Liverpool FC.
The most successful English team in the history of European competitions with 6 European Cups, 3 UEFA Cups and 4 UEFA Super Cups. I’m sure you know these guys.
And if you’re Egyptian, you definitely know these guys.
In any case, there have been plenty European victories in the history of the Merseyside club. So many wins and so many accolades that at the peak of it all, they were sky high and looking pretty much untouchable.
As you can imagine, this kind of dominance is rarely universally accepted. As a matter of fact, some even decided to take it upon themselves to dedicate large portions of their lives to knocking them off their perch. And they were so good that there was once a time where a dream like that seemed impossible. (Do you… do you see what I did there?)
But this video isn’t about those guys. It’s about these guys. A Liverpool team that despite their rich history in European competitions, was in a bit of a slump. A team that very many people had their doubts about.
A team that, even when they had gotten ever so close to the finish line, was still expected to slip and fall. A team that completed “The Miracle of Istanbul”.
Today, we’ll not only be looking into this incredible victory, but we’ll also be diving into the history of Liverpool Football Club as a whole to track the events that led to this momentous achievement.
Buckle up, because even though we’ve got a long one coming up, it’s a goodie.
So, without further ado, how did Liverpool win the 2005 Champions League?
We’ve got a lot to cover today, so let’s go ahead and start things off from the very beginning.
Table of Contents
Everton FC: The Birth of Liverpool FC
The origin of Liverpool football club didn’t involve anything red in the slightest. The color of choice was actually blue. As a matter of fact, it didn’t start with Liverpool at all. Rather Everton Football club.
All the way back in 1878, Everton was formed. After a couple years following their formation, they moved into a legendary stadium in 1884. A stadium that the toffees would eventually come to resent over a 100 years later. Anfield.
I say this because, since 1999, Everton have only beaten Liverpool at Anfield once in all competitions. They’ve played there 23 times in that time period. Although that win came in early 2021, so perhaps times are changing.
In any case, the move was orchestrated by the President of Everton, John Houlding, who would eventually go on to own Anfield. Houlding, a very wealthy businessman and also a man who once served as the Lord Mayor of Liverpool at one point, had his hands in much of what was going on at Everton. He was even at the forefront of the club as they became founding members of the first division back in 1888.
Embed from Getty ImagesHowever, many believed that a lot of his actions were simultaneously working towards the detriment of the club and the benefit of his pockets. For example, the players were forced to change in subpar changing facilities, and he planned to float the club to purchase more land. One of the final straws came when he decided to increase the rent that the club was paying from £100 to £250. This didn’t go down very well.
The Everton board of directors decided that enough was enough and decided to skedaddle, establishing themselves at Goodison park.
That left Houlding with a dilemma. A stadium, with no team to play in it. And so, he decided to form a new team that would occupy that stadium as their home ground. The name of that team? Everton Athletic.
It goes without saying that that name was rejected. Too derivative.
Instead, they adopted the name “Liverpool Football club,” as the club was formed in 1892.
Early Success, Bribery and Decline
Early Success
Now established as a club, Liverpool were initially rejected from entry into the football league on account of them only existing for a few days.
Although, after a few years of good performances, they were admitted to the second division, where they went unbeaten for 28 games, finishing top of the league.
This earned them a playoff match against the bottom team of the first division to gain entry into the top league. A match which they won. Their opponent? Newton Heath. A team that would later come to be known as Manchester United. A precursor to the Rivalry that was to come.
Anyway, after a relegation, the club appointed a man by the name of Tom Watson.
This guy had just won 3 first division titles with Sunderland and Houlding had seen enough to make him the highest paid manager in England, earning him a mind-boggling yearly salary of £300. My man was rich.
This investment paid dividends as Liverpool went on to win the first division title with him as manager in 1901. They did get relegated in 1904, but they regained promotion immediately and became the very first English club to win the second division then win the first division in back-to-back seasons. Pretty impressive.
The years following this impressive feat were rather uneventful for the reds. An array of midtable finishes with one flash in the pan second place finish in a nine-year period.
However, there was a bit of spice.
Liverpool and Manchester United: Bribery and Deceit
The Great war had begun in 1914 and the football league was tipped to halt operations indefinitely from the end of the 1914/15 season. A match between Liverpool and now Manchester United, formerly Newton Heath, was fixed to end 2-0 to Man U.
