Rafa revealed his speech

'Don't let your heads drop. We're Liverpool. You're playing for Liverpool. Don't forget that. You have to hold your heads high for the supporters. You have to do it for them.


'You can't call yourselves Liverpool players if you have your heads down. If we create a few chances we have the possibility of getting back into this. Believe you can do it and you will. Give yourself the chance to be heroes'

Even today when I read this tears still come out from my eyes. Purely genius.

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RAFAEL BENITEZ has finally revealed the chaos and confusion from which he conjured Liverpool's greatest triumph out of impending disaster.

Giving the first in-depth account of what really happened in the dressing room as his side faced up to the mountain they had to climb from a 3-0 half-time Champions League Final deficit against AC Milan, Benitez admitted he did not know if he could find the words to bring his team back from the dead.

The Liverpool manager also confessed that at one stage he was sending out a 10-man team for the second half in Istanbul as his plans verged on bedlam.

While his players were reeling, Benitez strode from the dug-out and down the tunnel at Attaturk Stadium to find a Liverpool dressing room in a state of shock and knowing he had a brief window of opportunity to get across the most important message of his career.

"I walked into the dressing room rehearsing what I was going to say to them but also how I was going to say it," he said. "It's really difficult to come up with all the things you want to say in a foreign language. I was trying to find the right English words.

We talked about what we were going to change. It's tough enough motivating a team which is losing 3-0 in Spanish. In English, it is much, much tougher.


"But the words came more easily than I could ever have hoped. The important aspect was to lift their spirits.


"I started with a motivational speech to get them fired up. I demanded they start working again and emphasised there were 45 minutes left and we had to come off the pitch proud of ourselves because we'd done everything in our power.


"So I reminded them it had been a hard battle to reach such a massive game and that we owed something important to all the Liverpool people. I said if we scored we would totally change the course of the game. I emphasised it was the most important challenge.


"I said: 'Don't let your heads drop. We're Liverpool. You're playing for Liverpool. Don't forget that. You have to hold your heads high for the supporters. You have to do it for them.


'You can't call yourselves Liverpool players if you have your heads down. If we create a few chances we have the possibility of getting back into this. Believe you can do it and you will. Give yourself the chance to be heroes'."


It was a chance that was gloriously, unforgettably taken and Benitez broke open the secrets of his finest moment in A Season On The Brink, a new authorised account of his first term at Anfield, by distinguished Spanish journalist Guillem Balague.


But the Liverpool chief told how even after he had given the exhortation that changed everything, his plans were enmeshed in a few minutes of sheer chaos.


Benitez wanted to introduce Didi Hamann and told Djimi Traore he was coming off - but then learned Steve Finnan's injury was too bad for him to continue.


Benitez added: "I started to write the new formation on the board. I told Traore to get changed and that Hamann was coming on for him. The idea was for Hamann to make Kaka's life much tougher.


"I took Didi up to the whiteboard so he understood what I wanted and explained the tactical changes to the rest of the side. Then I was told Finnan was injured.


"Finnan was unhappy. He believed he could keep going. But I reckoned if he told me midway through the second half I'd have to make a change beyond my control.


"It was a total mess for a while. I was reckoning on Djibril Cisse on the right but someone pointed out I'd have no more substitutions.


"So I took Cisse out but also deleted Luis Garcia from the board because I wanted to move him. Now I only had 10 players in the team. The system was changed several times on the board and it created havoc.


"The idea was to play 3-4-2-1 with John Arne Riise tucked in. But with the realisation Finnan wasn't fit to stay on, the logical thing was to tell Traore he wasn't being taken off. By this time he had his boots off and was on his way to the shower."


Somehow, despite the flurry of thoughts and the situation, the seeds of glory were being sown.


Benitez added: "In the first half we weren't threatening around their box. We wanted to change the pattern by using two players in the hole between midfield and Milan Baros.


"The task was to produce terrific movement and also put massive pressure on Milan building out of defence through Pirlo. We felt we could slam the brakes on the damaging work which Gatuso, Seedorf and most of all Kaka were doing.


"Using three centre-halves would make us more secure by staying tight on the runs of their strikers. You can try anything tactically if you've worked hard on such ideas in training. We had."


In that instant, a voice cried out, reminding the players of the second half comeback against Greek side Olympiakos that had brought the Reds back from the brink in their final group game.


Outside, the stunned Liverpool fans were singing the roof off the stadium, not even dreaming of what would follow in front of their disbelieving eyes.


Benitez said: "Normally it's Xabi or Carra or Gerrard who shouts 'Come on boys' when it's needed. In the first few minutes there wasn't any of that.


"But in the last couple of minutes before going back out, the animation and noise hit a normal level.


"We needed to attack and they let us. We scored and started to look confident all over the pitch. When a team loses control of a match, it can take 15 minutes to get it back. While they are recharging their batteries, anything can happen.


"I didn't hear the fans singing You'll Never Walk Alone from the dressing room. On the way out I did hear it but I was lost in my thoughts."


The thoughts had changed everything. What followed is now legendary.