Liverpool striker left watching Champions League parade on TV after being forced to miss team flight

Without Florent Sinama-Pongolle, Liverpool may never have reached Istanbul in 2005, where they would go on to win the Champions League final in the most fairy tale fashion imaginable.

Struggling to even get out of the group stage and 1-0 down to Olympiakos at half-time in their final fixture, it was the Frenchman, signed by Gerard Houllier, who scored the first goal that started a dramatic 3-1 comeback victory - best remembered for Steven Gerrard's late pile-driver - that paved the way to Champions League glory.

As Liverpool overcame Bayer Leverkusen, Juventus and Chelsea, in turn, Sinama-Pongolle was left out of the squad for the final against AC Milan. That didn't stop him from celebrating wildly in Turkey as the Reds came from 3-0 down at halftime to pull the game all square before going on to win it on penalties on one of the most famous nights in the club's illustrious history.

But as things turned out, the joy for Sinama-Pongolle didn't even last 24 hours as chaos around organisation of the victory parade saw Liverpool's fringe players miss out completely.

Speaking exclusively to Ladbrokes at the launch of their 5-A-Side Bet on the FA Cup Final, he said: "You go from this crazy night of celebrations, taking pictures next to the trophy, celebrating with your teammates, to what turned out to be one of the lowest moments of my career. Everything was great, we were all celebrating as a team, and then the next day, for people like myself, Anthony Le Tallec and Neil Mellor - who were all a part of the Champions League journey - we just had to witness everything that happened.

"We didn't get to travel back to Liverpool with the matchday squad. We all had to see the families of our teammates leave Istanbul with the squad