I’ll go :
Milan 1-0 Liverpool with Pirlo getting the goal
Milan 3 - Liverpool 1
Seedorf 41’ Gerrard 17’
Seedorf 62’
Inzaghi 71’
Mea Culpa. I didn’t realise you had to give the minute of the goals.
A 24th minute Andrea Pirlo goal will give Milan their 7th European Cup
Egg on your face if you got the time of the goal wrong Baby.
Ac Milan : 2 0 :Liverpool
kaka . 29
inzaghi .91
Milan 1 - 2 Liverpool
Seedorf 59’ Gerrard 28’
Kuyt 70
Milan 1 (0) - 0 (0) Liverpool
Kaka '54
Possession: Milan 62% - 38% Liverpool
AC Milan 2 - 1 Liverpool
Kaka 16’ Gerrard 82’
Kaka 63’
Off to put my bets on now ;D
For the sake of all that is right and proper and good about football please God let Milan win this game tonight.
Lord hear us.
Lord graciously hear us.
Thank you.
Said it before and I’ll say it again - Liverpool are as good of a team as Milan
My prediction:
Liverpool 2-1 Milan
Don’t know goalscorers etc. Off to the Two Sisters now to get our usual seats. I’m beginning to shit it
Ridiculous!! For the good of football?! ???
what would you know bandage only what someone would tell you?!
Don’t want to jinx anything here.
Getting hilarious texts from Liverpool supporters bemoaning their being ‘robbed’.
Do they not remember getting battered in 2005 for the whole 120 minutes bar one crazy 5-10 minute spell after half time?
Nobody even close to getting scorers, scoreline and times of goals all correct. Embarrassing.
Milan deserved that tonight. Liverpool had the better of the first half without doing very much with the ball but Milan had the class where it told.
Thought Mascherano had a cracking game for Liverpool in defence anyway. Really hounded Kak and Seedorf with the ball which caused them problems. Significant that when he’d departed Kak got the ball in more time and space than he’d been allowed all night because the back 4 didn’t come out to him and he played a sublime pass for Inzaghi.
Other than that Liverpool were ordinary. Back four were competent though I thought Finnan could have got forward better/more often. Alonso wasn’t up to a top standard - awful pass right at the death, but he didn’t get on top all game. Mascherano did well as I said. Pennant and Zenden were brutal. Pennant got lots of space against Jankulovski but didn’t hit a cross of note all night (including set pieces) until the Kuyt goal at the end. Milan were happy to shadow him into the corner where he didn’t know what to do. When he did get his cross in it was generally horrific. Zenden was simply appalling. Shocking effort and he’s the type of mediocrity Liverpool need rid of.
Gerrard had an ok game. Ran out of steam a bit and didn’t seem that comfortable in his role. He got on the end of a couple of loose balls to get shots in but he was absent completely from a creative perspective - no incisive passes at all. Kuyt did fine up top but Crouch added much more when he came on.
For Milan the back 4 were fine, largely untroubled, though Jankulovski’s positioning was suspect. Oddo on the other hand was in control on his flank. Gattuso and Ambrosini both tackled well but their passing was below par, Gattuso in particular left Nesta short three or four times. Pirlo had a good game, Seedorf was reasonable. Kak was well marshalled but still produced a couple of class moments and his ball for the second goal was superb. Inzaghi did what Inzaghi does - goals.
is Pennant the first ever ex con to play in a European Cup final?
It might be easier for me to stay on track if I do this in bullet point style:
- I think the Big Cup has gone to the right home tonight.
- Liverpool were unlucky to be behind at half time.
- Not because of any stunning football they were playing but due to the fact they were largely in control of the game.
- It tied into Dunphy’s pre-match point about it being a battle of styles. He said one team would try to play imaginative pass and move football while the other would be destructive concentrating on smothering their opponents and closing down space.
- He went on to say that Liverpool do the latter and it’s far easier to become adept at that pressing, preventative type of football than the postive and more constructive Milanese style.
- And that’s how the first half developed with Liverpool forcing Milan into errors and getting a lot of the ball without looking dangerous with it themselves.
