Route To The Final
For more details on this topic, see 2004–05 UEFA Champions League.Teams qualified for the Champions League group stage, either directly or through three preliminary rounds, based on both their position in the preceding domestic league and the strength of that league. Each club needed to progress through the group stage and knockout rounds to reach the final, playing 12 matches in total. Liverpool finished second in their group behind 2004 Champions League runners-up Monaco and subsequently beat Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea to progress to the final. Milan won their group ahead of Barcelona and faced Manchester United, Internazionale and PSV Eindhoven before reaching the final. Liverpool entered the competition in the third qualifying round after finishing fourth in the 2003–04 FA Premier League. They faced Austrian side Grazer AK and won the first leg 2–0 at Grazer after two goals from captain Steven Gerrard. They lost the second leg 1–0 at Anfield but progressed to the group stage by virtue of winning the tie 2–1 on aggregate. Milan entered the competition in the group stage after winning Serie A. The group stages were contested as eight double round-robin groups of four teams, the top two qualifying for the knockout stages. Knockout ties were decided based on home and away matches.
| Milan | Round | Liverpool | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Opponent | Result | Legs | Qualifying phase | Opponent | Result | Legs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Third qualifying round | Grazer AK | 2–1 | 0–1 home; 2–0 away | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Group stage |
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| Opponent | Result | Legs | Knockout stage | Opponent | Result | Legs | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Manchester United | 2–0 | 1–0 away; 1–0 home | First knockout round | Bayer Leverkusen | 6–2 | 3–1 home; 3–1 away | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Internazionale | 5–0 | 2–0 home; 3–0 away | Quarter-finals | Juventus | 2–1 | 2–1 home; 0–0 away | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| PSV Eindhoven | 3–3 (a) | 2–0 home; 1–3 away | Semi-finals | Chelsea | 1–0 | 0–0 away; 1–0 home | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Read more about this topic: 2005 UEFA Champions League Final
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