**More than two decades after Istanbul, the 46-year-old former Spanish winger opens up on his brief Liverpool spell, dressing-room chaos, and why leaving Anfield hurt.**
Winning the Champions League with Liverpool should have been the dawn of Antonio Núñez’s Anfield career rather than the sudden conclusion of it. Instead, the right-winger departed after just a single, chaotic season on Merseyside.
More than two decades on, the 46-year-old has admitted that his exit from the club remains one of the single biggest disappointments of his professional life.
Speaking to [Flashscore](https://www.flashscore.pe/noticias/futbol-laliga-ea-sports-entrevista-antonio-nunez-subir-del-castilla-al-madrid-es-un-cambio-muy-brusco/Qkb05mdl/), , the former Real Madrid man looked back on his whirlwind spell under Rafa Benítez, the tactical anarchy and dressing-room reality of Istanbul, and why leaving Anfield proved so incredibly difficult to rationalise.
Leaving Liverpool was a ‘huge disappointment’
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The former Madrid youth product arrived at Anfield in the summer of 2004, a moving part in the high-profile deal that took Michael Owen to the Bernabéu. While persistent injuries severely restricted the Spaniard’s momentum in England, he still established himself as a trusted continental squad player, making nine Champions League appearances.
The versatile wide player featured in the do-or-die group clash with Olympiacos, as well as high-stakes knockout ties against Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus, and Chelsea, before the historic night in Turkey.
Yet the ultimate high of European football’s showpiece event was almost instantly followed by the reality of an Anfield exit.
“Leaving Liverpool was a huge disappointment,” the 46-year-old admitted. “I went to Celta afterwards and spent three good years there. I played in La Liga, in the UEFA Cup and experienced many good things, but leaving Liverpool was a huge disappointment. You’re younger and it’s one of the first times you have to deal with something like that.”
For the retired winger, looking back at the broader arc of his career, navigating the transition away from elite football required a similarly steep psychological adjustment.
“It feels incredible that so many years have passed because the memories feel like yesterday,” he said. “Life changes completely. As a footballer every day is repetitive and you get used to that, then suddenly everything changes. You have time to do lots of other things, although you miss training every day and you notice the difference physically.”
Believing in the European dream
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When Benítez arrived from Valencia, he inherited a squad that felt detached from Europe’s true elite. The former Spanish international notes that internally, expectation levels were carefully managed before the 2004-05 campaign got underway.
“There was no doubt we weren’t the favourites, nowhere near,” he said. “Liverpool had gone many years without winning the European Cup. Historically it was a great European club, but it wanted to become one again.”
Yet, the arrival of a tactical perfectionist at Melwood injected a fresh sense of optimism across the city.
“That was something we noticed as soon as we arrived. There was great hope that Benítez would turn Liverpool back into an important team in Europe.”
The catalyst for their unexpected run came on a dramatic December night at Anfield. Requiring a clear two-goal victory against Olympiacos, Liverpool fell behind to a Rivaldo free-kick before launching a frantic second-half comeback, sealed by Steven Gerrard’s iconic late strike.
“That game was fundamental because we were almost out. We had to win by two goals and started 1-0 down. Then we scored three and it was unbelievable.”
“The team started believing in itself in the Champions League. In the league things weren’t going well. We weren’t even in the top four and couldn’t put together a good run of results. But in Europe, for whatever reason, we had confidence, kept getting through each round and started believing more and more.”
Progress was rarely smooth. The Spaniard acknowledges that Liverpool required “a little bit of luck” during the knockout stages before defying the odds to reach the final.
“We found ourselves in the final without expecting it,” he admitted.
Decades later, the magnitude of what that squad achieved still resonates globally.
“It was only a couple of days ago that we celebrated the anniversary. Twenty-one years have already passed. It was an incredible night that will never be forgotten. Everyone who speaks to me about that match remembers exactly where they watched it. It doesn’t matter if they’re English, Spanish or from somewhere else. Everybody remembers that final.”
The mythological status of Istanbul often invites embellishment, particularly regarding Benítez’s half-time team talk with his side trailing 3-0 to a rampant AC Milan. It remains the defining interrogation of the wide midfielder’s post-playing life.
“People have asked me what Benítez said at half-time more times than anything else in my life,” he laughed. “The other day I watched the documentary on Netflix and I think Steven Gerrard or Jamie Carragher said exactly the same.”
The reality inside the Atatürk Stadium dressing room was far less cinematic and far more human. The winger admits that as they walked down the tunnel, the overriding emotion was a dread of historic humiliation.
“I always say I know what it feels like to lose a Champions League final because I felt I’d already lost one. And I also know what it feels like to win one. When I walked into the dressing room I felt I’d lost the final. Milan were so much better than us. You were almost expecting them to score another three goals in the second half and make it an historic humiliation.”
Contrary to folklore, there were no sweeping, inspirational speeches delivered in the face of disaster.
“I’ve heard epic speeches and famous phrases that simply weren’t said,” the Spaniard insisted. “The confidence Benítez transmitted was fundamental. Just the way he spoke to us and how calm he was made a huge difference. He believed in the comeback and never acted as though the match was lost.”
Rather than a morgue of despondent players, the dressing room turned into a frantic, collaborative tactical workshop.
“It wasn’t a dressing room where everyone sat in silence with their heads down. There was constant activity and a real desire to solve what was going wrong.”
Benítez frantically reconfigured his chalkboard, while senior figures pointed out structural flaws in how Milan were exploiting the half-spaces.
“There were several tactical corrections,” he noted.
The internal chaos intensified when Steve Finnan picked up a thigh injury, throwing the planned substitutions into disarray.
“First he brought on Djimi Traoré, but then Finnan had a problem. Traoré had already started taking his kit off and was in the showers when someone called him back and told him to get dressed again.”
While the abrupt end to his Anfield career was a bitter pill to swallow, the veteran wide player believes the harsh nature of the industry ultimately equipped him with the resilience needed for the twilight of his career.
“As the years go by, you learn to accept things better,” he reflected.
Subsequent spells back in his homeland brought the contrasting misery of relegation with Celta Vigo, Huesca, and Recreativo de Huelva experiences that provided a stark sense of perspective compared to his early disappointment on Merseyside.