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

Originally Posted by rome1977

you have Liverpool to thank for that UEFA rule change in the summer of 2005!

I'd rather have the CL trophy
anyways, that doesn't really affect us as what Liverpool did was redefine the rules regarding direct CL qualification for teams that win the CL but finish outside their league's CL qualifying spots.

Originally Posted by Tony29.

What i found extremely strange ( and then it was obvious as you kept writing) was how you completely agreed with every single post where Rafa and Pool were praised ( one of these post was writen by me and you even said it is a great post, something, at this moment, a Milan fan wouldn't have said ), how you enjoyed every anti-ManUtd post ( ) , how you commented on Sheva's 120 minute missed chance, how you praised Liverpool players, and most of all - how you labelled Maldini as an old player and you doubted if he was capable to cope with Pool's attack.

No Milan fan would have acted like you did, but every undercover Pool fan would have done exactly that

I did have a few laughs here when repeatedly urging Milan to beat the 'englanders'

I kept thinking of old tv comedy shows - like Dad's Army and Hello Hello, for quotes. lol

In hindsight tho, suggesting 10.2 seconds for Gonzalez doing the 100m, was too much! If I'd said 10.6 or 10.7, then I might have got away with that!

Originally Posted by Tony29.

Zlat, are you completely sure the CL winner won't have to play CLQ matches ? It sounds logical and it was a rule in the past ( it happened with Milan in 2003/04 when they finished 3rd but won the CL) , still i'm not sure if it's stil the same rule. I know UEFA made some changes regarding the CL winner's participation if they don't get to be in top4, but i never heard if they changed or didn't change this rule about CL winner not playing Q matches, so i wondered what will happen !

yeah, I am absolutely sure - even before 2005, if a team were to win the CL but ended up in say 3rd or 4th place in Italy, that team would have been granted direct qualification for nest year's CL ... and no, Milan didn't have to play CLQ after winning the CL for 2003.

What Liverpool did was to make UEFA "tweak" their rules about the situation when the CL winner did NOT manage to finish within the CL spots in their domestic league.
Back then, because the rules had not been clear on that, Pool had to play 3 qualifiers for CL and the EPL ended up with 5 teams playing for CL.
Now the UEFA rules state that the CL winner will play CL no matter what for the following season.

And if that's really the case then both You and Pool will have to say SORRY to Dinamo Bucarest fans. They were guaranteed CL groups stage place, but only in case the winner of this year's CL to get the CL groups spot anyway by finishing first or second in their league.
Now with England or Italy having 3 teams to play directly in group stages, without Q matches, poor Dinamo Bucaresti will have to play Q matches

SORRY!!!

Originally Posted by rome1977

Hello Hello

I shall say this only once ( )
Pool will lose the final

Originally Posted by Tony29.

I shall say this only once ( )
Pool will lose the final

listen carefully, i shall zay this only once - the reds will liberate Athens and your resistance will be futile, as we return the trophy to Liverpool.

Originally Posted by rome1977

listen carefully, i shall zay this only once - the reds will liberate Athens and your resistance will be futile, as we return the trophy to Liverpool.

Gorcuff: "Good Meuuuuuuuuuuuuuning ve are out of passenger pidgeins...so the massage that Meeeeeelan weeell weeeeen shall be transpitted on a long distance ****"

Originally Posted by rome1977

listen carefully, i shall zay this only once - the reds will liberate Athens and your resistance will be futile, as we return the trophy to Liverpool.

You stupid woman... i think you mixed Allo Allo and Star trek ! What a mistake-a to make-a.

Ze reds, I spit on them. They could never liberate-a Athens like-a Italians can do.
Heila Mussolini!

edit : the last part is only a quote from Allo Allo. Please don't make drama out of it. It is just a joke !

Sgt. Grubeer :"I like Inter "

(Drucurl to Adriana Lima): "You may kiss me"

Originally Posted by drucurl

Gorcuff: "Good Meuuuuuuuuuuuuuning ve are out of passenger pidgeins...so the massage that Meeeeeelan weeell weeeeen shall be transpitted on a long distance ****"

Looooooooooooooooooooooooool !

