and then somehow managed to turn the rebound over the bar from point-blank range…

Shevchenko was at a loss to explain how he had been denied: “I was sure I would score from a yard out. I hit it hard but perhaps that helped Dudek as it bounced off his arm and up instead of going past him or coming back to me. I could have taken that shot 10,000 times and all but one or two would go in. There is no logical explanation to what happened.”

His strike partner Crespo told reporters: “That was the moment we said goodbye to the cup.”

Dudek: “I never get bored talking about the double save because every time, I have a different story about it! You wait all your life to make a save like this; all that hard work you put in working on your reflexes. When I close my eyes, I still see that ball flying, flying, over the bar. Flying so high. The history about that final provides inspiration for many people, not only for football lovers. It shows what can happen in life when faced with a difficult situation. Istanbul changed everything for everyone involved in that final. People always want to talk to me about my performance.”

Hamann: “Shevchenko looked certain to score. It was just surreal. It was so good from Dudek.”

Ayestaran: “The key moment was Jerzy’s save from Shevchenko. I closed my eyes and I thought, ‘We’ve lost’ but when I looked up, the ball was behind the goal. I couldn’t believe it. I turned to Ocho (Jose Ochotorena — the goalkeeping coach) and said, ‘Right, we’re going to win’.

“That save really gave us confidence because it should not happen. I think it convinced Jerzy that it was his day and it allowed him to go into the penalty shootout with even less pressure because he’d already saved us once.”

Monaghan: “My dad passed away the day before the win over Olympiacos, which took us through to the knockout stages that season. He was a massive red — they called him ‘Shankly’ in Halewood — and he was in my thoughts a lot during that run to Istanbul.

“I went to the Vatican a few weeks before the final. It was shortly after the Pope (John Paul II) had died. I touched the crypt where he was buried and said, ‘Look after my dad and let Liverpool win the European Cup, please’. The Pope was Polish, so maybe there was a bit of divine intervention with how Dudek performed. I got a bit religious after that.”

Smicer: “When Jerzy made the miracle save, I thought, ‘Come on, this is our cup. This has to be our night’.”

Traore: “I was very close to it. You just expected the ball to hit the net. The first save was exceptional, the second was unbelievable. When that ball flew over the bar I was like, ‘Yes, it’s destiny. We’re going to win’. Jerzy was on fire. That save gave him such a boost going into penalties.”

Benitez: “If that had gone in, we wouldn’t have had time to react. Jerzy was amazing and thanks to him, all of us, all the football fans across the world, got to see the best final ever.”

Carragher: “Even players who come in and do well; they have periods of bad times. It’s how you react that ends up defining your time at the club. We signed Bjorn Tore Kvarme in 1997 and he was brilliant in his first season. He got into a rut and never came out. Jerzy was a bit like this. He wasn’t the biggest of ‘keepers anyway but after a decent start, he had some bad moments and he seemed to become smaller. None of that really matters too much now though.”

Benitez gathered his players together and asked them who wanted to take a penalty…

Gerrard: “Lots of players wanted to take penalties and that was really encouraging. Carra wanted one and Luis Garcia did too but Rafa left them out of the first five. I was last.”

Ayestaran: “Rafa used to make players practise penalties in training. He was always watching. He’d make the decision every time for each game based on the player’s technical and mental qualities, as well as his confidence. He was always thinking: how would the player confront such an intense moment? And once he’d made his judgement, he’d never change his mind.

“In a shoot-out, it was important to consider who actually wanted to take a penalty as well as how they’d played in the game. That is why he chose Smicer and Didi. Both had, in different ways, changed the game for us. Riise was one of the fittest players on the pitch and this meant he still had power in his legs. Cisse never lacked confidence. And the last one was meant to be Stevie…”

Benitez: “I had a lot of confidence. We used to study closely the penalty-takers of every team. Jose Ochotorena, the goalkeeping coach, was giving all the information to Jerzy. We had that knowledge. We knew four of their five penalty takers really well.”