After investigations, it was found that a small group consisting of both United and Liverpool players had been involved in this act, with no input from managers and backroom staff. They had each placed large bets on the result of the match and were intending to secure a large back from this unscrupulous act. Shameless.
There were a few reasons why this game was rigged. For starters, United were battling relegation and needed a win to stay up. However, the main reason seemed to be financial. Liverpool were midtable, so it wasn’t like the game would’ve affected them, win or lose. But with the war at hand, the careers of several players across the country looked to just about be over.
So, at this point, you may be asking: how were they found out?
Fred Pagnam, a Liverpool player and probably one of the first snitches in recorded football history, had disapproved of his teammate’s shady dealings. This guy threatened to thwart their plan and even hit the crossbar towards the end of the match in an attempt to ruin the score line. When his teammates started arguing with him for doing his job, people started to suspect something was up.
To be fair, with the way United are defending nowadays, I’m not sure how match-fixing hasn’t been brought up (for legal reasons, this is a joke).
Anyway, back to Pagnam, this man even testified against his teammates in a hearing with the FA. I’m sure they were less than pleased. There’s always that one guy that grasses up and ruins it for everyone, huh?
Anyway, all the players involved from both sides were given lifelong bans from football, although, most bans were lifted years later.
Stagnation
Moving along, over the next roughly 50 years, Liverpool’s situation fluctuated a heck of a lot. Back-to-back first divisions wins in 1922 and 1923 following the end of World War 1 and years of midtable mediocrity until about 1939, when the second world war came knocking.
A first division win in the first season upon resumption of the league in 1947 was good stuff. But more midtable mediocrity directly after that, and a relegation to the second division in 1954 was bad stuff. This takes us all the way through to the 1959/60 season of the first division.
After a poor start to the season, Liverpool were far from where they wanted to be.
Phil Taylor, the manager at the time, decided to step down in November of 1959, as he felt he had taken the Liverpool as far as he was capable of taking them. Promotion to the top division was proving to be too big of a task.
However, an insurmountable task for one man can sometimes be an opportunity for greatness for another. Less than a month later, Bill Shankly arrived.
Shankly, Paisley, Fagan: The Liverpool Way
Buckle up, this is a long segment.
In the early 60s, things began to change around Anfield. A team that was pretty much perpetually hot or cold since it’s existence began to kick into a whole new gear. Upon Bill Shankly’s introduction to Liverpool, the team was drastically revamped.
24 players were placed on the transfer list, with all of them out the door within a year. As a matter of fact, it was more than just the team that was revamped. The former Melwood training ground was revamped. Anfield itself was in a state of disarray and needed to be cut, watered, and attended to. Fans had lost a lot of interest in the club over the years, as they continuously failed to make it out of the second division.
There was much to be done.
Shankly adopted a detail orientated approach to managing the Reds that saw him do just about everything he could to give his men just that little edge in battle. Fitness, training techniques beyond their time and genuine innovation was the order of the day.
Embed from Getty ImagesBut above that, Liverpool became a team that the people of the city, and the world, for that matter truly began to resonate with.
Under Shankly, Liverpool became something more than just a club. More than a group of people that just kicked a ball about. I honestly lost track of time when I was doing the research for this one purely because I was reading up on this man’s expansive exploits and why he is regarded so highly by the Anfield faithful. Without having this video run for hours on end, let me give you some brief bullet points detailing his 15-year stay at the club.
- Liverpool gained promotion to the first division by winning the second division in 1962. By 1964, they were first division champions once more. This victory and the attractive, attacking football that was on display caused fans of a once mediocre Liverpool to consistently return to Anfield in their masses.
- The club transitioned from wearing a red top with white shorts and white socks to wearing the iconic all red strip. Hard to imagine them any other way.
- “You’ll never walk alone” became Liverpool’s signature anthem. This is something that was practically made official as the crowd boomed the song during Liverpool’s 1965 FA Cup victory over Leeds in the final.
- The famous “THIS IS ANFIELD” plaque was installed in the players tunnel. A piece that would instill fear in the hearts of the opposition for years to come.
