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L.M.'s boys |
Champions League: Athens 2007
AC Milan 2, Liverpool 1
Pierre Tristam / Candide’s Notebooks, May 24, 2007
AC Milan and Liverpool met in the Champions League final two years ago in Istanbul’s Ataturk Stadium, in possibly the greatest final ever: Milan’s Paolo Maldini scored in the first minute, Milan scored twice more (the Argentine Hernan Crespo finding the onion bag both times) before half time. Liverpool came back, scoring three goals in the second half. Liverpool eventually won on penalty kicks, 3-2, which forcibly downgrades the match from greatest to great. Here they were again in Wednesday’s Champions League final, Milan and Liverpool , this time in Athens (can’t ever give the Turks a big event without giving the same to the Greeks within a year or two, if you don’t want to risk a war. And vice versa). Milan was looking for revenge. They looked like they’d get it when they thrashed Manchester United in the semis. They got it against Liverpool, who’ve looked less than stellar most of the year, even though Liverpool played a fine match overall. Mystery of the match: Peter Crouch, who scored six goals for Liverpool in Champions League matches this year (second only to Milan ’s Kaka), was not in the line-up until the last 15 minutes of the game. What the hell was Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool skipper, thinking? From the UK Times:
Strength of will was enough to win the Champions League final on a famous night in Istanbul but, two years on, this was a final decided by details, by individuals and critical moments — and AC Milan enjoyed the best of them. Having seized the lead, the Italians were not going to have the trophy snatched from their grasp, even if Dirk Kuyt’s late goal for Liverpool did, momentarily, raise the prospect of another outrageous Liverpool comeback.
The Dutchman’s 89th- minute header caused a late flurry of excitement, and had Rafael Benítez complaining that his team had not been given the allotted three extra minutes, but the truth was that Milan had shown a cutting edge that their opponents had lacked — not only last night but for much of the season. The Liverpool manager was happy to admit as much afterwards.
Benítez talked enviously of the individual quality of Milan’s forwards and, in doing so, he hoped to remind his American bosses that he needs many millions of pounds to attract the likes of David Villa, Fernando Torres and Samuel Eto’o this summer.
His use of Steven Gerrard as an auxiliary striker last night may have been tactical but it also highlighted a lack of confidence in the forwards that he himself had brought to Anfield.
Milan had been fortunate with the first, deflected goal from Filippo Inzaghi but they had added to it in the 82nd minute with a second of ruthless efficiency from the striker, running on to Kaká’s through-ball as Jamie Carragher belatedly tried to catch him offside. It was the sort of finish that Liverpool could not muster, and which confirmed to Benítez that he must overhaul his roster of forwards. Only Kuyt is certain to remain.
Peter Crouch was a late substitute but Craig Bellamy did not even make it off the bench. And Robbie Fowler spent his last night as a Liverpool player sat forlornly in the stands. The full story...
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Vienna, Sunday, June 29, 14:45 EST |
Live Blogging
Germany v. Spain
Pierre / June 28
Set your alarm clocks, prep your laptops, give your chihuahua a swift kick in the arse and stock your fridge full of Carlsberg: This is the place to be Sunday afternoon for completely pointless, malinformed and likely inebriated live-blogging of the Euro final. Unlike 2004, we won't have an undeservedly dull upstart (Greece) playing a collection of Deco-Ronaldo whiners (Portugal). This time it's two goal-oriented powerhouses of football who, Turkey's Jannissary-like displays and the Netherlands' joyfully premature peaking aside (I wanted to see those two go head to foot), earned their place in the final. Somehow finding time for a little football between their inquisitions, their new-world genocides and old-world holocausts, Spain and Germany have played each other 19 times. Germany has the advantage with eight wins against Spain's five. They've tied six times. Germany has the goal-scoring advantage too, 26-21, although this time it looks like Spain is slightly favored. Coming into the game, Germany is 4-1 at the Euro, losing to Croatia, 1-2, and scoring 10 goals while conceding six. Spain is undefeated at Euro 2008, beating Italy on penalty kicks for its quarterfinal victory and scoring 11 goals along the way while conceding just three—and not one in its last two matches. Keep in mind that in qualifiers, when Germany faced its only true challenge (the Czechs), Germany lost 0-3, at home in Munich. (To be fair, the Germans defeated the Czechs earlier in the Czech Republic, 2-1). Germany has won the Euro three times, tops on that continent of warmongers. Spain faced no competition in qualifiers (unless you can call provinces like Iceland, Latvia and Liechtenstein competition. Spain won the European Championships once, in 1964. Anyway, be sure to tune in right here, the live-blogging should be fun with this new tool that I discovered while keeping up with the Supreme Court's Valdez-guzzlin, child-raping, gun-toting decisions. Go figure. No need to refresh your page: it's all really live. You can stay here on go to the dedicated page.
Meanwhile, since we're in Vienna, here's a little Mozart.
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