2005 UEFA Champions League Final - Post-match Events

Post-match Events

By winning the European Cup for a fifth time, Liverpool earned the privilege of wearing a multiple-winner badge and the right to keep the trophy (under normal competition rules, the winning club can keep the trophy for only 10 months, as they must deliver it to UEFA two months before the next year's final). The 2005–06 participants competed for a new identical trophy. The rule to keep the trophy, which had been in effect since the 1968–69 season, was changed for the 2009–10 season, so that the actual trophy remained with UEFA at all times, thus Liverpool was the fifth and last club to accomplish the feat.

Liverpool celebrated their victory by parading the trophy around Liverpool in an open-top double-decker bus the day after the final. They were cheered by approximately 1 million supporters, with an estimated 300,000 fans located around St George's Hall – the final destination of the parade. Business experts estimated that one in five workers took time off following the victory. It was also estimated that Liverpudlians drank around 10,000 bottles of champagne after the match, with supermarket chain Sainsbury's stating: "We've never seen anything like it. We would usually expect to sell this much champagne at Christmas".

Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez admitted after the match that the manner of his side's victory had stunned him and he stated: "My problem is that I don't have words to express the things that I feel at this moment". Benítez was also prepared to break up his winning side after the final with a number of players expected to leave the club to make way for new arrivals. One of those leaving was Vladimír Šmicer, who had scored Liverpool's second goal in Istanbul.

Milan were similarly astonished at the manner in which they had lost the final. Manager Carlo Ancelotti said, "We had six minutes of madness in which we threw away the position we had reached until then". The result compounded Milan's failure to win Serie A a week before the match. Milan's vice-president, Adriano Galliani, played down the loss, asserting: "Even if we come second in the league, and second in the Champions League, this is not a disastrous season for us". Captain Paolo Maldini was less optimistic, stating that the reverse was a "huge disappointment", but he added that Milan would accept the defeat and "go out with their heads high".

Much discussion after the final centered around the future of Liverpool captain Steven Gerrard who had been linked with a move to rivals Chelsea. Gerrard stated in the immediate aftermath of the victory, "How can I think of leaving Liverpool after a night like this?" Media reports then quoted Gerrard as saying he wished to leave Liverpool, citing events that had occurred in the month after the Champions League victory as the reason. On 6 July, however, Liverpool chief executive Rick Parry released a statement confirming that Gerrard would remain at the club, and Gerrard signed a new four-year contract on 8 July.

Despite winning the competition, Liverpool's place in next season's Champions League was still in doubt. Prior to the 2005 Champions League Final, the FA had decided on 5 May that only the top four finishers in the Premier League would qualify and Liverpool ended their domestic season in 5th place behind Everton. UEFA initially maintained that each country could only have four Champions League spots and suggested that the FA could nominate Liverpool instead of Everton. Liverpool faced a three-week wait to discover if they would be allowed to defend their title. UEFA came to a decision on 10 June, confirming that both Everton and Liverpool would be able to compete in the Champions League; however Liverpool were entered into the first qualifying round, and were given no "country protection"; meaning they could face another English club at any stage of the competition. The UEFA Executive Committee also amended the regulations for future competitions so that the holders would have the right to defend their title and therefore qualify automatically, though at the expense of the lowest placed team in those countries that had more than one qualifier.

As champions, Liverpool faced CSKA Moscow (winners of the 2005 UEFA Cup Final) in the 2005 UEFA Super Cup, held on 26 August. Liverpool won the match 3–1 after extra time. Liverpool's victory in Istanbul also meant they qualified for the 2005 FIFA Club World Championship. Liverpool beat Deportivo Saprissa 3–0 in the semi-final, and played Copa Libertadores champions São Paulo in the final, losing 1–0 after having three goals disallowed.