- Finally, and perhaps most importantly, Shankly understood the importance of the fans in the entire affair. The popular, and very real, notion that the Kop end “could suck the ball into the net” was one that started with him. When addressing the fans, he was the epitome of emotive. Growing up in a small, working class town in Scotland, he knew how much football meant to the spectators.
“Liverpool is not only a club. It’s an institution. And my aim was to bring the people close to the club and the team and for them to be accepted as part of it. The effect was that wives brought their late husband’s ashes to Anfield and scattered them on the pitch after saying a little prayer. I said to them: ‘In you come, you’re welcome’, and they trotted in by the dozen. One young boy got killed at his work and a bus load of 50 people came to Anfield one Sunday to scatter his ashes at the Kop end. So people not only support Liverpool when they’re alive. They support them when they are dead. This is the true story of Liverpool. This is possibly why Liverpool are so great. There is no hypocrisy about it. It is sheer honesty.”
The words of Shankly, who, upon his own untimely passing in 1981, had his ashes scattered at the Kop end.
Another factor that Liverpool had in their favor was an idea. An notion fostered within the club that, over time, would come to be known as “the Liverpool Way.” An idea which quite commonly is traced back to the Shankly era.
Depending on who you ask or where you look, you may get contrasting answers on just what exactly the Liverpool way is. One distinct definition seems quite hard to come by. However, I feel a good summary that I would imagine many would agree with came from Sportswriter David Goldblatt.
“The Liverpool Way was a tradition of simple football, pass and move, defending and attacking collectively, continuity of staff and players, respecting player autonomy but insisting on solidarity. Possession was the first priority, the virtue of patience extolled.”
In short. It was and is a big deal.
Shankly’s success in his tenure was owed to a plethora of reasons. But one of the greatest contributing factors to the insane success that Liverpool would go on to have in the years to come was a fabled meeting place simply known as the boot room.
A small boot storage room that was converted into a meeting place for the internal coaching staff at Liverpool during the Shankly era. It was here that the very essence of The Liverpool way was carried out and practiced on a daily basis. The coaching staff would essentially talk shop, strategize and conjure up ways to best utilize the players at their disposal and crush the opposition.
The founding members of this legendary meeting place were Shankly himself, Bob Paisley, Reuben Bennett, Tom Saunders, Joe Fagan and Ronnie Moran. All prominent figures in Liverpool’s history.
But three names there, perhaps, shine brighter than most when placed next to other icons of English and world football history.
Bill Shankly, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan.
Embed from Getty ImagesBetween these three, Liverpool had their managerial mandate for 26 years between 1959 and 1985.
Ok, you’ve waited long enough: let’s go over some achievements. First, we have Shankly (1959-1974):
Three first division wins, two FA Cups and a UEFA Cup. Not too bad.
Next up, Paisley (1974 – 1983).
A man who the author of Bill Shankly’s biography, Stephen Kelly, described as the true tactician of Liverpool, with Shankly being the motivating force.
6 first division titles, 3 European Cups, 1 UEFA Cup and 3 League Cups. Madness.
And finally, Joe Fagan (1983-1985).
A man who became the first ever manager of an English team to win a treble of major honors in a single season. A European Cup, a league cup and a first division title. That was in his first season in charge.
Kenny Dalglish, Graeme Souness, Kevin Keagan, Ian Rush, Ray Clemence. All players that laced up for Liverpool during this period of incredible success and gained legendary status in the process
I don’t know about you guys, but I think that the “Liverpool way” was more than just a mantra.
Disaster
Going into the 1984/85 season of the first division, Liverpool were the undisputed kings of English football. At this point, they were far and away the club with the most league titles in the country with 15 league trophies. Arsenal were sitting all the way back in second with 8.
Despite this, the 84/85 season was not all that successful for them. A second-place finish, 13 points below city rivals Everton, and knocked out of the FA Cup in the semi-finals against the eventual winners, Manchester United.
However, they did make it the European cup final and were matched up against Juventus at the Heysel stadium in Brussels on the 29th of May 1985. That’s unfortunately where disaster struck. The Heysel disaster.
The exact cause of what transpired and who the instigators were is contested to this day, but the blame for what occurred has almost unanimously been placed on Liverpool supporters. Only short moments before the match began, a hoard of Liverpool fans bypassed a fence separating them from a neutral spectator zone and charged at the Juventus fans.
