One of the most enduringly fascinating aspects of Liverpool’s miraculous 2005 Champions League triumph in Istanbul is how many unsung heroes it produced.
The Reds’ astonishing fightback from three goals down to ensure the European Cup was coming back to Anfield for keeps will of course be forever associated in the minds of many with captain Steven Gerrard’s inspirational leadership which saw him play in three different positions during the game, goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek’s match-winning saves which defied the disbelieving Italians and manager Rafa Benitez’s tactical reshuffles that helped turned humiliating defeat into unforgettable victory.
It can be argued that every individual who featured in the most jaw-droppingly astonishing triumph in Liverpool’s storied history deserves their place in the Anfield pantheon of greatness but there are certain names who will always come to the fore - Jamie Carragher summoning every last vestige of energy in extra time and battling through crippling bouts of cramp to keep Milan’s attacks at bay ; Dietmar Hamann shrugging off the disappointment of being dropped from the starting line-up to change the game as a half-time substitute and scoring a penalty in the shoot-out with a broken foot ; Djimi Traore battling back from his horror Burnley own goal earlier in the season and escaping his aborted half-time substitution to make a crucial goal-line clearance after the Reds had drawn level ; even the likes of Neil Mellor, Igor Biscan and Antonio Nunez who made vital contributions on the way to the final but never made it on the pitch in the Turkish capital.
Vladimir Smicer famously scored the final goal of his Reds career to really bolster belief two minutes after Steven Gerrard’s header that an unlikely comeback was possible after being surprisingly introduced from the bench in what he knew was going to be his final match for the club.
And that heady night on the border between Europe and Asia was also the last time one of Smicer’s Czech Republic team mates wore the red shirt of Liverpool, having made his own valuable contributions particularly towards the conclusion of a campaign he had played an important part in.
READ MORE: 'We should think more' - Jurgen Klopp calls for football change following Chelsea sanctions
READ MORE: Sadio Mane told to leave Liverpool for club he 'loves a lot'
The news of Milan Baros’s transfer to Liverpool was over-shadowed a little initially after being announced at the same time as Nicolas Anelka’s loan move from Paris Saint Germain in late December 2001.
The 22-year-old Frenchman’s ‘Enfant Terrible’ reputation was already established after his stunning breakthrough as a teenager with Arsenal where he played a big role in the Gunners’ 1997/98 Premier League and FA Cup double triumph, his reportedly ‘moody’ reputation and subsequent moves to Real Madrid and back home to the French capital ensuring his arrival at Anfield was major news as Liverpool - under the temporary charge of caretaker manager Phil Thompson while Gérard Houllier recovered from his life-threatening heart problem - looked to build on the Treble cup triumph of the previous season.
It meant that £3.2m acquisition of an unheard-of 20-year-old Czech forward from Banik Ostrava was always likely to pass under the radar initially, although Thompson spoke at the time of Baros’s unveiling at his excitement over the young striker’s potential.
"Gérard and our European scout, Alex Miller, first saw him three years ago in a youth tournament when the Czech side was outstanding”, Thompson said.
“We've wanted him since then, and in the same way as Gregory Vignal and the two French boys from Le Havre, Milan is a signing who makes the future of the club very bright.
“I would describe him as a strong, fast player. He is a goal poacher with a lot of pace."
It was a dream come true for Baros himself who had grown up in the Czech Republic following the Reds because of his dad who was a Liverpool fan.
“I was so happy that my first experience in England was with such a huge club like Liverpool”, he told This Is Anfield years later.
“My father was a red and we’d always watch the matches on TV. Liverpool became my favourite team.
“Tottenham were also quite popular in the Czech Republic back then, but Liverpool were the team for us.”
Delays over his work permit however meant a difficult beginning to life on Merseyside for the young Czech, who admitted virtually everything about his new country - the lifestyle, the food, the pace of the game - came as a culture shock to him.
It was clear Baros had been bought with an eye on the future and he would only make one first-team appearance in that first half season at Anfield but the venue and context of if perhaps highlighted just high the hopes were Liverpool had for him.
The Champions League introduced a short-lived second group phase before the quarter-finals between 1999/2000 and 2002/03 and, after successfully negotiating the first one in their maiden appearance in the competition by topping a group containing Borussia Dortmund, Dynamo Kyiv and Boavista, Liverpool began the second with a harsh reality check when losing 3-1 at home to Barcelona.