Ahh, Allo Allo, so many fond memories of some past times whenever i hear quotes from this serie.
Britts do know their humor

The next time we can do Blackadder. Dru, you'll be Baldrick

Originally Posted by drucurl

Gorcuff: "Good Meuuuuuuuuuuuuuning ve are out of passenger pidgeins...so the massage that Meeeeeelan weeell weeeeen shall be transpitted on a long distance ****"

zwe liberated Italy once, and zwe shall liberate her again.

The reds will fight for every ball, every challenge. Zwe will prevail. lol

Originally Posted by Samuca

Last time Milan's players crashed Liverpool in the first half, wasn´t the tatic, the principal factor was the team play between Kaká and Crespo

So Benitez made a good motivation and tatical job on the break and Liverpool did 3 goals

The only ones Liverpool's players that I wanted in Milan are Kuyt and Riise, the others aren´t necessary

If Liverpool didn´t have Benitez, this english team would not even got passed from the group stage

The fact is, during that first half Rafa got his tactics wrong, which is why we were so dominant. To bring in Hamann and move Gerrard further right was smart, but in the end we still created chances (and had Dudek not pulled off miracles that night, we would have still won).

The 3 goals Liverpool scored I wouldn't actually put down to Rafa either, as it was a complete failure in our side for 6 minutes, after which I don't think they created any decent chances.

Motivation was probably a factor Benitez was important in, but in the end I think Carlo has shown all the managing skills and abilities that Rafa has in their respective careers.

Rome1977

The following are some simple words, but they always get thick scousers heated up..

'You have never been domestic champions for over 18 years, so how the hell are you classified as the champions of Europe?'

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

The fact is, during that first half Rafa got his tactics wrong, which is why we were so dominant.

that is exactly the way I saw it too.

Indeed, I was amazed to see Didi Hamann not starting the match. That was a very serious error.

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

The fact is, during that first half Rafa got his tactics wrong, which is why we were so dominant. To bring in Hamann and move Gerrard further right was smart, but in the end we still created chances (and had Dudek not pulled off miracles that night, we would have still won).

The 3 goals Liverpool scored I wouldn't actually put down to Rafa either, as it was a complete failure in our side for 6 minutes, after which I don't think they created any decent chances.

Motivation was probably a factor Benitez was important in, but in the end I think Carlo has shown all the managing skills and abilities that Rafa has in their respective careers.

I was think something else though - back then Kaka was playing behind 2 forwards as their playmaker and was lying deeper in midfield.
Now, in Cl we play we Seedorf in the playmaking role while Kaka may still help out in attacking mid but is also played a bit more forward, more like the support striker Sheva once was.

So, I would be dif for Benitez to simply put a ball winner like Mascherano on Kaka as that player would have to track him a bit too deep into his own defensive line and this would create gaps in midfield for players like Seedorf and Pirlo and the rest could profit from.

Similar issues could arise if a defender was put onto Kaka ... basically, there is always the chance that defense and midfield may misunderstand each other and think that the other party is taking care of Kaka.

Originally Posted by Milancelotti

Rome1977

The following are some simple words, but they always get thick scousers heated up..

'You have never been domestic champions for over 18 years, so how the hell are you classified as the champions of Europe?'

I totally agree, mate.

I don't much like the Champions League format. I much prefer the old European Cup, where the various national league winners play two-legged ties (home and away) in a knock out style competition.

The Champions League is merely a commercial vehicle. Modern football depresses me, and for me isn't shade on football from decades ago.

Our 2005 CL winning team couldn't hold a candle to the late 70s/early 80s team of Souness/Case/McDermott/Dalglish, etc.

Football used to be about slowly building a tight cohesive team. Nowadays, with all the money in the hands of a few clubs, it is all about bringing in the latest superstars.

I'm probably an old fogey in my thinking.