The defensive worker Dietmar Hamann (left) led Liverpool FC against Milan with Gennaro Gattuso to an incredible victory.
Photo: imago images / Ulmer
Recently there was a reunion with Rafael Benítez. It’s not that far from Anfield Road to Goodison Park. A quarter of an hour’s walk through Stanley Park. Less than five minutes by bus via Walton Lane – a journey at a local public transport tariff into an immortal past. The Spaniard Benítez has been coaching the blues from Everton since this season, but he has become famous at the city’s larger football club, the reds from Liverpool FC. “Rafa’s relationship with this club is incredibly positive,” says Jürgen Klopp, Benítez ‘successor to successor to the Reds. But he still liked the fact that his team won 4-1 in the Premier League last Thursday against the man to whom the Reds owe one of the greatest successes in their recent club history.
It was Rafael Benítez who sat on the Liverpool bench in the craziest Champions League final ever in May 2005. “Was it the best game ever? Others should rate that, “says the German national player Dietmar Hamann, who was also involved at the time, but it is definitely” the most incredible “.
This Tuesday, Liverpool FC will be making a guest appearance at the end of this year’s group stage in the European football circus at AC Milan. Milan versus Liverpool – that was also the schedule on May 25, 2005 in the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul. Milan put in a first half that is hard to imagine better. Paolo Maldini scored the 1-0 after less than a minute, while Hernán Crespo scored two more goals just before the break. 0: 3 at halftime – something like boredom spread in the stadium.
Liverpool coach Rafael Benítez comes up with the weird idea to replace defensive worker Dietmar Hamann. The Bavarian has passed the peak of his career, is no longer an option for the new national coach Jürgen Klinsmann and also no longer has a regular place with the Reds. What else should he do? On a DVD with the beautiful title “15 minutes that shook the world”, the following sentences were put into Benítez’s mouth in a re-enacted address in the cabin: “Follow the herb!” And: “He will be like Rommel in his tank!”
You don’t have to translate that, it didn’t happen that way either. Hamann, Liverpool’s favorite herb, will later say that nobody in the dressing room believed in a turnaround. It is also thanks to him that there is one. Steven Gerrard scores the first goal after nine minutes, Hamann prepares the second two minutes later with his pass to Vladimir Šmicer. Another four minutes later, after minimal physical contact with Gennaro Gattuso, Gerrard fell as spectacularly as he would never dare to do in an English stadium. No matter, referee Manuel Mejuto González decides on a penalty, which Xabi Alonso converts to 3: 3 in the margin.
Then nothing happens for a long time – until Hamann is the first Liverpool player to score on penalties, although he had previously broken his metatarsus, but the adrenaline numbs all pain. Three minutes later, Andrij Shevchenko spooned Milan’s last penalty against the hand of Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek. 3: 2. The Reds celebrate the Miracle of Istanbul.
Two years later, the two teams meet again in the final, this time in Athens, not that far from Istanbul. Milan won 2-1, but who can still remember that? This Tuesday is only important for AC Milan, who have to win in order to have any chance of advancing
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