The 2005 Champions League final is one of the most mythologised events in football history, with the sheer number of people who claimed to have been present on that famous night in Istanbul now approximately the population of Turkey. In the twelve years since, we have ben drip-fed details of what happened in the Liverpool dressing room: the pre-match superstition of refusing to touch the trophy on the way out; the half-time chaos as Rafa Benitez subbed off Djimi Traore before realising Steve Finnan was injured, as You'll Never Walk Alone from the Liverpool end filtered into the dressing room.
We've had plenty of details from after the final too, especially this doozy from Didi Hamann, of sharing a fag in the shower with the club's owner.
Speaking to the Mirror, Djibril Cisse has given us a new detail: namely Steven Gerrard's intervention at half-time. It had long been assumed that Steven Gerrard either did or said something at half-time, as Liverpool trailed 3-0 and were staring into the face of an enormous humiliation, but the exact details had gone unreported up to now.
Now, thanks to Cisse, we know what happened. Gerrard kicked Rafa Benitez and the rest of the coaching staff out of the dressing room to issue a rallying call to his teammates. Cisse recalls what he said:
Steven Gerrard speech in Istanbul
At half time, Rafa did a speech. He tried to boost and tried to put us back in the game. He was really optimistic. But what really changed the game was Stevie’s speech.
He asked nicely to the staff to be alone with the players and he said that he is a Liverpool kid, always been his club, he didn’t want to see his club being like this, being humiliated and he said if we scored in the first 15 minutes we would win the game and he’s the guy who scored the first goal.
He gave the best captain’s speech I ever heard in my career. He asked everyone to leave, including Rafa, he just asked to be with the players. That’s what gave us the power to go and win the game. You need to have some balls to do this.
Gerrard held true to his word, and within the first fifteen minutes of the second half, they had two back, and were a minute away from Xabi Alonso's equaliser.
[Mirror]
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