A series of draws at AS Roma as well as home and away to Galatasaray meant the Reds travelled to the Camp Nou for the penultimate group fixture knowing defeat would likely be fatal to their chances of qualifying for the last eight.
Houllier’s men had secured a crucial goalless draw in the Catalan capital only eleven months earlier in the first leg of their UEFA Cup semi final and were closing in on grinding out another valuable stalemate which would likely mean victory in the final match at home to Roma would be enough to qualify when, with just over a quarter of an hour remaining, Baros was introduced as a substitute for his Liverpool debut in place of Emile Heskey.
It raised a few eyebrows among the travelling Liverpudlians high up in the stands who soon got a snapshot of the Czech’s vivid but raw talent when he picked up the ball on the left hand touchline near the halfway line and embarked on a diagonal run right into the heart of the Barcelona penalty area - seemingly without once ever lifting his head up - before eventually getting crowded out by defenders.
Baros’s inclusion wasn’t just a surprise to those watching but also to the man himself given the difficulties of his settling-in period but his mentality in those early months had not gone unnoticed by Gérard Houllier, who would return to the dug-out the following week for that crucial decider against Roma but inevitably was across everything happening at Anfield and Melwood during his convalescence.
"Milan's attitude was right from when he arrived, he just needed time”, Houllier said.
"He was a young boy who had come from a small club in Czechoslovakia, with all respect to Banik Ostrava, to a big club and a big environment in Liverpool.
"It is something special and takes some getting used to. The boy had a good "pre pre-season" if you could call it that."
Baros made his first appearance for Liverpool on British soil by coming off the bench again for Emile Heskey in the second half of Charity Shield defeat to Arsenal in Cardiff’s Millennium Stadium the following August and a month later was given his full Premier League debut as the Reds - aiming to go one better after the previous campaign’s second-place finish - looked to return to winning ways at Bolton Wanderers after three successive draws following wins in the opening two matches against Aston Villa and Southampton.
Michael Owen had been left on the bench with the new season’s Champions League campaign set to get underway in Spain against Rafa Benitez’s Valencia three days later but the young Czech rose to the occasion magnificently to play a big part in a 3-2 victory which raised the Reds to third in the league table, opening the scoring on the stroke of half-time by receiving a Dietmar Hamann pass following a smart dummy by Bruno Cheyrou on the edge of the penalty area, spinning away from his marker and rocketing a right foot shot high beyond Jussi Jääskeläinen to give Liverpool the lead.
He added a second on 71 minutes producing a deft outside-of-the-boot volleyed finish from Steven Gerrard’s left-footed right wing cross to put Liverpool back in front on 71 minutes following Ricardo Gardner’s equaliser and reflecting on those two opening salvos of his Anfield career Baros said, “The Barcelona game when Phil Thompson was in charge, I was on the bench but wasn’t nervous because I never expected to be involved.
“It was a big surprise to get 15 minutes and it was great to play in front of 75,000 people in one of the world’s best stadiums, but my bigger memory is the Bolton game. I knew I was going to start three or four days before the match and could prepare myself. It made the experience more emotional for me.
“It’s one of the biggest moments in my career. I was so nervous before the game. Bolton was a really tough place to go back then, they always fought. It was more of a battle than a football match.
“I was so happy with how it went. I managed to score two goals and almost got a hat-trick because I hit the post too. It’s a moment that will stand out in my mind forever.
“It was my first start for Liverpool and I got the two goals, amazing.”
Owen was back in the team for what would be a chastening defeat in Valencia's Estadio Mestalla but Baros started and scored in Liverpool’s next two matches, at home to West Brom in the Premier League and Basel in the Champions League, fostering real hope that Houllier’s side now boasted the kind of strength in depth which would be required for a sustained assault on the top prizes.
The Reds went top and stayed there for the best part of a month after victory at Leeds United in mid October but, the wheels came off the Reds’ season - and ultimately Houllier’s reign overall - when a first league defeat of the season at Middlesbrough in early November was followed three days later by elimination from the Champions League at the first group stage following a 3-3 draw in Basel, leading to an 11-game run without a league win that stretched into the following January which Liverpool never recovered from.
