The Covid-19 outbreak means that the return of European football’s grandest stage to Istanbul is delayed, but that only gives us more time to appreciate the last time the city hosted the Champions League final, fifteen years ago.
Both clubs were European giants, but they were yet to meet in the competiton’s history. When they finally did, there was a large gap between their present circumstances. AC Milan had finished second in Serie A, eased through a group containing Barcelona, Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk, swatting aside Manchester United and local rivals Internazionale before edging past PSV Eindhoven to get into the final. While Liverpool had waited twenty years to make it to another European Cup final, Milan had won theirs just two years prior – captain Paolo Maldini’s fourth victory.
“Without a shadow of a doubt [Milan were the better side],” said Dietmar Hamann. “Anybody who disputes that needs to see a doctor… this was a world XI. I think you can make a case for them to be the best team in the last three or four decades. Man-for-man, yes, they were the better side… but that doesn’t mean they have the better team.
“That was always one thing; we had a great spirit, we had great togetherness, and we knew when the chips were down, we could rely on ourselves, and we trusted each other. After beating two very good teams in the quarters [Juventus] and the semis [Chelsea], we were confident that we could give AC Milan a game, or even beat them.”
Jamie Carragher agreed: “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 [Benitez] was desperate to prove the doubters wrong. Stevie [Gerrard] and I certainly were. It gave us the extra yard when it mattered on so many occasions.”
“We were the underdogs but that suited us as a group”, Djimi Traore adds. “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.”
Benitez had come up with a surprising set-up for the final: a 4-4-2 with Gerrard in midfield and Harry Kewell playing off of Milan Baros in attack, leaving out defensive midfielder Hamann, who had been superb in the semi-final.
“I was surprised by our team selection,” says Carragher. “We’d got to the final by being a tough nut to crack but this team was more expansive… Milan were not expecting Harry Kewell to play but neither were we!”
“Rafa and I agreed it was crucial we didn’t allow spaces to open up in the midfield,” says assistant Pako Ayesteran. “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.”
Benitez expanded on this himself: “Against Milan, much of our defensive preparation centred on Kaka. We knew all about the dangers he posed, of course, how lethal his surges through the centre could be, and we knew that in [Andriy] Shevchenko and [Hernan] Crespo, Milan had two of the best strikers in the world for him to supply. As a trio, they functioned superbly well together. Without Hamann patrolling in front of the back four, we would have to look to Xabi Alonso and Steven Gerrard to control Kaka. We would need to be compact and, crucially, we would need to be first to the second balls.
“In attack, our idea was to use the quality we had. It would be impossible to stop their counter-attacks if we did not have the ball. Alonso and Gerrard offered us the best chance of doing that, with Kewell playing between the lines. We knew we would need to be in control of possession to have any chance of victory, and we felt that playing the Australian just behind Milan Baros – rather than Hamann as a third central midfielder – would enable us to do that. Baros’ movement relentlessly dragged defences out of shape. Kewell would be able to dictate play and orchestrate our attacks in the space he created. His responsibilities, though, did not end there: he would have a second job too.
“At the centre of Milan’s 4-3-1-2 formation stood Andrea Pirlo, the conductor of their attacking orchestra. Kewell would have to close him down as soon as we lost possession, staying close to him, pressuring him, staying alert for second balls, so the Italian international did not have the time, or the opportunity, to look for his forwards breaking past our defence.
“Like Juventus in that season’s quarter-finals, Milan played a diamond shape in midfield, leaving it to their full-backs, particularly Cafu, to provide width.
“That system had two consequences. First, when we were not in possession, our wingers would have to come inside, playing narrow so as to make up the numbers in midfield, to prevent Milan overloading Gerrard and Alonso. And second, it meant we had the potential to play two against one in wide areas when we were going forward.
“That was the key to our attacking plan: to switch play quickly from midfield to isolate one of their full-backs. On one side, John Arne Riise and Traore would try to expose Cafu, and on the other, Steve Finnan and Luis Garcia would double up on Paolo Maldini.
