The truth behind Istanbul and half-time masterstroke

May 21 2007 Liverpool Daily Post

IT’S just gone half past 10 on the evening of May 25, 2005, and Liverpool are traipsing off the field at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul having gone 3-0 down to AC Milan in the Champions League final.

The half-time period that followed has gone down in Anfield folklore. Within 15 minutes of the restart, Liverpool had drawn level before going on to win a fifth European Cup after a dramatic penalty shoot-out.

So what really happened during the interval in the Liverpool dressing room?

As Rafael Benitez reveals, trying to revive your troops is difficult enough without having to first translate it into a foreign tongue.

“It was the most difficult situation I have had as a manager,” he admits.

“In the most important game, in the final, losing 3-0 to Milan, one of the best teams in the world, and trying to explain things, it’s really difficult.

“Saying it in English was a problem. If you need to express something in 10 or 15 minutes in a foreign language and you’re losing 3-0, it’s not easy.

“The main problem is not when you say something, it’s when they say something to you because you sometimes can’t understand them, especially because of the Scouse accent.

“It’s always a big problem and people can’t understand the difference between training to be a manager in your country and training to be a manager in another country when you must play for titles. It’s a big difference.

“Anyway, normally I’m really calm, especially during half- time. I was sat on the bench just before half- time writing down ‘2-0, now what can I say in English?’ and then we concede a third goal and I was writing ‘okay, 3-0’ as I was walking back to the dressing room. I said to the players: ‘Listen, we have worked really hard to get here. We are in the final. Now we are losing 3-0 and we cannot leave our people like this. We need to try to score an early goal and change things’. That was the first message.