Paolo Maldini scored inside a minute. Hernán Crespo scored twice before half time, the second from a Kaká pass that took three Liverpool players out of the game. Milan went in 3-0 up, and by any measure of that period’s football the match was finished.
The six minutes
Steven Gerrard headed in on 54. Vladimír Šmicer scored from distance on 56. Xabi Alonso followed up his own saved penalty on 60. Liverpool did not score again in the remaining hour, including extra time, and won 3-2 on penalties with Jerzy Dudek saving from Andriy Shevchenko.
The longer consequence
Milan’s team that night — Maldini, Cafu, Nesta, Pirlo, Seedorf, Kaká, Shevchenko — was arguably the strongest in Europe. They won the competition again two years later, beating Liverpool in the final, and then declined sharply, having built around players who were already the wrong side of thirty.
Serie A’s wider slide followed for financial reasons that had nothing to do with a night in Turkey. But the point at which Italian football stopped assuming it would contest European finals is usually dated to this one.