“In the middle of the pitch, Harry Kewell, Gerrard and Luis Garcia, roaming inside from the right wing, would look to exploit the spaces on either side of Pirlo. The Italian was a wonderful passer of the ball, but he was not a particularly mobile defensive midfield shield. To have those players breaking past him into the box as balls came in from wide areas represented, we thought, our best chance of success.”
Within a minute, these meticulous plans fell apart. Kaka drifted towards the right and was tripped by Traore. Pirlo sent in a cross which was met by Maldini on the volley. 1-0. The fastest goal ever scored in a European Cup final.
“Conceding so early in the game killed the plan,” says Traore. “Our strength on that run had been defending and keeping things tight. The early goal hurt our confidence and gave Milan a big boost.”
Benitez’s gameplan had been built around stopping Milan’s attack by pushing them back into defence, however, now Milan had the lead, they no longer needed a second goal, meaning they could comfortably sit back and welcome Liverpool onto them.
The goal presented the opposite problem for Liverpool. At 0-0 they could squeeze and keep tight, but now they were behind they had to chase after Milan to win the ball back, opening up the space that Pirlo and Kaka flourished in.
Kewell did a pretty terrible job on Pirlo. The Australian often let him go free and, even when he did get close, Pirlo was able to glide away from him and pick out a pass. Time and again, Pirlo was picking up the ball at the base of the midfield and sending long balls over the top for Hernan Crespo and Andriy Shevchenko in behind Liverpool’s backline.
Crespo and Shevchenko were superb, splitting wide to occupy all four of Liverpool’s backline. The Ukrainian in particular, a student of Valeriy Lobanovskyi at Dynamo Kiev, was a complete forward, pulling wide right to race down the wing, stretching Liverpool, and sending in crosses to his Argentinian teammate.
Pirlo’s ability to find space meant he was able to pick out pinpoint passes along the turf too. Gerrard and Alonso were caught between a rock and a hard place: fail to push up and get tight to Gennaro Gattuso and Clarence Seedorf and Pirlo would pass into them, but meet the central midfielders in the middle and he would pass into the feet of Kaka behind them.
Liverpool remained tight between the lines, but Pirlo finding Kaka would force one of their centre-backs to step out to meet the Brazilian, opening up space for Crespo and Shevchenko to attack.
Even when Pirlo was covered, Milan could still play forward as Seedorf would drop in alongside him.
Kewell soon went off injured, but Benitez doubled down on his original plan, bringing on Vladimir Smicer in his place and moving Garcia into the middle behind Baros.
“I honestly don’t think Milan were three goals better than us in that first half,” Hamann recalls. Despite the early setback, Liverpool were in the game, however it was very much a classic clash between English and Italian teams of this era: Liverpool were huffing and puffing to fight their way into contention, but Milan were controlling the match, barely breaking a sweat as they toyed with the Reds, forcing them into chasing them.
Liverpool found some joy in hitting passes in behind Alessandro Nesta and Jaap Stam for Baros to chase, the Czech’s tireless running ensuring the centre-backs could never settle with him at their heels.
“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,” says Carragher. “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.”
The decision to play Gerrard in the centre of midfield is retrospectively considered a defensive mistake, although, considering they were outnumbered in the middle, he does a solid job. It is instead in attack that his loss was most felt. The captain was the only truly world-class attacker that Liverpool had, but the threat of Kaka meant that Gerrard was nearly always sat deep in midfield rather than pushing forward to join Garcia, Baros and Riise.
Milan were well and truly the better team yet they were perhaps fortunate not to concede a penalty at 1-0 when Nesta went to ground, completely missed his challenge, but nonetheless stopped the ball with his arm. Maldini immediately recouped the loose ball and Milan were on the counter-attack. Alonso pushed forward to close down Pirlo but the Italian found Kaka between the lines behind the Spaniard. Kaka spread the ball out to Shevchenko and he squared it to Crespo to finish.