- Some of the Milan players underperformed, particularly in the first half, with Jankulovski giving the ball away twice in dangerous areas. Thought Maldini wasn’t as composed as normal and Gattuso and Ambrosini only really began to stamp their authority on the game in the last 25 minutes.
- Liverpool weren’t good enough to take advantage of this in an attacking sense even though I thought Alonso and Mascherano were very compact and had given them a good platform in the first half.
- Gerrard was wasted playing upfront. And that’s where he was too. He was playing as a striker and not as a supporting midfield player.
- Pennant had some good moments in the game but his delivery was poor overall. Zenden was abysmal and Kewell was no improvement. Carragher looked injured for the last 20 minutes and didn’t track Inzaghi’s run for the second goal.
- I thought Liverpool’s best player was Mascherano even though the back four were solid enough.
- In the second half Liverpool were poor in possession so I don’t subscribe to the fact that they were unlucky. They didn’t do enough to warrant getting a result.
- The second Milan goal was simple yet sublime and was worthy of the occasion.
- It was a definitive goal in that it separated the teams at the end but it also showed the difference in the way they play football.
- Forza Milan.
Fair result tonight. Milan didn’t play near as well as they can tonight but were clearly the better side with the ball. Kaka’s pass for the second goal illustrates why he is the best player in the world. Inzaghi took the goal like the class finisher he is but the pass was perfectly weighted and at a crucial stage in the game.Gerrard was Gerrard. Huff and puff but no creativity. He tried a half volley shot from the guts of thirty yards near the end when he had main in space who were in far better positionos than him. Gerrard’s problem is of late is that he is starting to believe what people are saying about him being world class. Finnan looked a little tentative which he can do a litttle too often when up against quality opposition (especially at international level). I was surprised at Benitez’s protests at the end and it seemed a little out of character. Perhaps he knows his side were well beaten and this is what hurts so much.
Yeah that’s pretty much bang on Bandage. Forgot to point out in my earlier post how bad Carragher was for the second goal. I presume he was injured, otherwise it was a horrible dereliction of duty.
Forgot to post last night that I had a 10 minute window in my busy schedule so decided to watch 10 minutes of a Champions League final preview on Sky just for the laugh. It was Redknapp and Andy Gray with Keyes in Athens at the stadium.
They decided to talk about Milan for a couple of minutes which was very gracious of them. Conversation went like this:
JR I mean they’ve had some big players haven’t they. Big big players.
AG Have they ever?
RK Ho ho. Big club.
JR Look at that footage we were watching. Baresi, Rijkaard, Ruud who’ll be sat here wif us tomorrow.
AG Has there ever been three better players from one country than Van Basten, Rijkaard and Gullit?
RK Great names. Wilkins too.
JR Ray as well yeah. You know sumfink I was finking it’s strange when you fink of Baresi and Maldini and Nesta and guys like that. They seem to play on forever. It’s like they feel sumfink for the club ya know?
RK It’s a special club
AG It is yeah.
JR I mean they play on for ages. They don’t want to leave. It’s like if they’re good enough they’ll play and they’ll never leave. It’s like there’s a special bond or a connection…
RK Yeah
JR What’s the word? Some sort of special bond together. More than a team. There’s a word for it…
AG A Family
JR That’s it. They’re like a family.
;D Gobshites.
Thoughts on tonight’s match:
- poor match. Neither team played well
- Liverpool best team in the first half and fell behind to a freak goal
- Pennant had an excellent first half. Was Liverpool’s biggest threat. Did well in second half as well
- Alonso shocking in first half. Lost the ball in run up to free for goal and conceded the free-kick (marginal) for the goal
- Liverpool poor in second half. Zenden a dead duck. Kewell didn’t do anything when he came on although it was difffiuclt as Liverpool, especially Gerrard seemed to tire
- Milan’s second goal was a simple ball from Kaka finished well by Inzaghi. Lets not blow our loads about it.
- Crouch came on too late - it was obvious that Liverpool needed to change the way they were playing long before that
- Milan are a poor side. Kaka apart worse than Liverpool
- People on this forum say to be that I am overtly pro the English League. In fact these people are so overtly against the English league that they build up ordinary sides like Milan into something they are not just because they are not English