Garcia wanted to take Liverpool penalty in 2005 final – but Carragher said no

When Hernan Crespo latched onto Kaka's pass, and the Argentine dinked the ball over the head of Jerzy Dudek: Liverpool were convinced they had lost.

After all, AC Milan were now 3-0 to good, it wasn't even half-time, and the Rossoneri had arguably the best team in the world; they certainly had the best player in Kaka.

However, Liverpool did the unthinkable; the Red's scored three goals in the second half to force the game into extra time before winning the 2005 Champions League final on penalties.

And, Liverpool's winger, Luis Garcia, has recently revealed he was desperate to take the pivotal penalty to draw Liverpool level.

Steven Gerrard – with the score at 3-2 – had danced his way into the Milan box when he was pulled down by Gennaro Gattuso.

"The moment that I saw the referee [blow his] whistle and point to the spot, I ran fast to try to get the ball and say: ‘I’m taking the penalty,'" Garcia recalled to UEFA's website.

"But Jamie Carragher came to me and said: ‘No, you’re not.’ I looked at Rafa Benítez to see if I was allowed, but Rafa didn’t allow me to take it, and they said: ‘No, no, you’re not taking it, it’s Xabi Alonso.’"

Alonso drew Liverpool level, at the second time of asking after Dida saved his penalty.

"It wasn’t the best penalty, but he managed to arrive there the quickest [for the rebound] and scored the goal."

Garcia was even denied taking a spot-kick during the penalty shoot-out: "I didn’t take one because they didn’t let me!"

"I said: ‘Coach, I want to take one’, and he said no – I was too tired."

"It’s true. I had run so much for the whole 120 minutes, but I mean it’s a penalty – you don’t have to run much to take the penalty. So, I asked him again, and he said: ‘If there’s a sixth, you can take a sixth.'"

Incidentally, Liverpool only needed four, and Dudek wrote himself into Liverpool folk law when he pushed away Andriy Shevchenko's effort to beckon a fifth Champions League title to Merseyside.

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