LIVERPOOL'S TURN FOR DISSAPOINTMENT

 

(Image taken from BBC)

Well United got shot down in the Champions League semi finals 5-3 on aggregate by AC Milan. However that doesn't take anything away from England's overall record in the competition. Last year, Arsenal got all the way to the final at the Stade de France only to get beat 2-1 by Barcelona. Back in '05 though when I was still at Uni full time, Liverpool made it to the final at the Attaturk Stadium. Level at 3-3 after 90 minutes, the match eventually led to a penalty shootout which the Scousers won.

This year, Liverpool were again England's representatives in the biggest club game in Europe and again their opposition is AC Milan, a rematch of the '05 final which was a classic! Paulo Maldini opened the scoring with Hernan Crespo striking twice to sure doom the Scousers before half time. However Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xavi Alonso all hit the net to amazingly force extra time and with the deadlock unbroken, Liverpool won 3-2 on penalties.

Since then, AC Milan have been hurting and now they had their chance for payback. Like in '05, the Scousers had worked seemingly invisibly to make their second final in three years while never looking to be a serious factor in the domestic game. The good omen for the Scousers is that like in '05, they saw off Chelsea in the semi finals. Now they meet the rossanari again, this time in the Olympic Stadium in Athens with the atmosphere electric.

Well it was Pool that started off on the attack and the Serie A side just didn't know what hit them! Their defence was constantly battered and got increasingly desperate as the half went on, their star players got bogged down in a well prepared Scouse midfield and their attack in general was forced to feed off scraps! Rafael Benitez's crew were dead cert to score at some point in the procedings however it was not to be before half time. Instead, Milan benefitted from an injury time Andrea Pirlo free kick which Fillipo Inzaghi nudged in.

Benitez wasn't nervous though, knowing full well that whatever the scoreboard said, his team had been the better side in the second half. However his players certainly were nervy and the Italian side were happy to make the most of things, looking likely to get a second. Subs were brought on to help the Scouse cause and they briefly resparked but failed to find an equaliser and Milan didn't fancy dodging any more bullets. So in the 82nd minute Kaka set up Inzaghi to take the ball round the Poll goalie and end the match. The Scousers had other ideas though, Dirk Kuyt heading in a Daniel Agger nudge in the 89th minute to give hope of a miracle but the '07 Scousers aren't the United apocylpse squad of '99 and so it turned out to be loo little too late.

In the meantime, UEFA had a brain dead moment. What do you do when a load of Scouse fans with genuine tickets to the Champions League final turn up when the stadium is already full? Do you send guys into the stadium to find whoever got in with fake tickets, throw them out and let those with genuine tickets in? Or do you turn the fans with genuine tickets away and then whine about them not walking away smiling? For UEFA the answer is the latter. Morons! Overall though, it been a good season for English football in Europe. Three teams in the Champions League semis for the first time ever isn't something you can argue with. Unless you're an AC Milan fan.

Now it's England's show for the next couple of weeks.

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