That's why Rafa came to me in March saying that he wouldn't give me a new contract. He said I had a difficult operation and I would be 32 soon, so he would rather buy someone younger. I didn't want to leave, I loved Liverpool, but at least Rafa was fair to me. It was better than if he had encouraged me and said that we would see after the season.

That would have made me even more disappointed. If it was worth trying. Nothing changes in this respect," he said. So I started training again. I wanted to play, but also to show other teams that I could still be a good player.

I gradually got in good shape. I'd love to play a match! Benítez must be blind, if he can't see it. I was given far less chances than I expected and deserved.

He chooses those who he believes will help the team as much as possible in the match. That is also why he changed the team so often. We played in a different alignment 50 times in a row. No exaggeration. Sometimes we won and next time he changed two guys anyway.

He kept everyone on the team constantly alert. After my injury, he let me play once from the beginning of a match against Newcastle which was very tough.

I expected him to let me play at home in a match where we would be attacking. Instead he put me on the pitch against a strong team in an already lost game.

After 75 minutes, he took me out. Then I always played only for a while and he left me out of the game completely in the last rounds of the league. I thought that he would take the 16 who had played in the last match, plus Gerrard and Garcia. Honestly, I was angry and on the Friday after a Wednesday match in Istanbul I bought a ticket home to Prague.

I was very surprised when I was chosen for the team. Compared to the match against Aston Villa, Rafa exchanged me for left back Stevie Warnock.

I thought about it and he needed me as an offensive midfielder on the bench more than Stevie. He used his down-to-earth approach again. On the morning of the match, our agent Pavel Paska called Milan saying that Liverpool had agreed he would leave for Valencia the next season.

Moreover, his substitute Cissé scored two goals against Aston Villa. We were very happy when we saw that Bary was selected for the main team.

I was happy to be able to enjoy such a match at least from the bench and keep my fingers crossed for the team.

After all, this was really my last chance to win something big at the club level. No stress. I said hi to the substitutes from Milan, I watched their team where I respected a lot of the guys, I watched how the coaches behaved, I made jokes and laughed with others. I didn't even have any family or friends in Istanbul.

I didn't take a single ticket we were offered. I left them to my teammates. I was already looking forward to going home. It was enough for me to be a part of a team which could win the Champions league.

The day before it was my birthday and I only perceived my nomination as a nice gift from Benítez I didn't quite understand what was going on. Harry Kewell limped off the field because he had injured his groin and Rafa pointed at me.

We had only been playing for 23 minutes. We were losing and before I knew it, I was playing in the Champions League final.

Before halftime, we conceded two more goals by Hernán Crespo, and we were devastated. No first names, no explanations, no comments on the first half of the game. He just told Djimi Traoré, our left back, that he was out of the game.

Coming in from the pitch, it was just us players sitting in the changing room for a few minutes and there was absolute silence. There was always someone saying something in moments like this; today nobody was talking.

It was as if someone had died. We had our heads down, wandering in our thoughts that after 10 days of preparation for perhaps the biggest match of our lives, we were halfway through and the score was Then the coach broke the depressing atmosphere.

Djimi looked at him sadly, took off his jersey and went to the shower. We could hear the shower from around the corner while Benitez was giving further instructions. Didi Hamann was meant to start warming up, because he was going to replace Djimi to guard Kaká who was playing extremely well.

Benitez spoke calmly of the situation we had put ourselves in; one which could turn into a great disgrace. Without too many words, he told us that we must not concede another goal.

That it would be terrible for our whole season and it would diminish our finals appearance. We must score and then we would see. Maybe it would make our fans happy, it would make AC uncertain and we would have a chance to do something about the result.

There was panic at that moment. It was a few minutes before going back on the pitch. He immediately sent an assistant into the shower to bring Traoré back. Djimi thought he was joking.

He came running from the shower, put on his shorts, jersey and he tied his cleats. Meanwhile, Benítez made a mistake and crossed Finnan off on the board and chose Cissé instead. He told him to warm up immediately.

