LFC : Istanbul and a sleepless night

It was 2:35 AM, 26th May 2005 in Kuala Lumpur. I woke up 10 minutes before that and had some snacks with me, this was to keep me 'fresh'. The event was hundreds of kilometers away from me and the fact that I had to go to work in a couple of hours time doesn't hindered me to sit in front on my television set. It was a special night indeed. It was the night when I was about to witness a history in the making, it was the night full of emotions, it was the night when I felt inspired and it was the night after a long wait, 21 years after the last time we experienced it. It was the night when the men in Reds conquered Europe again!

The heroes, Dudek, Traore, Carragher, Hyypia, Finnan, Riise, Alonso, Gerrard, Luis Garcia, Kewell, Milan Baros, Scott Carson, Josemi, Didi Hamann, Antonio Nunez, Igor Biscan, Djibril Cisse and Vladimir Smicer. This was the line-up that was named in the 2005 European Champions League Final and they faced the mighty AC Milan from Italy.

Milan were the clear favorites. It was obvious when they had players like Kaka, the legendary Paolo Maldini, Clarence Seedorf, Nesta , Shevchenko and Pirlo in their starting line-up. And of course, besides Real Madrid who already won it 9 times, Milan was the only team that had won it more than Liverpool. We knew if we win it, it's gonna be for us to keep the cup!

A dream that nearly turned into a nightmare for me. In the first minute, from a free-kick taken by Pirlo, Paolo Maldini just volleyed the ball into the net. The players, the fans in the stadium and me of course were shocked! Milan lead 1-0.

Then another disaster came, Kewell had to be withdrawn when he picked up an injury and was replaced by Smicer. Milan had their lead extended and by the time the referee blew the half-time whistle they were already up by 3 goals.

I received non-stop text by my non-Liverpool fans friends and also by some of my Liverpool fans friends. Some were shocking text messages, but most of them were mocking text asking me to go to sleep. I was a laughing stock for them and they told me Liverpool will make history when they'll lose to Milan 5 or 6 nil.

I still remembered when I replied 1 text saying, " No worries, its half-time. Rafa will bring in Didi Hamann and we will score an early goal and later we will score more to win it! ".

Well, I nearly jumped out from my seat when I saw Didi Hamann by the side-lines prior to the second half. I knew if we had someone to protect the defenders, Alonso can start to orchestrate moves while Stevie G can roam more to cause trouble to Milan.

6 minutes of magical moment. Started with Stevie G and it ended with Alonso. I knew from there on that the Cup will be going back to Liverpool. And I will be one from the thousands of Liverpool fans that had just witnessed a great history event !

Liverpool made it ! The 5th European title and it was theirs to keep. Only 3 teams had won it 5 times or more and Liverpool is one of them.

The 2005 UCL Final DVD

Well, it was totally amazing. I will never forget that night. The night when Liverpool were Champions of Europe !! YNWA !