On 23 May 2007 the Olympic Stadium in Athens hosted the Champions League final between Milan and Liverpool. On 23 May 2027 it will be 20 years since the night the Italians got their revenge for Istanbul. It was a rematch of the 2005 final, this time on Greek soil.
The road to Athens
Milan started in the qualifiers, because the points penalty from Calciopoli had dropped them to third in Serie A. In the group stage they ran into AEK Athens, who beat them 1-0 in Athens in November 2006 with a Júlio César free kick.
Even so, the Rossoneri finished top and went past Celtic, Bayern and Manchester United. In the semi-final they lost 3-2 at Old Trafford but won 3-0 at San Siro.
Liverpool knocked out holders Barcelona on away goals and then PSV Eindhoven. In the semi-final they beat Chelsea on penalties at Anfield.
Their run had started in the qualifiers against Maccabi Haifa, with the return leg played in Kyiv because of the war in Lebanon. Five of the Istanbul starters also started in Athens: Xabi Alonso, Carragher, Finnan, Gerrard and Riise.
A stadium with history
The Olympic Stadium had already hosted two finals: 1983 (Hamburg 1-0 Juventus) and 1994, when Milan crushed Barcelona 4-0. So for Milan it was a ground with good memories.
The match ball, the adidas Finale Athens, was blue and white, like the Greek flag. From the morning thousands of Liverpool fans had filled the city centre and Syntagma Square.
But the night was also marked by chaos at the gates. Each club received only 17,000 tickets, many people got in with fakes, and police turned away even fans with genuine tickets, using tear gas.
Of the 63,800 tickets only 9,000 went on general sale, while 20,800 were kept by the UEFA family and its sponsors. Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks called the allocation "insane", since the club expected around 40,000 supporters.
The match
Rafael Benítez's Liverpool lined up in a 4-2-3-1, with Gerrard behind lone striker Dirk Kuyt. Ancelotti's Milan fielded the oldest starting eleven in a final of the Champions League era, with an average age of over 31.
Just before half-time Pirlo took a free kick, the ball struck Filippo Inzaghi's shoulder and wrong-footed Reina. In the 82nd minute Kaká found Inzaghi with a pass, and he went round the goalkeeper to make it 2-0.
In the 89th minute Kuyt pulled one back with a header from a corner, but there was no time for another miracle. Milan held on to win 2-1, even though Liverpool had more shots (12 to 5).
Benítez had sent on Kewell for Zenden and later Peter Crouch for Mascherano, looking for goals. German referee Herbert Fandel blew the final whistle in front of 63,000 spectators.
White for luck
Milan were officially the home side, but they chose their all-white kit. In Italy they call it the "maglia fortunata", the lucky shirt, because they had won five European Cups in it.
So Liverpool wore their classic all red, in their first season with adidas after ten years with Reebok. It was the same colour clash as in Istanbul, this time with a different winner.
The colour story was interesting from the other side too. Liverpool had won all five of their European titles in red, two of them against Italian teams dressed in white.
The heroes
Inzaghi, who had not played in the 2005 final, was named man of the match. Kaká had been the team's brain all season.
Captain Paolo Maldini, aged 38 years and 331 days, became the oldest outfield player to appear in a final. He lifted the trophy in the stadium's guest of honour box.
Why it went down in history
It was Milan's seventh European title and the perfect answer to the "six minutes of madness" of 2005. For Athens it was the competition's third final at the Olympic Stadium; beforehand, Michel Platini had handed the trophy to mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis to be displayed around the city.
The problems at the gates were remembered too, and UEFA faced heavy criticism over the ticket allocation.
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Photo: Liverpool fans in Syntagma Square on the day of the final – Αντιγόνη (Antigoni), Wikimedia Commons, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.