Ex-Liverpool defender says he 'HATED' Benitez for his 2005 UCL final omission

A former Liverpool player has blasted Rafa Benitez for how the ex-Reds boss treated him in the run-up to the Reds' Champions League final victory in 2005 - revealing that the Spaniard also cost him £200,000.

Liverpool's famous comeback victory against AC Milan in Istanbul has gone down in history as one of the greatest sporting comebacks ever.

The Reds turned around a 3-0 deficit to beat the Serie A side in the most dramatic of circumstances, but it was a bittersweet moment for several of Liverpool's players who were omitted from the matchday squad for the final by Benitez.

The Spaniard, who had joined Liverpool in 2004, had taken Liverpool on an excellent run during the European tournament, with the Reds beating Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea on their way to the final.

Yet for one ex-Liverpool star and boyhood fan of the club, the way that Benitez treated him in the lead-up to the final was an 'absolute disgrace'.

Speaking on the Under the Cosh podcast, Stephen Warnock hit out at Benitez, after he had been withdrawn from the squad to play in the final, despite the manager having previously named him in the 18-man matchday team.

He had told his family to book plane tickets to Turkey, before Pako Ayestaran rang him to deliver the tough news that the management had made a mistake on the squad and that he was not included in the team. Warnock subsequently called Benitez a 'f****** coward' on the podcast for not calling him up personally.

The 42-year-old, who hails from Ormskirk in Merseyside, had been named in the squads for all of Liverpool's Champions League matches in the run-up to the final - making four appearances during the tournament.

'It was hard for me because I'm a Liverpool fan, I grew up standing on the Kop