Carragher: “I can’t ever remember being nervous in any penalty shoot-outs with Liverpool. I’d imagine it is more nerve-wracking for the crowd whereas on the pitch, it feels as though you’re in a bubble and you can do something about it. I told Rafa I’d take one but he didn’t choose me.

“Stevie was the fifth taker but had the shoot-out gone on beyond that, I don’t know what the plan was. I’m sure Rafa had a list but he wouldn’t have been able to come on the pitch and tell anyone. Maybe we’d have had to choose amongst ourselves.”

Prior to penalties, Carragher reminded Dudek about Bruce Grobbelaar’s ‘wobbly legs’ antics on the goal-line during Liverpool’s 1984 European Cup final shoot-out triumph against Roma and urged him to copy it…

Carragher: “I’m always thinking about how you can win the game. I’ve always thought about what the opposition might do and what you can do to give yourself even a small advantage. In amateur games, you always tell the ‘keeper to do something to put the opponent off. Jerzy is such a nice fella, I thought it was important to tell him that he might have to do something a bit mad.”

Traore: “I was on the halfway line praying.”

Serginho blazed Milan’s first penalty over the bar and then Hamann stepped up to coolly put Liverpool in front…

Hamann: “I scored that with a broken metatarsal in my foot. I did the damage about five minutes before end of extra time. I went up for a header and then came down on it. A scan later showed a stress fracture. I was in pain but I didn’t know the full extent of it at the time. We had already used up our subs, so there was no way I was coming off and when Rafa asked me if I wanted to take a penalty, I instantly said ‘yes’.”

Dudek dived to his right to deny Pirlo before Cisse and then Milan substitute Jon Dahl Tomasson both converted. Riise could have made it 3-1…

Riise: “Normally, I was sure what I was going to do with a penalty. But as I walked from the halfway line, I had so many cramps in my leg. Three options were racing through my mind — smash it, place it or Panenka. Even when I put the ball down and walked back to the 18-yard line, I wasn’t sure what to do. When I turned and looked at Dida, I decided to go for the safety option. It was probably the only time in my life I did that. Usually, I would have gone for power. He pushed it past the post and I was so angry with myself.”

Kaka scored and then up stepped Smicer…

Smicer: “I felt lonely! It was even bigger pressure for me because I knew it would be my last kick for Liverpool. I thought, ‘If I screw this up, there won’t be a next game for me at Liverpool. There won’t even be a next kick’. I thought, ‘If I miss and we lose, I won’t be able to ever go back to Liverpool!’ People would have said ‘that’s the guy who missed a penalty in Istanbul’. I was nervous but I chose my side and I was glad that Dida went the other way.”

Shevchenko had to score to keep the shoot-out alive but his effort was tame and Dudek secured his place in Liverpool folklore. Carragher won the foot race to the ‘keeper…

Carragher: “I just had to run but I couldn’t have stopped at Jerzy. I don’t know where the energy came from. I was off. I got to Jerzy before anyone else but I didn’t hug him. I saw my family in the crowd and ended up celebrating with them even though I didn’t know where they were. My favourite photograph is of that moment when you know you’ve won and everyone is taking off to sprint.

“If I could go back to one moment in my career and experience it again, it would be that split second, knowing you’ve achieved something that only an hour and a half earlier, you thought was impossible. I don’t know where Stevie went. When you look at all of the images of players piling on Jerzy, he’s nowhere to be seen!”

Benitez: “It is a difficult feeling to express in words. You think about your family, friends, players, staff, fans; everyone. You realise that it was the most important game in football at club level and you are there, in the middle of this stadium, just enjoying the moment. To be fair, at that exact moment, you don’t realise how important it was. You only come to realise that during the rest of your life.”

Traore: “There was an explosion inside me of joy. To share that moment with my team-mates, friends, family and the fans is something I’ll cherish forever. Before the trophy presentation, Rafa came up to me on the field and gave me a big hug. He told me how proud he was. Then he said, ‘See, you were right to trust and not sign for Everton. You wouldn’t have won the Champions League if you had gone there!’. We had a good relationship. I thanked him for believing in me.