Embed from Getty ImagesA retaining wall holding up that section collapsed, taking the lives of 39 people- the majority of whom were Juventus fans or of Italian descent. The stadium was understandably in a state of unrest. however, due to fears that postponing the match would lead to more civil unrest, the game went on.
A 1-0 win to Juventus.
In the after math of what has been described as “the darkest hour in the history of UEFA competitions”, all English teams were banned from UEFA competitions for 5 years. It was a catastrophe.
In the years that followed Liverpool continued with their success with Kenny Dalglish taking over the reigns as the player manager. 3 first division titles and 2 FA cups as the likes of John Barnes and Peter Beardsley among others were added to the mix.
However, it seems disaster was never too far away from club. This time disaster struck in Sheffield. The Hillsborough disaster. The event was an FA Cup semi-final between Liverpool and Nottingham Forest at the Hillsborough Stadium. On the 15th of April 1989.
With only 6 minutes on the clock, the match was abandoned as overcrowding in the stands led to a stampede that caused the death of 97 people. A failure to control the crowd on the behalf of police and stadium officials was identified as the cause of this devastating event.
In the aftermath, it was made compulsory that stadiums belonging to top teams must be all-seaters. This lead to the destruction of several iconic standing areas such as the Spion Kop.
Liverpool went on to win the replay of the semi-final and also went on to win the FA cup as a whole, as well as the league the next season.
However, over the next decade or so, Liverpool more or less lost their way. That wasn’t a pun, I promise.
Ok, it was. I’m sorry.
Decline, Cream Suits and Cup Trebles
Putting it bluntly, the 90s is a period that most Liverpool fans would probably rather forget. Manchester United, historically Liverpool’s biggest rival, had just gone 26 years without a league victory, while Liverpool absolutely ran rampant.
And then this guy showed up. Times were changing. In 1992, football famously began when the Premier League was formed. United won 6 of the first 8 Premier League trophies available and helped themselves to a treble in 1999 while they were at it.
Liverpool on the other hand, had lost the sauce. They did win the FA Cup and the league in this period, but they were far from what they used to be.
The iconic boot room was demolished and replaced with a press room, they failed to make sustained title pushes throughout much of the nineties, and there was, of course, the infamous Spice Boys cream suits incident.
Embed from Getty ImagesAfter gaining considerable success and media attention off the pitch, a group of Liverpool players known as the spice boys wore cream Armani suits to the 1996 FA Cup final against Manchester United. Jamie Redknapp, David James, Steve McManaman, Robbie Fowler and couple more notable names. Perhaps not the best choice of attire.
When Sir Alex Ferguson saw them, he apparently immediately turned to his assistant coach and said “1-0”. The game ended 1-0.
But there were positives to this period of time. Liverpool played some great football at times. Stars such as Robbie Fowler and eventually Michael Owen, Steven Gerrard and Jaime Carragher all took to the pitch for them.
And after Gerard Houllier was appointed as manager in 1998, even more top talent was brought in. So much so that by the end of the 2000/01 season, Liverpool had won a very unique cup treble consisting of the League Cup, the UEFA Cup and the FA Cup.
Not bad. Perhaps Liverpool was on the up once more. Or perhaps not.
Rafael Benitez Arrives
Fast forward to 2004 and Liverpool were no closer to reclaiming the top spot in English and European football than they had been when they won the cup treble, 3 years prior.
Houllier was unfortunately deemed to not be good enough and was subsequently shown the door. In his place, came the last man not named Diego Simeone to prevent Barcelona or Real Madrid from winning La Liga. A man who had just come off success in Spain’s premier division, as well as the UEFA Cup.
Rafa Benitez.
Benitez is a man that is very well known for his tactical intelligence. A no-nonsense manager that even Steven Gerrard had a difficult time pleasing. He would often play key players out of possession and would appear calm in situations where an outburst would not surprise many people.
His methods have at times been labelled unorthodox and called into question- particularly by the English press. But his achievements, especially at that point in his career, really did speak for themselves.
In any case, he was faced with rather unfavorable circumstances upon his arrival in Merseyside. Several key players were uneasy and looking to manufacture moves away from Anfield. Two of which were Michael Owen and Steven Gerrard. Doesn’t get more key than that, does it.
Gerrard was eventually convinced to stay on and continue his captaincy. However, Michael Owen, a former Balon d’or winner wasn’t as convinced, as he went off to Real Madrid.
