Istanbul 2005: Liverpool's Comeback From Three Down to Win European Final

The featured football story of the week comes from the archives. Istanbul, the twenty-fifth of May, 2005. The Champions League final. AC Milan against Liverpool — and at half-time, it was 3-0 to Milan. The game looked done. Except it was not.

Milan's lead was built early and then extended. Paolo Maldini scored after fifty seconds, and then two goals from Hernan Crespo made it three before the break. Liverpool went in at half-time facing a three-goal deficit in a European final, against a Milan side that had taken control inside the first minute.

The comeback began nine minutes into the second half, when Steven Gerrard headed one back. Two minutes later, Vladimir Smicer made it 3-2. Then Xabi Alonso's penalty was saved — and he buried the rebound. Three-all. In the space of a few minutes, a final that had looked settled at half-time was level, in what the episode described as the most famous forty-five minutes in European football.

There was still extra time to survive. Jerzy Dudek made a miraculous double save from Andriy Shevchenko, all arms and legs on the line, to keep Liverpool level and take the final to penalties. There, Dudek was the hero again, and Liverpool were champions of Europe.

From 3-0 down at half-time to lifting the trophy — twenty-one years on, it still does not quite make sense, which is exactly why the episode chose it. A final decided by an early goal, a three-goal lead, three goals in reply, a saved penalty followed in on the rebound, a double save in extra time, and a shootout is a sequence that needs no embellishment. It remains the archive story against which other comebacks are measured.

From the October 8 episode of The Football Briefing Room.