Last years finalists, Monaco, once again showed why they were a team to beat as they easily topped their group, which featured eventual winners, Liverpool and Deportivo. Bayer Leverkusen and Real Madrid occupied the first two places in group B at the expense of Italian outfit Roma and Dynamo Kiev. Israeli champions, Maccabi Tel Aviv made their first appearance in the champion’s league, however they were unable to acquire any hold in their group as they finished bottom. Juventus and Bayern Munich occupied first and second in that respective section.
Manchester united and Lyon qualified from Group D, which included a 6-2 victory by Manchester united over Fenerbache, thanks to a Wayne Rooney hat trick.
Arsenal won their group; however they were far from convincing as they drew four of their matches. Celtic of Scotland had no chance of reaching the knockout phase as they were paired with AC Milan and Barcelona. Inter Milan showed just what a good club they are as they topped a group featuring Anderlecht, Valencia and Werder Bremen, the latter also qualifying in second place. Chelsea and FC Porto both qualified for group H, however Porto left it late as they needed to win at home to Chelsea in their final group match.
Real Madrid struggled in their second round encounter with Juventus as they lost 2-1 after extra time. Liverpool was extremely encouraging as they beat Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 both home and away. Arsenal met Bayern Munich in the second phase, Munich took a 3-1 advantage from the first leg however to Arsenals credit they beat the German giants 1-0 in the return leg, however Bayern Munich were through to the last eight. Manchester United once again crashed out of the champion’s league as they lost 2-0 on aggregate against AC Milan, thanks to goals by Hernan Crespo.
Liverpool battled out a 2-1 aggregate victory over Juventus in the quarter finals which earned them an all English semi final encounter against Chelsea. After a goalless first leg, Liverpool shocked everybody by beating Chelsea 1-0 in the return leg and earned them a trip to Istanbul for the final.
The final was a thriller between AC Milan and Liverpool. It only took AC Milan one minute to take the advantage as their veteran defender; Paolo Maldini gave them the lead. With five minutes remaining, Hernan Crespo scored two goals in the space of two minutes as AC Milan were now leading 3-0 and victory was looking certain. How wrong they were proved to be, Gerrard inspired the fight back ten minutes into the second half with a 25 yard strike. Two minutes later Liverpool were right back in it as Vladimir Smicer scored as the reds were now only one goal behind. On the hour mark, the comeback was complete as Xabi Alonso equalized for the Reds and with the score line at 3-3 the game was now anybody’s. Both sides created chances to win the tie; however with Dudek in great form in goal for Liverpool they now looked safe. Extra time was fascinating; it was arguably Jerzy Dudek’s finest period in goal during his career at Liverpool. He made an incredible double save to prevent Andriy Shevchenko from scoring a certain goal. The match was forced into penalties; Dudek continued his brilliant display by saving two of Milan’s penalties and Liverpool were the winners of the 2005 Champions League.