Nonetheless, Benitez worked with what he had and made some important additions to the squads. Notably fellow Spaniards Luis García and Xabi Alonso.
Embed from Getty ImagesLiverpool were looking to be in decent shape going into the next season. Despite a 4th place finish in the previous campaign, perhaps now was the moment to push on. A new manager, new players and the retention of their captain put them in a very good positio- oh never mind.
5th place in the league the next season, knocked out of the FA cup in the third round, lost in the final of the league cup. A failure of a season for the mighty Liverpool, right? Wrong.
The 2004/05 Champions League
Now that we understand the history of Liverpool, the highs and the lows, you can’t really argue against the fact that they should have been doing better as a club at this point.
Despite being a European powerhouse, by 2005, they definitely were not favorites for Europe’s most coveted trophy. Despite that, they won the whole damn thing.
At this point, you may be wondering: how?
Actually, you were probably wondering that when you clicked on the video and ever since then, you might be regretting having to sit through all this waffle. Sorry about that. But let’s get into it.
Road to the final
Starting from the beginning and they got off to a flying start in the Champions League group stages. Matched up in a group consisting of Monaco, Deportivo la Coruna and Olympiakos may not seem like a tall task today. But this group ended up putting Liverpool in quite a precarious situation.
A 2-0 win to Monaco saw them top the group from the word “go”. However, it was far from smooth sailing from there. A string of poor results saw them head into the final match of the group stages in 3rd place with only 7 points. And then this happened.
Liverpool ended up scraping their way into the knockouts on goal difference in the head-to-head with Olympiakos.
The next round was a little more straight forward. 6-2 on aggregate against Bayer Leverkusen.
This is where things got a little tricky. Juventus in the quarter finals. Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Pavel Nedved, Fabio Cannavaro, need I say more? A team that would eventually go on to win Serie A that year, albeit in dubious fashion. But that’s beside the point.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe point is that this was no easy feat. This was also the first time that the two sides had met since the tragic Heysel disaster in 1985, so the players and fans had that to wrestle with too.
Regardless, a 2-1 win at Anfield, featuring this incredible gem from Luis García, and a goalless draw in the reverse leg were enough to send them through to the semis.
Jose Mourinho, Roman Abramovic, Chelsea. On a domestic level, this team finished 37 points ahead of Liverpool on their way to the picking up their first ever Premier League trophy. They had also already beaten Liverpool 3 times that year- twice in the league and once in the league cup final.
But this was not the Premier League nor the league cup. The tie ended 1-0 to Liverpool over the two legs, so great success for the reds. But this match not without a dash of controversy.
For whatever reason, there is literally no good angle for the only goal scored in this match up by Luis García. The infamous ghost goal has been a talking point for years at this point. In or out, will we ever know? Probably not.
Regardless, Ľuboš Micheľ, the referee on the night has since come out and stated that he would have awarded a penalty to Liverpool and given Petr Cech a red card had the goal not been given. Knowing that, perhaps the awarding of the goal is slightly more palatable for Chelsea fans. Probably not, but oh well.
At this point, the reds had been through some pretty tough opponents. But just take a look at who they were matched up with in the final.
Embed from Getty ImagesWhat the hell is this? What is this team?
This AC Milan squad was stacked from top to bottom. They had gone through Manchester United, Inter Milan and PSV on their way to the final match day. Liverpool had their work cut out for them indeed.
Before we go into the final, let’s briefly go over how the boys in red setup. Not necessarily the tactical arrangement, but just a feel for who we’re dealing with.
Champions League final Setup
A formation that Benitez absolutely adores and that seems to follow him wherever he goes is the 4231. That and the 4411. Coincidentally, his first season at Liverpool was no exception, as both were used at varying points. However, the 4411 was the order of the day here.
Astonishingly, this was the very first time in Benitez’s Liverpool tenure that this starting line-up was used. Funnily enough, it was also the last.
Steven Gerard, who was typically played as a 10 that year, started deeper than usual, with Xabi Alonso slightly deeper than him. Harry Kewell, who was injured for much of the season, started off in the secondary striker role, with Milan Baros up top.
John Arne Riise and Luis García filled in in the wide midfield positions, with Djimi Traoré and Steve finnan as the fullbacks.