A campaign which had begun with so much hope and promise ended in failure when defeat at Chelsea on the final day meant failure to qualify for the following season’s Champions League although Baros did finish with a respectable tally for his maiden campaign of 12 goals in 22 starts (42 appearances overall) which put him joint-second in the club standings.
He also gained the first medal of career by playing a brief, but at the time somewhat unsatisfactory, role in Liverpool’s League Cup final victory over Manchester United in Cardiff, replacing Emile Heskey on the hour mark but then himself being substituted for his Czech mate Vladimir Smicer in the 89th minute.
“At the time I was unhappy”, he admitted.
“You don’t want to go off as a substituted substitute, but it’s especially disappointing in a cup final against massive rivals.
“We had just gone 2-0 up and the game was won. I was stunned because I had only come on for Heskey with half an hour left. I was young, so I was disappointed but you have to think of what’s best for the team. That’s the most important thing. We won the trophy and that was what mattered.
“I let it get to me in the celebrations because I felt a bit embarrassed. I should have savoured the moment more. It’s many years ago now and I only look back with pride. It was the first major honour of my career, so I have a very different view of it now.”
Further frustration was to follow as, after only making substitute appearances in Liverpool’s opening two fixtures, he won a starting shirt for the next three - in the second of them, providing an important assist for Michael Owen as the Reds’ got their stuttering start to the season up and running with a 3-0 victory over Everton in the Merseyside derby at Goodison Park - before suffering a broken leg which ruled him out of action for five months away to Blackburn in a costly 3-1 Reds win which also saw Jamie Carragher pick up the same injury following an agricultural challenge from Rovers’ full back Lucas Neill.
Baros was back on the scoresheet with a stunning equaliser at Leeds United within a week of his return to first-team action the following February and soon afterwards scored the opener in Liverpool’s UEFA Cup quarter-final first leg against Olympique Marseille but, with Houllier trying to salvage Champions League qualification from another disappointing campaign as his Anfield era drew to a close, the manager largely went with his tried-and-trusted Michael Owen and Emile Heskey partnership until the end of the season.
Fourth place - and everything that would lead to the following May - was eventually secured before Liverpool called time on Houllier’s reign as manager and the lack of recent game time for Baros did not seem to do him much harm when that summer he was top goalscorer at Euro 2004, notching five goals in five games as the Czech Republic reached the semi finals before losing to eventual surprise winners Greece.
His frustration at how life at Anfield had gone for him though reared its head during the tournament when he accused Houllier of destroying his confidence and claimed he would have been looking to leave the club if the French manager had not already done so, although his view of the man who brought him from Ostrava to Liverpool softened over time.
"I had lost my motivation at Liverpool and it was only when I met up with my national team-mates that I lost weight, gained some mental belief and got my motivation back," he said.
"I have heard people say I play differently for my country but that's simply not true. I play exactly the same at Liverpool.
"Houllier knocked the confidence out of me.
"I wasn't being picked and I thought it would be best to leave Liverpool in the summer. I was very hurt at not being in the side. I was fit and felt it was an injustice.
"But a new coach has come in now and the situation has changed. Every player will start next season from the same point under Rafael Benitez.
"We will all have something to prove. With the old manager gone, I now want to stay and be a part of it.
"All I can hope is that I transfer this form to next season and I'm sure I can."
The departure of Michael Owen to Real Madrid that summer was off-set by the arrival of £14m French forward Djibril Cisse and meant Baros’s hopes of playing more lay in balance but Benitez began the season with the two of them up front, the Czech scoring the first Anfield goal of the Spaniard’s reign in a comeback victory against Manchester City and also scoring in the Champions League group stage opener against AS Monaco which set Liverpool officially on the road to Istanbul.
It would prove to be the most productive period of Baros’s Anfield career, with the Czech bagging 11 goals by mid-December of the new campaign including the only hat-trick of his Liverpool career in a 3-2 win over Crystal Palace at Anfield sealed with last minute Kop end penalty.
The Reds’ wildly inconsistent league form inevitably meant Benitez had to find a solution to make his side more resolute leading to fewer and fewer occasions when two forwards were picked and, with experienced Spanish striker Fernando Morientes arriving from Real Madrid in the January, Baros’s opportunities became more limited with the manager increasingly opting to play Steven Gerrard in a more advanced role.
