Steven Gerrard spoke about one of the biggest moments of his Liverpool career
Steven Gerrard has admitted he still can’t believe Andriy Shevchenko chose to dink his penalty in the 2005 Champions League final, a decision that saw Liverpool clinch their fifth European Cup.
The AC Milan striker, one of the most feared forwards in Europe at that time, aimed a delicate effort down the middle of the goal that Jerzy Dudek easily saved, leading to a 3-2 penalty shootout victory for the Reds after they’d recovered from 3-0 down to draw the game 3-3 in the most dramatic of circumstances.
And Gerrard, speaking to Jamie Carragher as the he returned to the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul with podcast The Overlap, was relieved of his duties in taking the fifth penalty for Liverpool that night as he instead turned his attentions to getting his hands on the Champions League trophy.
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Speaking to Carragher on video call from Saudi Arabia, where Gerrard manages Al Ettifaq, the Liverpool legend explained what was going through his mind as Shevchenko stepped up to take the penalty.
Carragher said: “The last part I remember, me and you stood there (points to centre circle), Shevchenko walks up, I said to you ‘there’s no chance he’s going to miss, you’re going to have to win it for us. What was going on?”
Gerrard responded: “If I said I was calm and normal, I’d be telling you lies. I was thinking I was going to have to take the fifth penalty. I thought he was going to bury his penalty.
“When I saw he was trying to dink it, I could not believe his decision to do that. It was very ambitious. But I was delighted I didn’t have to take that penalty.”
