Rafa Benitez had nothing to do with Liverpool's Champions League win, says Sunderland boss Sam Allardyce

The two managers have a longstanding fued dating back to Benitez's first spell in the Premier League

Benitez and Allardyce line up on the touchline in 2006 (Getty Images)

Sam Allardyce has suggested that Rafael Benitez does not deserve any credit for Liverpool's miraculous Champions League triumph in 2005.

The new Sunderland manager has a longstanding fued with Benitez, dating back to the Spaniard's time on Merseyside, and has decided to reignite it with his thoughts on that incredible comeback in Istanbul.

Liverpool were 3-0 down to AC Milan at half-time in the final but, thanks in part to a commanding performance from captain Steven Gerrard, they pulled the game back to 3-3 at the end of extra time. Goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek's heroics won the subsequent penalty shoot-out and the club, improbably, became champions of Europe for the fifth time.

However, in his Big Sam: My Autobiography, which is being serialised in The Sun, Allardyce believes no credit should be given to Benitez for the victory.

"Of course he [Benitez] can say he won the Champions League with Liverpool, which is something I mever did," he says. "But it was nowt to do with him.

"Steven Gerrard took that final by the scruff of the neck and dragged Liverpool back from 3-0 down against AC Milan to eventually win on penalties.

"I don't blame Benitez for claiming credit - but as managers we know the truth. It's like when you make a substitution in desperation and it comes off. You get all the credit for your tactical brilliance when it's often just luck."

At half-time in Istanbul, Benitez substituted right-back Steve Finnan for defensive midfielder Dietmar Hamann. The change is often credited as one of the reasons for Liverpool's incredible comeback.

The pair have famously never seen eye-to-eye and in this new book, Allardyce goes some way to explaining why he and Benitez fell out.

"He didn't like me and he thought he was superior," Allardyce wrote. "Here was a trendy foreign manager with all his smart ideas getting beat by some oik from the Midlands.

"I put his comments on the wall of the changing room [at Bolton] but Ivan Campo and Jay-Jay Okocha said, 'We don't need those, gaffer, we'll beat him anyway.'

"Benitez wouldn't talk to me at all and that just made it all the better when we won. I can't stand people who disrespect me the way he did."

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