It’s hard to believe that it’s been almost 20 years since Luis Garcia’s goal sent Liverpool to the Champions League final in Istanbul at the expense of Chelsea, but the discourse over that much-discussed winner still rumbles on.
To this day, then-Blues manager Jose Mourinho remains wedded to the belief that the ball hadn’t crossed the goalline for the decisive moment of the semi-final at Anfield, and that he’d have gone on to win the trophy were it not for that refereeing decision.
West London wounds won’t have healed after cameraphone footage from that May 2005 encounter surfaced online in recent days, and while the picture and sound quality mightn’t be quite as clean as today’s smartphones, the raucousness of that night is still vividly captured.
In discovering the clip of that goal, as seen from the Main Stand near the Kop side of the stadium, Garcia posted on X: “Who could deny that the ball did cross the line … Top video !!”
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In the days before goal-line technology and VAR, the officials had to fully trust in their judgement over such decisions, and thankfully for Liverpool it went in our favour that night.
As for Mourinho’s and Chelsea’s grumbles over the legitimacy of the goal…they still had almost 90 minutes to respond but couldn’t; and it certainly wasn’t the Reds’ fault that Eidur Gudjohnsen dragged that last-gasp shot wide when, had it been finished to the net, they’d have prevailed on away goals.
Thank goodness the Icelandic striker wasn’t ice-cool in that moment!
You can view Garcia’s response to the footage of his goal against Chelsea below, via @luchogarcia14 on X:
Who could deny that the ball did cross the line … Top video !! https://t.co/Hm8TrdGJnF
— Luis Garcia (@luchogarcia14) October 1, 2024
Oh my, why have I never seen this before. Quite clearly the ball did not cross the line, I cannot believe Liverpool were so hard done to, again. If the ref had got this right, Petr Cech would have been sent off, we’d have been awarded a penalty and Chelsea would have had to play the remainder of the game with 10 men, would have been so much easier for us than the tight 1-0 win it turned out to be.