Without a doubt it has to go down as one of the greatest comebacks in the history of European football. Or any football for that matter.

A seemingly irreversible 3-0 down at half time and having been played off the pitch during the first 45 minutes, few but the most diehard Liverpool fans would have given them much chance of being crowned European Champions by midnight.

But they clawed their way back into a game they scarcely deserved to be in at all and triumphed on the dreaded penalty shoot out at the end leaving Milan to wonder exactly what it was that had hit them.

Let’s be honest, for most of the 120 minutes of football there was only one team which really deserved to win, one team which played nearly all the neat, attractive, attacking football. And that team wasn’t from Merseyside.

Yet you can’t take anything away from the never-say-die attitude which allowed Liverpool to come back into the match during a rather devastating 10 minute period towards the beginning of the second half.

At half-time the bookmakers were giving odds of 350-1 against Liverpool lifting the trophy. Don’t we all wish we had put a tenner on that? Then again, these were the same bookmakers who had Liverpool at 80-1 to win the trophy before the tournament was even underway, so what do they know?

Inspired by local lads Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher and helped by more than a little bit of luck, Liverpool managed to create history in Istanbul and few would begrudge them their fifth European title.

However, am I the only one who thinks Liverpool’s triumph in this tournament is somewhat reminiscent of Greece’s success in Euro 2004? The Anfield faithful may find that harsh, and to a certain extent I agree, but you have to admit there have been a lot of similarities.

Both Greece last year and Liverpool this year did what nobody thought they could in winning their respective tournaments. And both of them achieved that success by playing defensive, single-striker football which was much less than a joy to behold. Sneaking a one goal advantage then hanging on to it for 80 minutes is just not what I think top level football is all about.

At the end of the day Liverpool are only the fifth best team in England according to the league table, so for them to be crowned the best team in Europe just feels a little strange, not to say wrong.

Essentially this brings up that same old argument about whether or not the Champions League should be open to teams who are not Champions and my opinion on that remains, as it always has been, that only the team capable of winning their domestic league deserves a place in Europe’s premier competition. But that’s a whole different argument for an entirely different time.

Today is about Liverpool and their determination to triumph against all the odds and about Benitez who has proved, in an entirely different way, to be just as successful an import into English football as Jose Mourinho.

This weekend I will happily raise a glass to Steven Gerrard and his team mates for providing us with one of the most sensational European Cup finals in memory and proving that sometimes guts and determination can triumph over skill and experience.

Let’s face it, few of us will forget this match and that, for the neutral at least, is one of the beauties of modern football. And for the 750,000 fans who lined the streets of Liverpool on Thursday, this week is one they will never forget.

Meanwhile, there will have been one group of spectators who were absolutely horrified by the outcome on Wednesday – and that’s UEFA itself.

At half time they must have been emitting collective sighs of relief that they were not going to have to bend their own rules if they wanted the Champions to be allowed to defend their own trophy.

But with Milan conspiring to snatch defeat from the snapping jaws of victory, the problem they hoped the Italians would make go away had come home to roost.

Now, despite their pre-match protestations that they were not going to change the rules, they have to seriously consider finding a way for Liverpool to defend their title if they don’t want to drown under the wave of complaints that will be heading their way from Merseyside. And the rest of England and much of Europe too.

There are no readily obvious ways of including Liverpool so I don’t envy the UEFA pen-pushers who must be right now banging their heads against a brick wall of red tape.

But they have to do it. Because we all know if it was Bayern, Milan, Manchester United or Real Madrid in the same situation they would be bending over backwards to find a loophole.

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