In their iconic 2005 Champions League campaign, Liverpool faced Juventus in the quarter-finals. At home, the Reds won 2-1: the slender lead meant even a 1-0 win would have been enough for the Bianconeri to eliminate Liverpool.
For the return leg on 13 April 2005, Rafael Benitez was missing two key midfielders: Steven Gerrard and Dietmar Hamann were injured. That meant he needed to be extremely inventive to come up with a plan that would work against the blood-thirsty Juve team.
Xabi Alonso hadn't played since the New Year's Day when Frank Lampard had broken his ankle. The Spaniard wasn't ready to fire on all engines but he still played a key role in the game.
"Alonso was injured for three months, then it was his first game coming back," Rafa Benitez told Sky Sports in 2019. "Juventus had two strikers, Del Piero and Ibrahimovic, and Pavel Nedved coming from inside.
"So we put Xabi and then I said: 'Xabi, you stay there!' We played 5-3-1-1, we didn't play this system [before]. And we were really, really good, we controlled the game."
The task for Alonso was to provide lone striker Milan Baros with long balls. However, Xabi needed protection to feed Baros with those passes. That's why Benitez decided to switch from the back four to a formation with three CBs in the back.
In the 5-3-1-1 system, three centre-backs were expected to neutralise the threat coming from Alessandro Del Piero and Zlatan Ibrahimovic. In the middle of the park, Igor Biscan and Antonio Nunez were Alonso's bodyguards and the ones who did the running.
Besides, the packed midfield was to intercept Nedved's run-ins from behind.
Here's how Liverpool and Juventus lined up for the UCL quarter-final return leg:
Alonso's fellow countryman, Luis Garcia, had two major tasks: create spaces for Baros to run in and pick up on second balls.
That game was far from exciting, as Liverpool were offering little in terms of going forward.
Barry Glendenning was covering the game for The Guardian on that day. Here are some of his quotes that would give you an idea of what was going on at Delle Alpi (yes, he was as bitter as could be):
💬 "Exactly how dull does something have to be before those boys [from Sky Sports] will describe it as being boring?"
💬 "This match has Juventus 1-0 Liverpool written all over it, if you ask me."
💬 "I'm really struggling to contain my excitement here. It's not pretty by any stretch of the imagination."
💬 "Twenty minutes to go and then we can all get on with our lives. This match is breathtaking in its tedium."
💬 "If I see anything going on in this match that could legitimately be described as 'football', I'll happily commentate on it."
💬 "Liverpool? In the semi-final? No disrespect, but if that doesn't devalue the whole competition I don't know what does."
Boring or not, but Liverpool frustrated the Bianconeri and that was exactly what they needed to do.
Rafa's tactical tweaks forced the hosts to stop trying to run in from behind and stick to long balls to Ibrahimovic. That made Juve even more toothless, as most shots were too way off to provide any threat.
Moreover, Liverpool could've scored! In the 49th minute, Milan Baros missed a sitter from around six yards.
With the final whistle, Liverpool qualified for the semi-final where they were to face Chelsea. That season, the Reds had faced the Blues three times, twice in the league and once in the League Cup final, and were defeated in all those games.
Finally, they took their revenge, and Jose Mourinho still can't get over that goal.
