The Miracle of Istanbul: Liverpool FC, from Paisley to Benitez Book

After 20 years off the major European soccer stage, Liverpool FC faced utter humiliation at half-time in the 2005 Champions League final in Istanbul. Three goals down to the brutally efficient and talented AC Milan, the inexperienced new Liverpool was staring down the barrel of a European Cup final defeat in front of a global TV audience of hundreds of millions. That is until six extraordinary minutes of second-half carnage, allied to Red courage and resolve, changed the very course of European soccer history. The Miracle of Istanbul offers an insight into the many foreign highs and domestic lows of the amazing 2004-05 Liverpool season, as well as mapping out key connections between the great Liverpool European legacy of the 1970s and '80s and the new Benitez era. It also looks at some of the key players of the recent successful European campaign, and at the music and football cultures in the city that have uniquely shaped what is still known locally as the Liverpool Way.