Athens 2007

^{Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard}

“I remember walking off the pitch basically thinking what’s going on? We haven’t got started.

“If there was one positive in my mind that’s what I was thinking, ‘There’s going to be a stage in this game where we come alive and we play’, but we hadn’t in the first half.”

^{Liverpool manager Rafael Benitez}

“It was really difficult to see the players with their heads down and then I started thinking about emotional things and after that tactics and said ‘Come on boys, we’ve worked really hard to get here and now we have 45 minutes. We need to fight to the end.’”

^{Les Lawson secretary of the Merseyside branch of the official Liverpool Supporters' Club, watching from the stands.}

“I’ve never seen, at a half time, so many Liverpool supporters looking absolutely devastated and thinking ‘How the hell are we going to get out of this?’”

• 54 minutes - Steven Gerrard heads in a John Arne Riise cross to make the score 3-1.

^{Rafael Benitez}

“The header for us was really important. We started thinking that ‘Ok, we can do it, or at least we can try’.

“It was the most important goal.”

^{Les Lawson}

“I would have to say that Steven Gerrard gave one of the best all round performances I’ve ever seen from any Liverpool player at any time.”

^{Steven Gerrard}

“It doesn’t matter if it is in your last game, or you’ve just signed a five year deal.

“If you’re playing in the Champions League Final you give it everything you’ve got. As a player you may only get one chance.”

• 59 minutes - Liverpool win a penalty when Steven Gerrard is pulled down in the box.

^{Rafael Benitez}

“Normally we have two or three penalty takers. Gerrard was one of them and Xabi another. Xabi decided to take it.”

Xabi Alonso’s penalty kick is saved by the keeper Dida but Alonso smashes the rebound in to the top of the net.

_{Les Lawson}

“From that point on the celebrations were unbelievable. Everybody was just hugging each other and kissing each other, and diving on top of each other.

“Once that penalty went in I think everybody in the ground really knew that we were going to go on to lift the cup.”

^{Steven Gerrard}

“I was just waiting for Shevchenko to score. I was concentrating on what I was going to do and I was starting to get really really nervous. I thought Shevchenko was 100% to score.”

^{Liverpool goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek}

“Shevchenko came, I did my movements and he stopped. I stopped too and thought ‘You don’t cheat me. You won’t do it’

• Dudek saves the penalty. Liverpool are European champions winning the penalty shootout 3-2.

^{Jerzy Dudek}

“I thought ‘Is it finished or not?’

“And then I saw everyone running at me. It couldn’t have been better it was fantastic.”

^{Les Lawson}

“It was the greatest moment in my life.”

^{Rafael Benitez}

“It was one of the best, maybe the best moment in my professional career.”

^{Steven Gerrard}

“The birth of my daughter aside, it’s the best moment in my life.”