Jerzy Dudek, diving to his right, made an amazing left-handed save of an Andriy Shevchenko penalty kick to complete Liverpool's improbable run to its fifth European Champions' League title. Down 3-0 at the half, the Reds made a ridiculous run early in the second, capping a three-goal storm with a Xabi Alonso redirection of his own penalty miss. Late in extra time, Dudek made two saves of Shevchenko shots, the second one point-blank, as Liverpool ran out of substitutions and weathered an injury to defender Jamie Carragher.

After the game went to penalty kicks, Dudek took control. Twitching on the goal line like a grasshopper, he willed a Sergio Serginho miss and stoned Andrea Pirlo. Vladimir Smicer, who scored the second goal for Liverpool in regular time, made the last of the Reds' penalties to set up Dudek's save on Shevchenko. Captain Steven Gerrard began the scoring for the Premiership side.

This final was in short, the most exciting thing to happen to Istanbul since that They Might Be Giants song. Amazingly, Liverpool won't get to defend their title, as their fifth-place finish in the English Premier League doesn't qualify them for a return trip to the ECC.

Meanwhile, in Milwaukee, USA, an extremely uninteresting baseball game was contested.