I see. Hamann, Traore, Cissé So, he told Cissé that he wasn't playing yet. As we walked out of the changing rooms, Rafa grabbed Traoré's shoulders and said, "Don't worry about it, it was a tactical decision, we believe in you. I don't know what Djimi thought about it.

The second half started just as Benítez planned. All the moves he made were brilliant. AC Milan thought they would just finish the game while we had a plan B. We started playing with a system. I played the right back, both offensive and defensive. I have never done that before or after this match.

In Milan Riise had the same role. They say we were encouraged by our fans. There were about 40, of them in Istanbul. During the break, despite the deficit, they started playing our anthem "You'll Never Walk Alone," which seems magical due to the way the match finished.

But to be honest, we didn't hear them. The changing rooms were inside the stadium, some 30 meters down the corridor and a few steps to the left. Stevie Gerrard told us about the fans before we set out on the pitch again. He said we must try again, at least for our supporters.

Score at least a goal and let them have some joy. And where else should we give our best but in the Champions League final? Such a result can not be considered a coincidence.

To score three goals in a game is challenging and a lot of things must come together. To only have the second half to achieve it is almost impossible. That time in Istanbul when we were going to the changing room at halftime, we conceded a goal from Hernán Crespo a minute before. That goal was excellent; an amazing pass from Kaka.

On the other hand, just before we conceded the second goal, Nesta from Milan played it with his hand. It was a clear penalty that the referee missed. Instead of the score being we were suddenly losing Sure, AC was playing great, but we weren't bad either.

I've experienced a few unexpected rallies in my career. You will laugh, but the most striking one was in Příbram. It was in the third league playing for the Slavia B team.

Twenty minutes before the end we led and in the 99th minute we were losing Since then, I knew that everything was possible in football. I later realized that less than a year before Istanbul, I had been a direct participant in another famous rally.

We played a fantastic match against the Netherlands at Euro. No one who saw it could forget. Although we were losing after 20 minutes, we were confident. Both teams played great football, no one was defending, there were beautiful actions alternating on both sides.

Soon, Honza Koller lowered the score, then Bary scored, Méďa Nedvěd hit the crossbar. And finally, I was lucky that Karel Poborský passed me the ball in front of an empty goal.

Or do you remember the Euro in and the match against Russia that decided our promotion from the group? There we led and the substitutes were warming up and just having fun. We were relaxed. I was wondering how I'd like to play and help our team.

And suddenly it was , And as we sat on the bench, nobody suddenly wanted to go on the pitch. Just as I got to the pitch, I saw that Bezačstnych kicked the ball to the crossbar.

It was a few minutes before the end. I thought the match was lost. But another Russian made a mistake and let the ball get to Luboš Kubík, who passed it to me, and I scored.

Sometimes football can bring nice surprises. Incredible rallies happen all of the time, even in the Champions League. Anyone can do it against anybody in one match. This happened to me twice with the national team and once with Příbram.

Riise was doing a throw-in from the left, the ball went to the middle to Didi Hamann and I realized that I was free. I shouted at him and he passed the ball.

There was no one else closer to the goal so as the defenders were getting closer to me, I tried it. I was more technical, shooting closer to the goal. But at that moment I felt a lot of energy and I thought I would just try it. So what? I'll risk it. That shot suited me. The player feels it right after the shoe touches the ball.

Liverpool fans knew I had taken lots of shots like this, but they usually ended up somewhere near the 77th row. This one was perfect. In a split second, I knew it was flying towards the goal and it had a chance. And it did. The ball went towards the goal post.

Luckily Bary managed to avoid the ball. He told me it touched his shorts, but I told him probably not. Not this one. Yes, he could have stopped the ball and finished it himself, but it was so strong that it would have torn his leg off. After I saw that I kicked it well, I was overwhelmed with joy.

It's not lost yet! I spread my arms like Jack on the Titanic and sprinted so fast that the boys couldn't even catch me. I put everything into that celebration, and my heart was filled with emotions.

