Sport

Kenny Archer: The miracle of Istanbul justified Reds' faith

Kenny Archer

Kenny Archer

Kenny is the deputy sports editor and a Liverpool FC fan.

Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard lifting the UEFA Champions League trophy at Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul in 2005.
Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard lifting the UEFA Champions League trophy at Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul in 2005. Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard lifting the UEFA Champions League trophy at Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul in 2005.

IF you need your faith justified it helps to witness a miracle.

In comparison to many, indeed most clubs, following Liverpool FC isn’t exactly arduous.

Yet in 2004/2005 times were relatively tough.

Manchester United had been dominating domestically and had even won the European Cup in extraordinary circumstances a few years earlier.

Arsenal, the club that really knocked Liverpool off their perch, had won the title again in 1998, 2002, and 2004 – famously ‘Invincible’ on that last occasion.

Chelsea – Chelsea! – were League champions for the first time in half a century, with a powerhouse side assembled at huge expense, looking like being top dogs for years more to come under the management of the genius who had led Porto the Uefa Cup in 2003 and the European Cup/ Champions League in 2004.

Heck, as the season moves to its conclusion even Everton would finish above the Reds, for the first time in 18 years, when the Toffees had last won the League.

So the decision made the previous autumn by myself and a great mate to attend every Liverpool Champions League home game that season was an expression of faith over financial sense – but one which was richly rewarded.

I have a poor memory; apart from the dramatic circumstances of the final group game against Olympiakos, I couldn’t have told you, without looking it up, which other teams were in that section (Monaco and Deportivo La Coruna, according to Google).

Yet the run to the final through the knockout stages and Istanbul itself was unforgettable.

Just over 15 years on from that decider, I can’t quite believe I’ve never been back to that wonderful city. The Champions League Final was due to return there this Saturday but much more serious matters have postponed that at the very least.

However, the sights and sounds from May 25 2005 still seem fresh to me, if not the days before and afterwards.

I’m pretty sure the Imodium was actually required on the return leg of the 13-hour coach journey to the holiday resort (whose name I can’t remember) in southern Turkey where we’d flow to a few days beforehand. However, no one would have been surprised at any Liverpool fan needing that particular medication ahead of facing the might of AC Milan.

To say they were star-studded was an understatement – a defence of Cafu, Stam, Nesta, and the living legend Paolo Maldini, a player whom I adored. Midfield was Pirlo, Gattuso, Seedorf, and Kaka. Up front Crespo and Shevchenko.

My holey memory has some benefits: I’d completely forgotten that goalkeeper Dida had been the hero of the 2003 Champions League Final, saving three penalties in the shoot-out to defeat Juventus, which eased tensions (spoiler alert) as the clock ticked past midnight in Turkish time.

Only Steven Gerrard might – just might – have got into that side.

It was a truth universally acknowledged that Liverpool didn’t have a prayer (even though they’d deservedly defeated Chelsea, conquerors of both Barcelona and Bayern Munich, in the semi-final thanks to Luis Garcia’s net-buster at Anfield).

When Rafa Benitez’s men went 3-0 down by half-time, with the third goal beautifully created by Kaka and finished with cruel coolness by Crespo (on loan from Chelsea) moments after Liverpool had been denied a blatant penalty, everyone knew, just knew, that was that. Game, set, and match.

Except it wasn’t.

What happened next – three great goals inside a stunning six-minute spell (including Xabi Alonson cheekily playing a one-two with Dida), that still incredible double save by Jerzy Dudek from Shevchenko, and Vladimir Smicer – Vladimir Blooming Smicer! - netting again to score what would prove the winning spot-kick – continues to give hope to everyone.

Especially Liverpool.

There’s no doubting that Istanbul inspired Liverpool’s comeback against Barcelona, also from 3-0 down, in last season’s Champions League semi-final second leg, which was the real winning of the trophy (with all due respect to Tottenham Hotspur).

Yet as amazing as that 2019 comeback was, the Liverpool of recent years is a great team.

That the 2005 side won was an achievement so astonishing that even some Manchester United supporters sent me messages of congratulation. Well, one. Another simply said ‘Unbelievable’, which doesn’t count as congratulation in my book.

Forget the ongoing weeing contests about which was ‘the best comeback’; the obvious answer is ‘The one in which your team won’.

However, although Manchester United’s late, late show, their turnaround to triumph in the 1999 final was absolutely breathtaking, they were the best team in the tournament that year; Liverpool were underdogs at every stage in 2005. Certainly they were expected to lose against Milan, and Chelsea, and Juventus – and probably even against Bayer Leverkusen in the first knockout round.

Only the moonscape setting of the Ataturk ‘Olympic’ Stadium explains the out-of-this-world outcome.

No one there could believe it - apart perhaps from the mysterious well-spoken older man in a straw hat who calmly assured me at half-time that ‘We’ll win this’.

The uncertainty of recent times has been and remains horrible, yet it’s the uncertainty about sport which draws us in.

Sure, Liverpool were meant to lose to Milan – and to Chelsea, and to Juve, and even to Leverkusen. But they didn’t. Not once in those seven games. Not even after being 3-0 down at half-time to a magnificent Milan side.

Hope is a double-edged sword, of course.

Football can always cause you unexpected pain.

Liverpool suffered ‘Crystanbul’ in 2014, somehow losing a 3-0 lead at Selhurst Park in their penultimate league game as they challenged for the title (even if the damage had been done by slipping to a 2-0 home defeat by – who else? – Chelsea in the previous match).

Obviously far more consequences sadly ensued from the last game Liverpool played this year (so far), the Champions League exit against Atletico Madrid in March – but as a supporter I still lay awake at nights for weeks afterwards, wondering ‘How did we not win? How did we not even draw? How the hell did we lose that?’

That last question haunted Milan players, management, and fans for years following Istanbul, even long after they gained a measure of revenge by beating the Reds in the 2007 decider in Athens.

You really never know in sport.

Liverpool, who were well on course to become the earliest ever winners of the Premier League, still haven’t won that. If and when they do they’ll be the latest, although it will be well worth the wait.

But it still won’t top Istanbul.