knockout round. A strike that saw co-commentator Andy Gray exclaim, "Oh, you beauty!! What a hit son! What a hit!", Gerrard stated it was his most important, if not his best, goal for Liverpool to date. In the knockout rounds, Liverpool beat Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea to progress to the final. The winning goal in the semi-final scored by Luis García was dubbed a ghost goal by Chelsea manager José Mourinho. He did however recognise the atmosphere generated by Liverpool fans in the match: "I felt the power of Anfield, it was magnificent." Milan won their group ahead of Barcelona and faced Manchester United, Inter Milan and PSV Eindhoven before reaching the final. Liverpool entered the competition in the third qualifying round after finishing fourth in the 2003–04 FA Premier League. They faced Austrian side Grazer AK and won the first leg 2–0 at Graz after two goals from captain Steven Gerrard. They lost the second leg 1–0 at Anfield but progressed to the group stage by virtue of winning the tie 2–1 on aggregate. Milan entered the competition in the group stage after winning Serie A. The group stages were contested as eight double round-robin groups of four teams, the top two qualifying for the knockout stages. Knockout ties were decided based on home and away matches. Build-up The final was held at Atatürk Olympic Stadium, it was the first time a European final had been held in Turkey. There were reservations about holding the final in Turkey but UEFA chief executive, Lars-Christer Olsson was satisfied by the assurances of the Turkish authorities: "The conditions there are the same, generally, as for all countries and they have given guarantees, this is important, especially since their experiences last autumn. We have also asked for additional investments in the infrastructure around the stadium and they have agreed to this, too." This was the Liverpool's sixth final and it was their first appearance since the 1985 European Cup final, when they lost 1–0 to Juventus and were subsequently banned from European competition for six years due to the Heysel Stadium disaster. They had previously won the European Cup on four occasions in 1977, 1978, 1981 and 1984. The match was Milan's tenth appearance in the final. They had won on six occasions (1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003), and lost three times (1958, 1993, 1995). In total the teams had participated