Morientes’s protracted transfer however meant he was cup-tied for Europe and, with Cisse having suffered a broken leg at Blackburn earlier in the campaign which would rule him until its final weeks, Baros became Benitez’s go-to guy as Liverpool’s unexpected and exhilarating Champions League campaign built to its incredible crescendo - the Czech starting every one of the knock-out ties against Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea as well as the final against AC Milan - and, while he might only have scored in one of them (the final goal in the ultimately comfortable 6-2 triumph over Leverkusen), he played a big part of two of the most significant moments at the business end.
After having the visitors’ best chance of the goalless first leg of the semi final at Stamford Bridge when his header from Steven Gerrard’s cross was brilliantly denied by his compatriot Petr Cech, it was Baros’s quick thinking and burst of pace beyond Ricardo Carvalho from Gerrard’s cute dink four minutes into the Anfield second leg that caused the Chelsea keeper to race out and clatter him with Luis Garcia following in to score the eternally-disputed and forever-treasured ‘ghost goal’ which took Liverpool to the final.
“I always say that was the noisiest game I’ve ever played in”, Baros later admitted.
“It was powerful before the kick off and during the game, but after that final whistle it was unbelievable.
“I can remember how crazy it was for Luis Garcia’s goal. I tried to get to the ball and got brought down by Petr Cech. I looked back at the referee expecting a penalty but then Anfield just exploded!
“I don’t care what is said about it being over the line. We scored. It was better than getting the penalty, you can always miss that. It gave us the lead and we fought with everything to make sure we held onto it.”
Dijibril Cisse’s remarkable return to fitness for the final six weeks of the season from his compound leg fracture at Blackburn the previous October bolstered Benitez’s strike options ahead of the final and, with Liverpool already being linked with new forwards ahead of the summer transfer window, there were suggestions Baros could be on his way with the Czech admitting before the trip to Turkey it was a possibility.
“I have had several offers from other clubs and it is now the job of my agent Pavel to talk to them,” Baros told the Daily Mirror.
“Maybe I’ll leave Anfield, maybe I’ll stay. We’ll listen to what is offered
“I am calm about my future and I can concentrate fully on the Champions League final.
“But my main aim at the moment is that I can keep my place ahead of Cisse for the final against Milan, and I will do my best to make that happen.”
Cisse had started and scored twice in Liverpool’s final Premier League game of the season against Aston Villa at Anfield but, while Benitez would spring a surprise in his Istanbul team selection by dropping defensive midfield lynchpin Didi Hamann in favour of Harry Kewell, Baros was named in the starting line up to face AC Milan much to his relief.
“To be honest, I was surprised that I started. Djibril had scored twice in the last league game before we flew out for the final. I was expecting him to play. Rafa chose me and I was also surprised Harry Kewell was in the side as he had been injured a lot. But that’s the manager’s job. He picks the side and has his idea for the match.”
Benitez’s initial idea for the match was in tatters by half time when the Italians produced a first-half masterclass in the Ataturk Stadium, Paolo Maldini’s opener inside 50 seconds being followed up by a Hernan Crespo brace which left Liverpool three goals behind at the break and staring down the barrel of humiliation on the global stage.
But as no Liverpudlian old enough to remember it will ever forget, everything changed within six logic-defying minutes early in the second half, Steven Gerrard’s 54th minute header from John Arne Riise’s left-wing cross inducing the first tentative spark of hope before two minutes later Vladimir Smicer - surprisingly introduced in his final match for the club as the Reds’ first substitute when Harry Kewell broke down midway through the first half - slammed home the second to further reduce the deficit and spark real belief, Baros smartly taking evasive action on the edge of the box so as not to block his compatriot’s strike as it whistled past him.
“Whenever I speak with Vladi about the game, I always wind him up and tell him it is my goal!”, he later joked.
“I tell him ‘it just brushed me, a very slight touch but it counts!’ I’m only joking of course.
“He hit it really well and I could tell it was going on target. I just got myself out of the way. Thankfully it went in and it gave us massive belief.”
Barely 120 seconds later, the Reds unbelievably had the chance to draw level from the penalty spot after a slick move featuring undoubtedly the most important touch of Baros’s career.
With confidence suddenly surging through Liverpool veins again, Jamie Carragher surged forward over the halfway line before playing a slide-rule pass into the direction of the penalty box run the Czech was making in the inside-right channel where, spotting Steven Gerrard charging into the box behind him, Baros deftly nudged a back heel into the skipper’s path which he latched onto before being brought down by midfielder Genaro Gattuso, giving Spanish referee Manuel Mejuto González no option but to point to the spot.