Minutes later Kaka twirled away from Gerrard and picked out an inch-perfect through ball in behind the Liverpool defence – close enough to get Carragher to attempt to cut it out, but just out of reach. Crespo gave the pass the finish it deserved, poking the ball with the outside of his boot past Jerzy Dudek.
Liverpool’s players saw little way back into the game.
“It was probably the most empty I’ve felt in my career as a football player and… I didn’t see a way back,” recalled Hamann.
“You question yourself and ask, ‘Did that really happen?,” said Carragher. “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.”
“The mood in the dressing room was very down,” recalled Traore, who had improved so much and worked so hard throughout the season only to be responsible for Milan’s opening goal. “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.”
“‘We could lose this 5-0 or 6-0’,” thought Antonio Nunez. “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.”
“Perhaps, at 2-0, you can make a few tweaks but this needed something drastic to save us,” said Gerrard. “He’s always got plans, Rafa, but I can’t imagine that he’d envisaged this happening. He had to think quickly.”
Benitez had decided on his plan after Crespo’s first. Traore was ordered into the shower, only to be recalled after it emerged Steve Finnan had picked up an injury. Traore, Carragher and Sami Hyypia would form a back three, giving them a spare man to combat Milan’s two strikers just as they had against Juventus earlier in the competition.
Ahead of them would be a box in midfield. Hamann was introduced for Finnan, playing alongside Alonso at the base of the midfield, allowing Gerrard to push forward into an attacking role alongside Garcia. Liverpool would no longer be outnumbered in the middle: Alonso and Hamann would control Kaka, while Gerrard and Garcia would get either side of Pirlo.
Out wide, with greater defensive cover, Riise would push into attack to force back Cafu and Smicer would move inside to add another man around Pirlo, while in defence they could tuck in when the ball went down the opposite flank, ensuring there was no spare Milan man in midfield.
Liverpool would be playing in a 3-4-2-1. “We hadn’t played it before,” said Gerrard. “But Rafa’s decisiveness gave us a lift because at least there was a plan.”
Locked away in the changing room, Benitez and coaches Pako Ayesteran and Alex Miller were busy rallying the players for the second half, while outside the supporters were singing a slower-than-usual version of the club anthem. “That rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone was emotional,” says Neil Mellor, who wasn’t included in the squad but still travelled to Istanbul. “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.”
Milan started the second half well, but Liverpool were looking more dangerous. With the back three spread out across the pitch, Carragher frequently pushing forward into Milan’s half, they could switch play and stretch the narrow Milan side.
Just under ten minutes into the half, Liverpool countered down the left, passed the ball back inside, spread the ball towards the right, then changed their mind and went back again, Alonso spreading the ball out to Riise high down the left. He whipped in a cross that was blocked by Cafu, only for the rebound to fall back to him, sending in another.
With Baros and Garcia occupying Nesta and Stam, Gerrard made a run, untracked by Pirlo, between the two to meet Riise’s cross, deftly flicking it into the net. “The header was instinctive,” says Gerrard. “I went for accuracy rather than power because the cross was that good.”
Two minutes later, Liverpool were again in possession and using Hamann and Alonso at the base of the midfield to switch sides. Baros was caught offside in the build-up but the referee played on as Milan came away with the ball, only for them to then immediately gift the ball back to Liverpool – Traore stepping in to intercept their attempt at releasing Crespo down the right.
Liverpool again looked to Riise to cross the ball but it was deflected out by Gattuso. With Kaka taking a break to play with his socks, Alonso ran across to receive a quick throw-in and passed inside to Hamann, which drew the pressure of Seedorf. Hamann simply squared the ball to Smicer, who now had space ahead of him to stride into and fire a shot inside Dida’s post – the big Brazilian tumbling to the ground rather than diving to reach for it.
“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,” remembers Smicer. “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.
