Liverpool Champions League heroes lost to Benfica before unique Anfield reaction

Istanbul might have been a miracle, but for his next trick Rafael Benitez knew that he had to do something really special.

Now European champions in the summer of 2005, Liverpool had set about trying to close the 37-point Premier League gap that existed between them and Chelsea, although that was always pretty unlikely.

The Blues had added another £50m worth of talent on top of what they already had, and with Liverpool still shopping in a different market under the dwindling ownership of David Moores, the squad didn't look strong enough to sustain a title challenge, not that one ever materialised.

That was pretty much out of the window by the sixth game, a 4-1 home defeat by Chelsea which had left the Reds down in 13th, and so it was to the cups that a still dizzy fanbase turned to in search of that first post-Istanbul high.

However, the League Cup campaign was to end at the first hurdle and a loss at Crystal Palace, while the Champions League group stage had been muddied by the presence of old rivals Chelsea, with Liverpool's 'country protection' status removed as the holders entered the competition via the back door.

It is a competition they love though, however they get into it.

A couple of drab and fairly bad-tempered goalless draws between the new rivals didn't exactly get pulses racing but did see the Reds get the better of the Blues in Europe again, topping the group.

That set up a last-16 tie with a Benfica side who had knocked Manchester United out of Europe in their group stage, to the delight of a Liverpool support who were impressed with what they'd seen although not daunted by the prospect now before them.

They probably should have been.

League form had improved, but a gruelling schedule which had featured the Club World Cup in Japan was beginning to take hold by the time the Lisbon trip rolled around, with Steven Gerrard only fit enough for a place on the bench in Portugal after picking up an injury in the FA Cup fifth round win over Manchester United.

Another blow would soon follow as Momo Sissoko was caught in the eye by a flailing boot from the Benfica midfielder Beto, with the problem forcing the popular Malian out for a month and ensuring he would later return in protective glasses. He was never quite the same.

The concession of a late goal to the defender Luisao deepened the darkening mood, even if the Reds' recent European heroics meant that a confident sense was still abound.

The Liverpool Echo's match report the following day spoke of grabbing the tie back two weeks later at Anfield, where the notion of a two-goal win "certainly doesn't represent mission impossible" because "Liverpool have come back from much worse situations against far more impressive opponents".

Which was true, although it was the "threat of bringing the extended post-Istanbul party to an anti-climactic end" which should have been studied more closely before the second leg.

At least Gerrard was back for that game, but try as he might he couldn't chisel his side back into the tie, with Luis Garcia, Jamie Carragher and Peter Crouch, starting in an aerially threatening but hardly mobile attack with Fernando Morientes, all missing golden chances.

They would soon regret them.

The Benfica winger Simao Sabrosa, seen the previous summer as the perfect addition for Liverpool and even rumoured to once be sitting on a stationary plane due to be bound for Merseyside, was soon to have his say.

That Liverpool Echo report from the first leg had insisted that the former Barcelona man wasn't really worth his £12m asking price as he had "done nothing to enhance his reputation", but a clever fake and then a crack into the top corner at the Kop end from 25 yards out soon put paid to that notion.

There had been errors from Djimi Traore and Carragher, two of Liverpool's Istanbul heroes, in the immediate moments before the goal, and in many ways the strike represented the final throes of that epic night nine-and-a-half months previously.

There was still over half of the second leg to go, but the referee might as well have ended matters then and there, not that Benfica would have wanted him to.

The Portuguese side spent the remainder of the game enjoying spraying the ball around Anfield, with Liverpool having long checked out before Fabrizio Miccoli turned home an overhead kick from close range in front of the travelling fans late on. 3-0 on aggregate.

"It was great to hear the 4,000 Benfica fans," remembers Simao, now a director at the club, in an interview with The Guardian ahead of the Champions League rematch this week.

"We celebrated the first goal a lot and then when Miccoli scored the second goal, it was epic.

"I will never forget that moment and I will never forget Anfield because after the game we celebrated and after we went inside the dressing room we came back out to celebrate with our fans and also with the Liverpool fans that stayed behind."

Indeed, rather than trudge off into the Merseyside night the vast majority of Liverpool fans had stayed behind at Anfield, applauding the winning team in a magnanimous manner but also acknowledging the fall of the most unexpected European champions.

It was a fairly unique sight, with both sets of players being applauded and both groups of fans applauding the other, the home supporters giving a tip of the hat to the travelling fans who had been boisterous all night, and Benfica's seemingly expressing the reverence with which football supporters would forever regard the Champions League final of 2005.

It is a different matter for managers, of course, with Rafael Benitez later responding to a question about his side's poor finishing by outright blaming his defenders for the defeat, but the sense that this was the end of the first cycle under him was a very real one.

The second would soon contain

an FA Cup success

and stronger Champions League performances, even if that Istanbul high was to forever be forlornly chased under his stewardship.

Benfica had brought that Liverpool chapter to a close, and in the end there was nothing left to do but applaud it.