Jaap Stam has set the record straight once and for all on what went on inside the AC Milan dressing room at half-time during Liverpool’s famous Champions League final victory in Istanbul in 2005.
Goals from Paolo Maldini and a Hernan Crespo brace had seen Carlo Ancelotti ’s side race into an emphatic 3-0 lead at the Ataturk Stadium. However, three goals in six second half minutes from Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso saw the Reds pull off the most unlikely of comebacks, before going on to clinch their fifth European Cup win on penalties.
Former Manchester United defender Stam was part of star-studded Milan squad that day and lined up in defence alongside Cafu, Alessandro Nesta and Maldini, with the likes of Clarence Seedorf, Andrea Pirlo, Kaka and Andriy Shevchenko also starting for Il Rossoneri.
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And while it has often been claimed over the years that the Milan squad were already celebrating at half-time, and that Liverpool ’s players could even hear them in their own dressing room, Stam has bluntly rubbished such claims with an x-rated rebuttal.
“My memories were not that great,” Stam exclusively told the ECHO when reflecting on the final loss. “I can tell you, maybe I’m a bit rude, but that’s totally b******* (that Milan celebrated at half-time).
“We know as a team, it’s Milan as well. It’s nice to say it, to bring it like that and then you can say as a team that you win it, ‘Oh, we’ve shown them because they’ve done that.’ But that was never the issue.
“We knew as a team of professionals, all world class players who have worked very hard to get to that level. Do you think that these players are thinking they’re going to be celebrating already at half-time?
“If you think like this, you must be mad. Sorry to say it like this but you must be mad. We knew and the thing that was said at half-time was we needed to be patient and we needed to be aware because if we could score three goals in 45 minutes, the opposition could do it as well.
“That was the message that got delivered, but still it happened. But that story goes through to everybody and everybody starts believing it. People tell the tale like this but it was never the case and never an issue. It’s a pity that it goes like this.”
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