Rafa Benitez: Why I Had to Disband the Team That Won the Champions League

Jul 8, 2026

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Rafa Benitez reflects on Istanbul and the emotional, tactical path that led Liverpool to overcome a 3-0 deficit at halftime to win on penalties. He revisits preparation in the team hotel, key matches including the Juventus quarter-final and the Chelsea semi-final, and how injuries and player fitness shaped formations and risk management. The account highlights specific strategic choices—compactness, counter-attacking structure, and set-piece awareness—while concluding with lessons from mistakes and momentum in the final.

LanguageEnglish

CategoryLiterature

FormatPDF

Pages4

Reading Time6 min

Istanbul and the emotional turnaround

The lift story before the final

The Champions League run

Quarter-final vs Juventus

Semi-final vs Chelsea

Tactical choices and key risks

Managing injuries and formations

Controlling pressing and set pieces

Lessons from the final

5/25/2020 Rafa Benitez: why I had to disband the team that won the Champions League – The Athletic Rafa Benitez: why I had to disband the team that won the Champions League By Rafa Benitez (/author/rafa-benitez/) 40m ago Happy Istanbul Day! Fifteen years after Liverpool beat AC Milan in the Champions League final ([https://theathletic.co.uk/1825608/2020/05/23/miracle-of-istanbul-liverpool-gerrard-benitez](https://theathletic.co.uk/1825608/2020/05/23/miracle-of-istanbul-liverpool-gerrard-benitez)carragher-traore-warnock-dudek-smicer-mellor-finnan-riise-hamann/), I will be sent that message a lot today. May is a special month for managers, a month touched by silver, because it’s usually when you win trophies or achieve something. I’ve recently been reminiscing with a friend of mine at Valencia, where we won La Liga. It’s the same with the Europa League, the UEFA Cup or the FA Cup. I have many happy memories like this, in England, Spain and Italy, too. [https://theathletic.com/1833474/2020/05/25/rafa-benitez-liverpool-istanbul-milan/ 1/9](https://theathletic.com/1833474/2020/05/25/rafa-benitez-liverpool-istanbul-milan/ 1/9) 5/25/2020 Rafa Benitez: why I had to disband the team that won the Champions League – The Athletic Today, it will be about Istanbul. Today, it will be ‘You’ll Never Walk Alone’. To win on penalties after being 3-0 down to such a great side at half-time makes it one of the most important and emotional games in football history and so I can say now I’m really delighted we did it this way. If you win 5-0, everyone will be happy. If you win 1-0 in the last minute—great. But like this? Everybody remembers it. I still think about standing in the team hotel before the game, waiting for one of the elevators to take us down to the lobby. I was saying, ‘If this lift comes, we will win 1-0. If it’s that one, we’ll draw, if it’s that one over there, we’ll lose. And if it’s this one, we’ll win on penalties’. There are no prizes for guessing which one finally arrived. It was a night of ups and downs, so a story about lifts feels appropriate. So much has been said and written about Istanbul but there were other important moments in that run of ours and the quarter-final against Juventus was massive. They were a really, really good team, with big players like Buffon, Cannavaro, Thuram, Emerson, Camoranesi, Del Piero, Zambrotta, Nedved and Ibrahimovic. We won 2-1 at Anfield but Juve had come from behind to beat Real Madrid in the previous round and were confident of going through again. Ahead of the second leg, we had some problems. Steven Gerrard was injured and couldn’t play. Didi Hamann couldn’t play. Xabi Alonso had been out for more than three months after hurting his ankle in a tackle by Chelsea’s Frank Lampard that January and Juventus was his first game back. I put him in central midfield in a 5-3-1-1 formation and told him, ‘Stay there, don’t move, you don’t need to run’. I knew he wasn’t fit. We also knew how difficult it was going to be. We didn’t have all our players available and Juve were strong, with Fabio Capello in the dugout. They had a lot of belief; 1-0 would be enough for them. Our team was Dudek—another coming back from injury—Finnan, Hyypia, Carragher, Traore, Nunez, Biscan, Alonso, Riise, Luis Garcia and Baros. It made the game plan complicated. This was the one we really had to manage tactically. We were up against a threatening side who would go on to win Serie A (they were later stripped of the title) . Capello played Del Piero and Ibrahimovic as strikers, with Nedved in the space behind, and so we changed to five at the back to try and control them. It wasn’t a system we were used to—we generally played 4-2-3-1—but we did a good job and were organised, trying to play on the counter-attack. [https://theathletic.com/1833474/2020/05/25/rafa-benitez-liverpool-istanbul-milan/ 2/9](https://theathletic.com/1833474/2020/05/25/rafa-benitez-liverpool-istanbul-milan/ 2/9) 5/25/2

FAQs

Why does Rafa Benitez emphasize the night in Istanbul?

He frames Istanbul as a defining emotional and historical game because Liverpool overturned a 3-0 halftime deficit to win on penalties, a result everyone remembers.

How did injuries affect Liverpool’s approach against Juventus?

Benitez explains that Steven Gerrard and Didi Hamann were unavailable and Xabi Alonso was returning from injury, forcing him to adjust the midfield structure and complicating the team plan.

What tactical principles does Benitez describe for later rounds and the final?

He stresses staying compact and balanced, regaining second balls, pushing forward while managing space, and adhering to the gameplan—while preparing for aggressive early pressure and minimizing early mistakes.

Jul 8, 2026

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