I didn't want those seconds of happiness ever to end. I was very happy that I scored this goal. I headed toward our bench because I couldn't run to the Liverpool fans behind our goal. But I celebrated basically alone, because the teammates sensed that now, right now, was the moment they called momentum in England.

Now we had a chance, now we were pumped. The Milan guys looked at each other and didn't know what to do. Louis Garcia immediately took the ball and rushed to the center circle. Come on, let's play! Three minutes later our next action ended with a foul on Stevie, who was already on his own and he was about to shoot.

Honestly, the referee didn't have to call the penalty. Nest's hand from the first half was clearer. But Stevie was going well after Bary's pass.

He got the ball and was aggressively running towards the goal. He sincerely wanted to score and Gattuso reached for him. But the referee blew his whistle. Nothing unambiguously fraudulent like Maradona's divine hand or when Thierry Henry scored a goal with his hand against Ireland. The situation was such that one referee would whistle it and another wouldn't.

They knew they lost the game elsewhere. He hadn't made two consecutive penalties in the league, so Xabi Alonso had to do it. He was only 23 at that time, and the nerves hit him. Dida punched away the shot. He was there when I scored, in the situation before the penalty and in Xabi's successful shot under the crossbar.

Within six minutes the score was even. The rest of the 30 minutes we played perfectly balanced football. We wanted to keep it where it was, because such a development was great for us.

In the overtime, however, AC came back stronger. They took a good turn, sent Serginha and Tomasson ahead and started playing well again. The culmination was Shevchenko's chance, which Jerzy Dudek incredibly stopped twice. When Benítez told me in March that he was no longer counting on me, it was the best thing that could have happened before the finals.

I started to work much harder. If I had known I'd stay in Liverpool, I wouldn't have been so excited about every training session. But I had three months to show that I was still a good player, and one of the ways was to work as hard as possible. I might have said that I was injured for half a year, so I had to work into it slowly and not push anything.

But I didn't get any concessions. Benítez didn't care about me. It was up to me to convince him. In the playoffs of the Champions League he sent me into the game quite regularly, albeit only as a substitute, but at least it kept me alert.

It was better than just working hard and not playing. This is how a good coach can be identified. They must be able to keep the players motivated.

At the same time, the players must understand that there may be someone better in their place at the moment and they must wait for their chance again. I always understood this, so everywhere I played I was relatively popular. I took things as they were and tried to work on myself and not complain.

I believe this positive attitude came back to me when I scored important goals or was part of winning teams. The more I gave to football, and the better I kept to my daily routine and did things honestly and correctly, the better I got.

Success and form came. When I signed in with Lens six months in advance, I thought I could relax, and I was terrible. Absolutely terrible. We had a great team. Poborák won the league almost by himself and I felt that the guys didn't really need me anymore.

After we dropped out in the semifinals of the UEFA Cup against Bordeaux, I considered the end of the season more like saying goodbye to my friends in Prague. I was on the bubble for Mr. Uhrin to take me. And when I knew I was getting worse and worse and wanted to return, it was hard to get to where I was before.

At that time, we were going to the last selection match in Blšany on our way from the national team training camp. Vladimir Smicer Miracle of Istanbul Liverpool Signed 10 x 8 inch football photo from the Champions League final in Istanbul where Smicer got the equaliser for The UEFA Champions League Final was the final match of the —05 UEFA Champions League, Europe's primary club football competition.

The showpiece event was contested between Liverpool of England and Milan of Italy at the Atatürk Stadium in Istanbul, Turkey on 25 May Liverpool, who had won the competition four times, were appearing in their sixth final, and their first since Milan, who had won the competition six times, were appearing in their second final in three years and tenth overall.

Milan were regarded as favourites before the match and took the lead within the first minute through captain Paolo Maldini.

Milan striker Hernan Crespo added two more goals before half-time to make it 3—0. In the second half Liverpool launched a comeback and scored three goals in a dramatic six-minute spell to level the scores at 3—3, with goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladimír Smicer and Xabi Alonso.

The scores remained the same during extra time, and a penalty shoot-out was required to decide the champions.