UCL Final - Milan vs. Liverpool... Athens, May 23rd

Originally Posted by Giovanni

The only reason i'm afraid of Liverpool is Benitez. He studied with Sacchi and he's a coach of Italian school..i think he took a degree in football coaching in Coverciano too, the temple of Italian coaching school.

He's knows strategy, and he knows italian football. But if Milan plays a la Milan we have nothing to be afraid.

Giovanni glad to see someone if not many more has caught on to Benitez's style. It is downright carbon copy of how Italian teams in Europe used to and still play.Maybe not Milan. Just a quick flashback if you watched Liverpool vs Barca at Anfield, there were stretches in the game for about 8-10 minutes when Liverpool had all their field players in their own half. There are plenty of examples, Barca game is the only one I could think of.
Liverpool look to kill the flow of the oppositon and strictly capitalise on mistakes. They do not put much emphasis on creativity and possession.
Benitez's Liverpool plays a reinvented catennacio in Europe and that is why everybody lauds him as some genius in the European game. And another thing, why haven't people (esp' the press) caught on to somewhat negative tactics? Granted he has had his fair share of success but I find it hard to validate the genius label on him. My concern for the final is Mascherano, he is probably Rafa's most astute buy since his tenure in Liverpool, and probably Liverpool's best player next to Gerard.
Javier is a destroyer and his presence on the field on May 23 could hamper our march to the title.

By the way Giovanni, I was watching a clip where Rino scored and the comentator was screaming in Italian, il vento de lione. My spelling is probably seriously off but I wanted to know what that means. I figure lione is lion.