Iconic images: 'He drinks sangria…'
Throughout LFC's 125th anniversary year, Liverpoolfc.com will retrace the club's history through the striking images that plot a fascinating journey.
Eighteenth in the series is a photograph that captures the moment before the moment. The final stretch of the road to Istanbul was about to be paved...
Rafa Benitez said it was ‘unforgettable’.
For Jamie Carragher, it was ‘something else’.
Even Jose Mourinho admitted it was ‘magnificent’.
May 3, 2005, is a date that will forever be etched into the minds of Liverpudlians fortunate enough to help create or bear witness to one of the greatest atmospheres in Anfield’s rich history.
Liverpool 1-0 Chelsea (Garcia 4’).
Few impartial observers thought the Reds capable of defeating a relentless, dominant team who would, just 12 days later, finish the Premier League season as champions and 37 points above them.
Few imagined that Liverpool would progress when the draw for the Champions League semi-finals pitted them against Chelsea.
But Benitez’s players defied the odds by harnessing the immeasurable power of Anfield to secure a tense-beyond-belief 1-0 aggregate victory that made the ‘Miracle of Istanbul’ possible.
This iconic image was taken as Garcia’s decisive goal made its way towards the Kop-end net.
“Football-wise, it was the happiest night of my life,” the little Spaniard said afterwards.
“The joy was enormous, incomparable. The goal, the people, qualification. It was all a dream.”
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