“The same man ten 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.” It was clearly the right decision – the perfect send-off for a talented player who had endured an injury-plagued spell at the club since his move from Lens.
The momentum was now well and truly in Liverpool’s favour. Looking shell-shocked, Milan gave the ball away straight from kick-off and continued like this, barely able to keep hold of the ball.
Minutes later, Smicer spread the ball to Carragher, who, again with space ahead of him, strode forward and passed the ball into Baros. As soon as Carragher went to release the ball, Gerrard began his perfectly-timed sprint from midfield. Baros backheeled the ball into his path with Gattuso pulling at his shirt, unable to make up the ground. Gattuso was perhaps fortunate to avoid a red card, but Liverpool had their equaliser, Alonso scrambling to meet the rebound after Dida saved his penalty.
Now on equal terms, Gerrard dropped back deeper to help shore up the midfield. Liverpool were in the ascendancy but they had done a lot more running than Milan. Having spent most of the time chasing the game, Liverpool were beginning to wilt in the Turkish heat, whereas Milan were now being woken up out of their stupor.
Shevchenko’s brilliant dribbling earned Milan two good chances, but it wasn’t until the 85th minute that Carlo Ancelotti began to make changes.
As Benitez made his third and final substitution, taking off Baros, who had done a lot of running for the cause and was now on a booking, for Djibril Cisse, Ancelotti made a double substitution, bringing on Jon Dahl Tomasson and Serginho for Crespo and Seedorf.
Tomasson was a like-for-like change, albeit more of an aerial threat than Crespo, but Serginho’s arrival signalled a bigger change: Maldini would now tuck inside to form a back three with Nesta and Stam, Gattuso would drop in next to Pirlo, while Cafu and Serginho pushed forward to become wing-backs, forcing back Riise and Smicer just as Liverpool had done to them. It was a 3-4-1-2.
As soon as Benitez spotted the change, he was on his feet and giving instructions to his men. Smicer, who had turned 32 the day before, was unlikely to be able to deal with the Brazilian bombing down the flank, so he swapped positions with Gerrard, now playing in his fourth different role of the game. Liverpool’s captain was fantastic at right-back, barely allowing Serginho to get in a cross and frequently winning it back with crunching tackles to put Milan on the back foot again.
The addition of Serginho was clearly a good idea – Tomasson barely missed one of his crosses and Shevchenko met one only to be denied by Dudek’s miraculous double save – but Gerrard largely nullified the change.
Liverpool were exhausted though, both Carragher and Smicer going down with cramp, and they dropped off deeper and deeper to cope. Wave after wave of Milan attacks hit the Liverpool defence, but they weren’t breached, digging deep to reach the penalty shoot-out.
As the teams prepared for the penalties, Carragher could be seen manically yelling at Dudek, while the Polish goalkeeper seemed to be floating on air, perhaps in a flow state after his incredible saves against Shevchenko. Carragher was telling him to remember the 1984 final, where Bruce Grobelaar had helped Bruno Conti and Francesco Graziani to miss their penalties by making a mockery of the situation, wobbling his knees in comic fright.
As each Milan player came forward to take their penalty, a smiling Dudek would come out to meet them with the ball, sometimes dropping it to force them to collect it closer to the goal, all making him seem bigger in the goalframe. Goalkeeping coach José Manuel Ochotorena kept records of all Milan’s penalty takers and would frantically signal to Dudek on where to dive, while the Pole would dance and jump about on his line as each man ran up to take their spot-kick.
Serginho skied his over the bar and Dudek – laughably far off his line – saved Pirlo’s poor attempt, but Tomasson and Kaka scored theirs. Only Riise had missed for Liverpool though, so Shevchenko – already impossibly denied by Dudek during the game – had to score. Dudek danced on his line and dived low to his right, but he stuck out his left hand, parrying the ball back towards the Ukrainian.
Liverpool were champions of Europe for a fifth time, and now the European Cup was theirs for keeps.
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