Associazione Calcio Milan began the 2004–05 season auspiciously by winning the 2004 Supercoppa Italiana, with a comfortable 3–0 victory over Lazio (the winners of the previous season's Coppa Italia), thanks to a hat-trick by Andriy Shevchenko.

The Serie A began with a 2–2 draw against Livorno. For most of the season, Milan were second to Juventus, in a close points race. However, after matchweeks 25 through 30, and again matchweeks 33 through 34, Milan were in first place. On 8 May 2005, Milan faced Juventus at home; by matchweek 35, the two had almost identical statistics of 76 points, 23 wins, 7 draws, and 4 defeats, with Milan's marginally superior goal difference of +36 against Juventus' +35 keeping them on top. Having lost the potential title deciding game 1–0 to a goal by David Trezeguet, Milan drew three more times afterwards and finished in the second place.

In the Champions League, Milan were successful and sure-footed, comfortably topping their group (which included Barcelona, Celtic and Shakhtar Donetsk) and then knocking out Manchester United, cross-city rivals Inter and PSV Eindhoven, thus reaching their second Champions League final in three years. The final was against Liverpool. In the first half Ancelotti's men scored three goals, one from Paolo Maldini, the club captain, and two from Hernán Crespo. However, in the second half, the English opponents managed to do the same in just 6 minutes, meaning the match went to extra time. Milan were not able to find a fourth goal and had to face a penalty shoot-out. Unlike in 2003, Milan players went first and missed the first and second penalty kicks (taken by Serginho and Pirlo). Shevchenko, who scored the deciding penalty two years earlier, had to score from the fifth penalty to keep Milan in the game, but failed to beat Dudek, and Liverpool won the Champions League, in one of the most famous come-backs in European football history.

Throughout the season, Ancelotti mostly used the 4–4–2 diamond (or 4–1–2–1–2) formation, which he had previously employed with much success, especially in 2002–03; the fact that four top-quality strikers were available (Shevchenko, Crespo, Inzaghi and Tomasson) made it almost imperative that two of them would have to be used as regular starters. On rare occasions, however, formations with three centrebacks and two wingbacks (usually Cafu and Serginho), such as 3–5–2 or 3–4–1–2, were used.Riccardi, Marco. "Il Milan di Ancelotti". Dellios Digital (April 16, 2019).

Players

Squad information Squad at end of season Squad no.NameNationalityPosition Goalkeepers1DidaGK17Christian AbbiatiGK12Valerio FioriGK Defenders3Paolo Maldini (Captain)CB / LB2CafuRB13Alessandro NestaCB31Jaap StamCB / RB4Kakha KaladzeLB / CB5Alessandro Costacurta (Vice Captain)CB14Dario ŠimićCB / RB27SerginhoLB26Giuseppe PancaroLB / RB30Harvey EsajasLB Midfielders21Andrea PirloCM8Gennaro GattusoCM10Rui CostaAM22KakáAM20Clarence SeedorfCM / AM23Massimo AmbrosiniCM24Vikash DhorasooCM32Cristian BrocchiCM Forwards7Andriy ShevchenkoCF11Hernán Crespo (on loan from Chelsea)CF9Filippo InzaghiCF15Jon Dahl TomassonCF

Left club during season

Reserve squad

Transfers

In

First-team

Total spending: €

Out

First-team

Reserves

Competitions

Supercoppa

Serie A

League table

Results summary

Results by round

Matches

Coppa Italia

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

UEFA Champions League

Group stage

Knockout phase

Round of 16

Quarter-finals

Semi-finals

Final

Statistics Appearances and goals As of 31 June 2005

Legacy In Turkey, the 2004–05 squad of Ac Milan is reckoned part of "general knowledge every person should know from memory" and is referred to as "Milan's Legendary Squad" () and the following 11 is considered a squad every person, including those who are not interested in football, is expected to know: Dida (goalkeeper) - Cafu - Nesta - Stam - Maldini (defense) - Pirlo - Gattuso - Seedorf - Kaká (nidfield) - Shevchenko - Crespo/Inzaghi (forward). However, some contend that the actual Legendary Squad of AC Milan was the one between 1988 - 1994. While some others still refer to the 2004–05 squad as "the Legendary Squad of Milan" but extend the period and refer to the period of AC Milan between 2003 and 2007 as the "Legendary Period of Milan" (tr: Milanın Efsane Dönemi).

References