Book description
This is a stimulating and deeply insightful football narrative by Rafa
Benitez which focuses on the legendary manager's dramatic six Champions
League campaigns with Liverpool. Rafa expertly navigates fans through
intriguing European adventures that embrace the triumph and despair of
two Champions League finals, three semi-finals and five quarter-finals
in what was a golden era for the Anfield club - an era that supporters
felt gave them their pride back after years in the wilderness. What sets
this apart is the unique ways in which Rafa allows fans into his
high-pressured world, the fascinating glimpses he offers of a top
manager's thought processes and decision making during the cut and
thrust of a high-octane European campaign. Understand how a great
manager prepares for, then executes, a master-plan for European success.
Rafa Benitez began his football coaching career at Real Madrid before
going on to manage Real Valladolid, Osasuna, Extremadura and Tenerife.
But it was at Valencia where he really made his name, managing the club
to the Spanish La Liga title twice - in 2002 and 2004. Appointed manager
of Liverpool in 2004, in Rafa's first year in charge he delivered the
Champions League trophy, courtesy of an astonishing second-half
come-back against AC Milan that came to be known as 'The Miracle of
Istanbul'. His time at Anfield also brought four consecutive seasons in
the Premier League top 4, the European Super Cup in 2005, and the FA Cup
and Community Shield in 2006. But it was the Champions League record
which marked him out as an absolutely outstanding operator - he won it
once, finished runner-up once, and reached another semi-final and
another quarter-final. Benitez left Liverpool to join Inter Milan in
2010, where he won the Italian Super Cup and FIFA Club World Cup, before
he departed Italy in 2011.