“Then Stevie said something that always stuck with me. He said, ‘Djimi, we did it. Just look at those fans. Next season, we need to go and win the league’. That was his mentality.”

Gerrard, who had been heavily linked with a summer move to Chelsea, told the TV cameras: “How could I leave after that?”

Warnock: “A dozen of us were in the stands and we were trying to get onto the pitch but the stewards were getting in the way, even though we all had our tracksuits on. Fernando Morientes stepped forward and tried to convince them and behind him, a load of fans were saying, ‘Do you know who they are?’ Fernando had won the competition a couple of times before with Real Madrid but the stewards didn’t recognise him.

“Fortunately, one of our backroom staff spotted us and sorted it out. That was when Rafa came over to me and sort of apologised but it was a half-apology. He was caught up in the moment but I was still angry with him. I was delighted for the lads and when each goal went in, I celebrated. But on a personal level, I felt like something had been taken away from me.

“Maybe the experience sat differently with me compared to other players because I’d grown up supporting the club. It wasn’t a nice feeling. It was the way it was handled. You’ll struggle to find me on any of the photographs when the trophy was lifted. I stood at the back. I felt like I wasn’t involved, which is sad really because I’d played in six of the games on the way to the final. I guess I had played a role. But it didn’t feel right. In the changing rooms, I stood out of the way. As bad as it sounds, I felt sorry for myself. I was still pissed off. I was seething. It was different for other players.”

Hamann was out of contract and had verbally agreed to sign for Bolton Wanderers. But on the back of his impact in the final, he was given a new deal by Benitez and stayed put…

Hamann: “The game finished at 12.30am local time so after the trophy presentation, it must have been about 1.30am when we eventually made it back into the dressing room. There was a sense of disbelief in there. It was strangely quiet.

“Two hours earlier, we had been sat in there staring humiliation in the face. We looked dead and buried. Now we were back there with the European Cup in front of us. We were all just looking at each other and you knew everyone was thinking: ‘What just happened?’. Chairman David Moores came in with tears running down his cheeks. I asked him for one of his cigarettes and we had a smoke together in the shower room.”

Carragher: “It really annoys me that people think Gerard Houllier did something bad by coming to congratulate us in the dressing room. How hard must it be for any manager with an attachment to a club to see this happen only a year after he’s left? I know Rafa’s had a big stamp on the team and has signed Alonso and Garcia, who had a huge role in the season, but nine of the players that started in Istanbul were signed by Houllier.

“He’s got a relationship with all of them. He wasn’t trying to muscle in on the party. I think it’s an amazingly humble thing for him to do, to be happy for people. Let’s not forget he nearly lost his life managing Liverpool. He’s given everything to the club. He was delighted for everyone (Carragher was speaking before Houllier’s death in December 2020).

“It was completely the opposite to the way it was painted. If you were bitter and twisted about the way it ended, you’d be in the press room telling everyone about your frustrations, not in the changing room congratulating everyone.”

Mellor: “There was a bit of a fiasco with the medals. UEFA only had 25 of them and that meant a few of us, including me, missed out on getting one. Fifteen years later, I still don’t have one. The club gave me a small replica trophy. As we stood on the podium, some of the Milan players, including Maldini and Shevchenko, had left their runners-up medals behind and Mauricio Pellegrino spotted them lying on the table.

“He said, ‘Anyone want one?’, so I took one.” The game finished in the early hours of the morning and the after-party in the hotel didn’t start until something like 3am. There was a free bar and a buffet. They left the Champions League trophy in the middle of the dance floor. I’ve got a picture of me and Stevie with a bottle of Corona. He looked exhausted. He was absolutely knackered. It didn’t turn out to be an all-nighter. I was in bed by 5am.”

Riise: “There was a big party back at the team hotel but I didn’t have energy left. I just went straight to bed.”

Monaghan: “By the time we got on the buses taking fans back into the town, there wasn’t much jubilation. After all the emotion, everyone was knackered. It took an hour and a half to get back. We went to a bar just off Taksim Square. We were drinking and singing until 5am saying, ‘How did we get away with that?’