Gerrard was full of praise for Baros’s heaven-sent touch in his autobiography, saying, “I was running in behind. I hoped to God Baros saw me. If he did, I was in on goal.
“Baros heard my prayers, and found me with a spot-on touch. During his time at Liverpool, Baros was slated for being selfish, but he showed unbelievable awareness that night in Istanbul.”
After a nerve-wracking, interminable delay while the referee dealt with the shell-shocked and panicking Italian protests, Xabi Alonso slammed the rebound after Brazilian goalkeeper Dida saved his initial effort from 12 yards high into the net to level the match at 3-3 and was rewarded for it by being near throttled by a delirious Baros who was the first of his ecstatic team-mates to reach him as he celebrated.
Recalling his part in one of the most important moments in Liverpool history, Baros later said, “Stevie shouted to me that he wanted the one-two. I had my back to goal and tried to touch it into his path. He got in front of his man and it was 100 percent a penalty.
“Rafa had picked Xabi to take it before the match and I was so relieved he got to that rebound! I was first to celebrate with him but accidentally hooked him over by his neck! It was an amazing fightback.”
The Czech’s on-field involvement would end when he was substituted for Cisse with five minutes of normal time remaining and, after no further goals in extra-time, he watched on from the halfway line as his team-mates won the penalty shoot-out 3-2 to seal the greatest and most miraculous fightback in European football history and spark celebrations so wild he later couldn’t fully recall them.
“There’s 10 seconds or so there where I can’t remember anything.
“Sometimes I watch the highlights of the penalties and I see us all running like madmen towards Jerzy. I can’t remember that run. It was crazy, you can’t describe it. The emotion and the euphoria, just wow.
“When you go in at half time to the dressing room and you are 3-0 down, you probably think that winning the game is something impossible. We were sitting in the dressing room and we were really very sad. We were thinking about how to score at least one goal for our fans, who had been travelling a long way to Istanbul.
“But you know, we scored very soon in the second half and after a few minutes the score was 3-3. Then we were lucky in extra time and we came to penalties. Jerzy Dudek made great saves and he won the trophy for us. He was a big part of our success. Yes, it was something which may only happen once in a hundred years.”
As the dust began to settle, Liverpool’s new status as European champions added a new dimension to their summer recruitment plans with, as he had alluded to before the final, Baros’s future at Anfield becoming shrouded in doubt and, after being told by Benitez he would likely only have a bit-part role to play, he signed for Aston Villa for £6.5m in August 2005, a decision he later came to regret.
“Rafa came to me and told me he wanted to bring in Peter Crouch. It meant I would be second or third choice.
"It seemed an easy decision at the time, but if I could go back to that moment now, I would choose to stay.
"There are a lot of games in a season and I'd have got my chance again. Now I know it was a bad decision. I wish I had stayed and been patient."
After scoring 14 goals in 51 appearances over 18 months at Villa Park, he hooked up again with Gérard Houllier at French side Olympique Lyonnais in January 2007, a somewhat surprising move considering Baros’ comments following the French coach’s Anfield departure three years earlier, although the Czech later revealed how much respect he had for his former coach despite their disagreements during his second season at Liverpool.
“I think the media made more of it than there was. We never really had a problem. Sometimes the player and the manager will have different views on things. We had that but I always respected him.
“He is one of the biggest influences on my career. He took me from the Czech league to England and I always have to thank him for that. There wasn’t a major issue, so when he looked to sign me again for Lyon, I was grateful for a new opportunity to play for another successful club.”
Baros would win a Ligue 1 championship medal in France and, after returning to the Premier League for a loan spell with Portsmouth where he won an FA Cup winners medal in 2008, spent five years in Turkey with Galatasaray picking up a Super Lig title winners medal in 2012 before finishing his career back home in the Czech Republic with former club Banik Ostrava, Mlada Boleslav and Slovan Liberec.
His short but eventful time at Anfield though remains precious to him.
“We won the Champions League and playing in England for the team I had watched on TV with my father was amazing.
“2004 to 2005 was a special period for me with Euro 2004 and then that run in Europe. I still watch every Liverpool game now.”
