For all the success Liverpool have enjoyed in recent years, their 2005 Champions League win still stands out as something truly magical.

Against all the odds, the Reds fought back from 3-0 down to beat AC Milan on penalties.

Even after Jurgen Klopp delivered another European crown in 2019, and two more Premier League titles have been secured since, that night in Istanbul remains a special one in Liverpool history.

Steven Gerrard stepped up to put in his defining performance at Liverpool, dragging the Reds back into the game against a far superior Milan side.

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But while so much has been written from a Liverpool point of view, the accounts of Milan players have, understandably, been much fewer and further between.

One of the most interesting accounts, however, came from striker Hernan Crespo, who scored the Italian team’s second and third goals of the game.



Photo by Tom Jenkins/Getty Images

Like most of his Milan teammates, Crespo was unstoppable in the first-half.

The Argentine finished at close range for 2-0 before dinking home one of the great, lost Champions League final goals.

With Liverpool back level, Crespo was taken off with five minutes of normal time remaining.

In that moment I understood, it’s not tonight.”

Asked to comment on Gerrard’s performance on the night, Crespo admitted that he had been so focused on how Milan could have thrown away the win, he barely registered Liverpool at all.

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“I want to be clear, losing was so big that I never focused on them,” he replied.

But, day by day you recover and try to focus on another challenge.”

As Liverpool supporters, it is not often you are forced to think about that night in Istanbul from a Milan perspective.

But the former Argentina international was not part of the team who got revenge by beating Liverpool in Athens in 2007, as he was only on loan from Chelsea.

In the summer of 2005 he returned to England, facing Liverpool once again as he scored 13 goals in 42 games for Chelsea.

From there, Crespo spent three years with Milan’s great rivals Inter, before seeing out his career with spells at Genoa and Parma.
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