Europa League: Ataturk Stadium ignites glorious memories for Liverpool

Reds won the Champions League at the stadium in 2005 after defeating AC Milan on penalties

KARACHI: It was almost a decade ago that Liverpool lifted the Champions League trophy by defeating AC Milan in the final at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium — the same stadium that the Reds will travel to face Besiktas, who are playing at the Olympic Stadium while their own ground overlooking the Bosphorus is rebuilt, for the second leg of the round-of-32 in the Europa League.

The stadium will forever be remembered by Liverpool fans as the scene of their remarkable triumph in the 2005 Champions League final, when they came from 3-0 down to draw level at 3-3 with AC Milan before winning a penalty shoot-out to lift the European Cup for the fifth time.

The Reds return to the legendary stadium bearing memories of their glorious triumph but the situation has changed a lot since then, with Liverpool not vying for the top prize but seeking a place in the last-16 of the Europa League to earn some redemption from the horrible start to the season and the embarrassing exit from the Champions League — which brought them to the Europa League in the first place.

The Merseyside giants have the upper hand in the tie after a late Mario Balotelli penalty secured a 1-0 win at Anfield last week.

The momentum is also with the Reds who have not lost a game in their last seven matches and have improved drastically defensively, with keeper Simon Mignolet having kept five away clean sheets for the first time since 1985.

Besiktas, on the other hand, do not enjoy the same momentum as Liverpool as they were knocked off the top of the Turkish Super Lig at the weekend after losing 1-0 to Eskisehirspor.

"We want to start a new winning streak starting with the Liverpool game," said Besiktas coach Slaven Bilic. "We did not show the fight and work rate we usually do, I expect all my players to put in a lot more effort on Thursday."

Meanwhile, Tottenham face a make or break as they go to Florence having to score in the second leg of their tie against Fiorentina after drawing 1-1 at White Hart Lane, while Everton host Swiss side Young Boys, having won 4-1 in Bern last week with Romelu Lukaku scoring a hat-trick.

 

Like Sports on Facebook, follow @ETribuneSports on Twitter to stay informed and join in the conversation.