And finally, Jaime Carragher and Sami Hyypiä sat at the back with Jerzy Dudek as the number 1.
The Champions League Final
I think at this point we should just move over to the final itself. We could go on about the tactical setup of the team and how they wanted to play, but that would kinda be redundant. I say this because Paolo Maldini scored the opener for Milan with only 50 seconds on the clock.
Whatever tactics were in place in the build up to the match were all of a sudden in need of revision. 2 more goals followed for Milan in the first half as Kaka, Shevchenko and Crespo absolutely ran riot on Liverpool’s defence. Adding onto that, Harry Kewel walked off injured after only 23 minutes played.
Things were not going well in the slightest. Liverpool were down bad.
Half time.
“Boys, they had us in the first half, but here’s what we’re gonna do.
3421. Dietmar Hamann. You’re a defensive midfielder and you can press, right? We need to give Gerrard freedom to attack, so you’re in.
Traore, you’re out. Wait, Finnan is injured? Traore, you’re back in. Also you’re part of a back three now.
Riise, you’re out wide at left wingback. Šmicer, oh hey man. Almost forgot that you came on to replace Kewell. You’re out wide at right wingback. The two of you, make sure Cafu and Maldini don’t keep bombing down our flanks, will you? Thanks.
Everyone, don’t forget to press the opposition more. That’s it from me, lads. Go out and smash it.”
This is more or less what Rafa benitez said to his men at halftime of this match. I think. Just like Liverpool’s ghost goal against Chelsea, this may or may not have actually happened. We’ll never know for sure.
In any case, whatever he actually said worked. Literally 15 minutes into the second half and the score line was 3-3. Understandably, the footballing world was shocked. The comeback of the century was looking like a very real possibility.
Extra time came around, and even more tactical brilliance came about as Steven Gerrard moved to right wingback to nullify Serginho on Milan’s right flank at one point.
Liverpool may have been underdogs heading into this one, but they were showing everyone that doubted them they were right where they were meant to be. When final shootout came about, Milan only scored 2 of their penalties. Liverpool scored 3.
And, on the topic of tactical brilliance, each of Liverpool’s penalty scorers was a substitute. Benitez knew what he was doing.
As you can only imagine, Liverpool’s 2005 Champions league victory sits right up there with the very best matches of all time. It’s widely considered to be THE best final in the competition’s long history, which tells you all you really need to know.
The night was theirs and theirs alone. They had climbed back up to reclaim that which they had claimed so many times before. And in quite extraordinary fashion.
Liverpool were kings of Europe once more.
Embed from Getty ImagesThe Legacy: The fall and rise of Liverpool FC
During the 2004/05 season, Steven Gerrard was reportedly still having doubts about whether he had made the right choice in sticking with Liverpool. We can only imagine that a Champions League winners medal did quite a bit to convince him that he made the right choice.
A dramatic FA Cup win in which he played a massive role the very next season probably helped quite a bit too. The Gerrard final.
Also, Benitez had just about gained the trust of the press as well as any of the early doubters by this point. However, the good times were never going to last forever. They did make it to the Champions league finals again in 2007 and were even matched up against AC Milan again. However, this time they came up second best.
Embed from Getty ImagesFailure to win anything beyond his first two years in charge resulted in a 6 year stay that ultimately ended in disappointment with 4 barren years in 2010.
Liverpool experienced a few ups in the years that followed. But this was coupled with a bit of a banter era. That didn’t last too long though. If you’ve been paying attention in the slightest, you’ll know that you can never write-off Liverpool for too long.
Jurgen Klopp showed up and the European powerhouse absolutely kicked back into gear. But that’s a story for another day.
Turning the clock back to 2005, Liverpool may not have been in the best shape at that point. Barely challenging for the league, fielding what many believe to be a subpar team in comparison to other elite team’s in England and across Europe for that matter.
Despite this, they fought until the very end and caused perhaps the biggest upset in European club competitions.
Since this final, in my opinion, I don’t think any final has even come close to producing the drama that occurred on that fateful night in Turkey. Perhaps no final ever will. But who knows?
Something that we do know is that we witnessed greatness that night. We witnessed a miracle. The miracle of Istanbul.
Sources
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u4LZ3KSav9U&ab_channel=DaveWaller