More than 20 years on, Liverpool’s famous Champions League comeback over AC Milan remains one of the most stunning finals in modern football history.
But as is often the way in any team sport, the Reds’ triumph that night was not just the product of those Steven Gerrard-inspired six-minute second-half goalscoring spree, but the end result of a European campaign which repeatedly saw Rafa Benitez’s men come back from the brink.
One of the unsung heroes that season was the one-time France international Florent Sinama Pongolle, who missed the final, but had already played his part.
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Sinama Pongolloe on his part in Liverpool’s 2005 Champions League win
Steven Gerrard kisses the Champions League trophy after Liverpool’s win over AC Milan in the 2005 final in Istanbul. (Image credit: Getty Images)
When asked by FourFourTwo what the best moment of his five-year Liverpool career was, the 40-year-old replies: “I’d say Olympiacos in the final match of the 2004-05 Champions League group stage. We needed a big win to stay alive, and at half-time were losing 1-0 after a Rivaldo free-kick. We had to score three goals.
“Rafa Benitez came up to me in the dressing room and told me I was going on in the second half. I couldn’t believe it. In my 19-year-old mind, I thought, “You really think I’m going to change the outcome of this match?” But even though I hadn’t played that much, my team-mates trusted me and made me feel supported. That gave me wings.
Liverpool celebrating their incredible comeback (Image credit: Getty)
“Steven Gerrard looked for me, Harry Kewell gave me the ball and I had to live up to the confidence they’d shown in me. And that’s what happened – my first shot went in, and we came back to win and qualify for the knockout stage.”
Despite not featuring in the final, Sinama Pongolle insists he feels like a European champion,
“Absolutely,” he continues. “Without that goal against Olympiacos, who knows what would’ve happened. It was awful watching the first half of the final from the stands. The helplessness was overwhelming. Paolo Maldini scored in the first minute and we went into half-time 3–0 down.
“Everything was going wrong. I didn’t even go down to the dressing room – that moment was painful because I couldn’t help the team in any way.”
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Did that mean he felt it was impossible for his team-mates to turn the match around?
“It’s difficult to explain, but around five minutes before the second half started, the fans began singing You’ll Never Walk Alone,” he recalls. “The noise was deafening. I felt like the supporters not only wanted it – they believed it. Gerrard started that incredible fightback by scoring the first goal and within six minutes we were level at 3–3. It was pure magic.”
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