Liverpool Champions League hero looks unrecognisable 18 years on from Istanbul heroics

It’s been exactly 18 years since Liverpool produced the most famous comeback in football history, and not all of the cast members from that night still look the same.

On this day in 2005, the Reds fought back from 3-0 down to defeat AC Milan in the Champions League final in Istanbul, with Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso scoring the all important goals in just six minutes to level the scores at 3-3.

Polish goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek proved the hero in the penalty shootout that followed, saving from Andriy Shevchenko to secure an improbable fifth European Cup for Liverpool. But all these years on, not all of those involved in the Miracle of Istanbul look the same (as you probably would expect). But there’s one key member of the team who looks drastically different.

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Smicer, who scored the second of Liverpool’s goals that evening, now looks dramatically different. Gone is the clean-shaven face and spiky hair that Reds fans were used to during the midfielder’s six-season spell at Anfield from 1999 to 2005.

In its place is a more slicked back hairstyle and rough beard, which may well be for the best when you consider that Smicer seems to enjoy spending some his spare time playing ice hockey these days.

Where were you for the 2005 Champions League final? Let us know in the comments section.

Smicer looks rather different now (Image: @smicer.vladimir/Instagram)

Now a TV pundit and a Reds ambassador, the former Czech Republic international spoke to the Liverpool Echo in 2017 about his role in Liverpool’s comeback against Milan in the 2005 final.