Jose Mourinho couldn't resist having a dig at Liverpool and the 2005 'ghost goal' in his press conference ahead of AS Roma's next Europa League clash.
Mourinho was in charge of Chelsea at the time when Luis Garcia lifted the ball over the despairing Petr Cech in front of the Kop End in the Champions League semi-final. Despite the Londoners protesting that the goal was illegitimate, it stood and Rafa Benitez's side held on to book their place in the final.
Debate roars on 18 years later, with some members of the Chelsea side still adamant that it didn't cross the line. The hero himself, Garcia, has previously poked fun at the goal.
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Mourinho led Roma to Europa Conference League success last season and is hoping to go one further in the Europa League. They face Real Sociedad tonight and when probed on what atmosphere experts ahead of his return to Spain.
After initially giving a coy response, he couldn't help but bring the incident against Liverpool to the surface.
“It's the pitch that speaks in the end, the only time I've seen a stadium score a goal was in the semi-final of the Champions League in 2005 when the Liverpool stadium scored a goal because the ball hadn't gone in but they made so much noise that they scored," he said.
"The stadium helps, statistically the home team has more positive results than the guests, but you have to play. [Tonight] the atmosphere will charge us too, the problem was in Covid times with empty stadiums.
"We are not afraid of the environment, Roma will play better with the perfect storm, as their coach called it."
However strange it may be, it isn't the first that the manager time, who had two spells at Chelsea as well as time at Manchester United and Real Madrid, has brought it up.
In 2019, he made a subtle dig at Garcia's goal during an interview on BEIN Sports. He said: "Anfield is a magic place to play, it is a beautiful place to play.
"They can even score goals that the players don’t score, like it happened in 2005. It wasn’t Garcia that scored the goal, it was the crowd that scored the goal, but now it isn’t possible with VAR and goal-line technology.
"First of all I have to say this is a magnificent place to play football, even people not in love with that club they have to admit that it is a magnificent club, incredible stadium, and one of the best atmospheres I have ever played football in is Anfield.
"When we say that impossible is nothing definitely it is there that impossible is nothing, but almost impossible."
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