The streets of Istanbul were alive long into the night after the game, which itself had not been wrapped up until gone midnight.
Those Liverpool supporters who hadn't jumped on immediate flights home packed Taksim Square and beyond, most barely able to comprehend what had gone on.
Such was the cacophony around the area that sleep wasn't ever going to be an option. Bleary-eyed, via a detour to catch the similarly exhausted Liverpool players at the team's hotel later in the morning, it was back to the airport for the long haul home.
Paris was the first stop, but while thousands of supporters lined the streets of Liverpool to greet their triumphant heroes, many of those that had actually been at the game were stranded at Charles de Gaulle airport and other venues across Europe, frustrated as the enormous backlog of flights into Speke meant they could not join the festivities back home.
It was then that an encounter on the flight from Istanbul to Paris sprung to mind.
A man in the next seat was reading a report on the match.
"Yes, I was there," he said. "I've flown in from Johannesburg just to see the game and I'm now on my way back.
"I'm shattered and it cost a fortune, but there was no way I was going to be missing that match."
For all their trials and tribulations getting to and from Istanbul, it's something that can never be taken from those Liverpool fans present at the Ataturk Stadium in May 25, 2005.