Smicer: “I ended up going outside to a music place with Milan (Baros) and Igor (Biscan). I didn’t drink too much because I wanted to enjoy the moment. I celebrated with a giant cigar — I’d never seen one so big.”

Gerrard: “I had grown up knowing what European football meant to Liverpool Football Club. I had seen the tapes of Emlyn Hughes, Phil Thompson and Graeme Souness lifting the European Cup and I wanted that for myself. I slept with the cup in my hotel room. I did not want it out of my sight.”

The following day the squad flew home to be greeted by around a million supporters on the parade around the city.

Ayestaran: “On the flight home, once the celebrations had quietened, I started to think about why so many players had suffered from cramps. We wanted to avoid this in other finals so we were already thinking about the future. The temperature and the humidity were big reasons. So, I tried to understand the reason better.

“Stevie came over and sat next to me. He gave me one of his match shirts and thanked me for helping him throughout the season. It meant a lot. The shirt hangs on the wall of my office in Valencia.”

Riise: “The open-top bus was supposed to take a couple of hours but there were so many people on the streets it took five hours. It was unreal. That’s probably the best day of my life in terms of knowing you’ve accomplished something big. We danced on tables into the early hours.”

Mellor: “We were put on a different flight back from the players who were involved in the final. When the first-team plane landed, they were whisked off to Melwood straight from the tarmac of the runway. Nobody in our party knew what we were supposed to do. Salif Diao hailed a taxi and went straight back to Melwood and was able to join all of the other players in the celebrations. But nobody else followed him.

“We were told they’d wait for us but the police intervened and said they couldn’t hold the bus back at Melwood any longer because there were a million people on the streets of Liverpool. Apparently Rafa and Stevie were trying to get the bus to wait but it was impossible. I had family and friends in the crowd waiting to see me but they never got that opportunity because by the time I got back to Melwood, the bus had gone.

“Ravo (David Raven) and (Darren) Potter hung around a bit longer and Frankie Mc (Frank McParland) drove them to the Arkles Pub (near Anfield), where they jumped on the bus. But I drove home to Altrincham in tears and watched everything on telly. I was still living with my mum and dad but they were back in Liverpool waiting to see me. It was a pretty sad way to finish what could have been an amazing couple of days, to be honest.”

Warnock: “The parade didn’t help my mood, either. Quite a few of us had played in big games during that Champions League campaign. Mells (Neil Mellor) and Florent Sinama-Pongolle had scored important goals. But we flew back on a different plane and the wives were allowed on the first-team plane instead of us.

“This led to us missing the bus for the parade, driving home and watching it on Sky Sports News. It should never have happened. It was only when we came back for pre-season that we got an apology. I didn’t enjoy that summer. It made me desperate to leave. There was an offer from Blackburn that fell through but I’d made my mind up to go.”

Benitez: “The homecoming parade was a different experience for me. I left Valencia with another parade but in Liverpool, there were so many people, on the bridges, on the street lights, in the trees, buildings, roads, everywhere. It was just amazing. We couldn’t move. What a day that was.”

Gerrard: “You could feel the bus literally rocking as we snaked our way through Liverpool city centre. It was mayhem but glorious, brilliant mayhem.”

Traore: “My medal is in a bank in France for safekeeping. Wherever in the world I meet Liverpool fans, they always want to talk about Istanbul. I feel very proud to have been a part of something that touched so many people.”

Hamann: “Winning the trophy for a fifth time meant that the club got to keep it. It’s special to have been part of something that will be remembered forever. My biggest memory is coming back to Liverpool the day after. Being on that bus with a million people on the streets of the city was incredible.”

Monaghan: “Being a football fan is all about stories and memories. I’ve been lucky to go to nine European Cup finals with Liverpool. My son Joe was 11 in Istanbul and that was the first one we shared together. They say your first love is the best — Rome in ’77 will always be special. But there will never be another final quite like Istanbul. Fifteen years on, it’s hard to believe it actually happened.”

(Top photo: Liverpool lift the trophy; Richard Sellers/Sportsphoto/Allstar via Getty Images)