‘Shevchenko was frustrated that I'd saved his header, so hit the rebound as hard as he could. If he’d chipped it or just placed it, I’d have had no chance’: Jerzy Dudek on how Liverpool were almost denied the Miracle of Istanbul

Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek saves from Milan's Andriy Shevchenko to secure victory on penalties in the 2005 Champions League final.

Today marks the 20th anniversary of Liverpool’s ‘Miracle of Istanbul, when Rafa Benitez’s side summoned up a stunning comeback and dug themselves out of a three-goal hole to beat AC Milan on penalties in the Champions League final.

The match has gone down not just in Reds folklore, but across the entire sport, with FourFourTwo ranking it at no.1 in a list of the greatest-ever Champions League games earlier this month.

And if we’re mentioning rankings, we've also handed the no.50 spot on our list of 100 best individual performances ever to Reds goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek, who would end up being the penalty shoot-out hero.

Dudek on the Miracle of Istanbul

Dudek making another of his penalty shootout saves (Image credit: Getty Images)

And while the Pole saving Andriy Shevchenko’s penalty is perhaps the defining image from that evening in Turkey, it would not have come to pass had he not made an even better stop before extra time was up.

“After we’d got back to 3-3, there was still a long way to go,” Dudek tells FourFourTwo. “I had to keep my focus. In extra time, a cross came in and a header went rapidly towards me. At the time, I thought it was from Jon Dahl Tomasson.

Liverpool had come back from a 3-0 half-time deficit to win their first European Cup for 21 years (Image credit: Getty Images)

“I managed to stop it, and I fell backwards into the goal. While I was on the floor, I saw a Milan player approaching to tap in the rebound. In a microsecond, I thought, ‘That’s landed perfectly for him to put it into the net’. I tried to make myself as big as possible. I put a hand up and hoped for a miracle.

“If Shevchenko had tried to chip it over me or just placed it into the other side of the goal, I would have had no chance. Only after the game did I understand why he tried to hit it as hard as possible.

“The first header had come from him, not Tomasson. He was frustrated I’d saved it, so hit the rebound as hard as he could.

“How did I save it? A little bit of intuition, a little bit of training and the holy hand of Pope John Paul II, who was from Poland and had died just a month before that,” Dudek continues.

Dudek and his former Reds boss Rafa Benitez (Image credit: PA)

“After that save, I stood up and yelled, ‘And now f**king what?’ My frustration boiled over – not playing at the start of the season, rumours about Liverpool signing a new keeper. Riise ran over to me and kissed me on the cheek.

“After that moment, I was in a trance. I was telling myself, ‘You’ve waited for this moment all of your life, so don’t f**k this up now’.”

He didn't.