Champions League Final: AC Milan vs Liverpool (ALL-match comments)

Originally Posted by savicevic

exactly Nadir. the only team that respected the bookmaker's favourites was Milan. so we should be partly happy.

i was thinking, what gear will milan opt for? i think l'pool will go for red, milan white, same gear we used against:

- benfica 63
- steaua 89
- benfica 90
- barcelona 94
- juventus 03

Milan have a superstition for cup finals - that they must wear white. I remember they explicity asked to wear white against Juve. Liverpool probably want to wear red anyway as it is the colour they are known by.

by the way, i found this on UEFA.com

"The Sun, clearly unconvinced by Milan, commented: "(Liverpool captain) Steven Gerrard had better practise lifting trophies. Milan are not as good as they think.""

a little english arrogance there i see. Let's be honest - the liverpoolers are shaking in their boots at the prospect of facing Milan.

Originally Posted by savicevic

what one can observe at first glance is that fernando morientes (even though he is cup-tied) is a good luck charm. he was with monaco last time, and the under-dogs ended up playing the final.

he has joined l'pool in mid-season this year following a disappointing period at real, and l'pool, against all odds, manage to go to the final.

let's hope he's just good luck to get you through the semi-final, but then it stops there.

Agree - it was in the stars all along, Juve and Chelski simply failed to see it
Let's hope Morro brings Liverpool the same luck he brought to Monaco - a 3-zip loss in the final.
This being said, I have always liked Liverpool and honestly struggled to understand what happened to this legendary club over the past 20 years of anonimity - bad management, I guess.
Cudos to them for making it to the final - they had a tough road ahead of them for they had play Juve and Chelsea but it's gonna get even tougher in that last game.
Forza Milaaaaaaaan !!!

Originally Posted by zlatanov

Agree - it was in the stars all along, Juve and Chelski simply failed to see it
Let's hope Morro brings Liverpool the same luck he brought to Monaco - a 3-zip loss in the final.
This being said, I have always liked Liverpool and honestly struggled to understand what happened to this legendary club over the past 20 years of anonimity - bad management, I guess.
Cudos to them for making it to the final - they had a tough road ahead of them for they had play Juve and Chelsea but it's gonna get even tougher in that last game.
Forza Milaaaaaaaan !!!

what happened was a lengthy ban for english clubs from playing in europe. teams that received most of their income from euro games suddenly found their income stifled. the other teams started focusing on the local titles and hence man u had that great surge in the late 80's early 90's. liverpool still had great talent like barnes, rush, aldridge, nicol and grobelaar and were competing for titles in the late 80's but then the tides changed when they lost their best players and never got around to signing big names because of a lack of $.

This is by far the worst match of the season by Milan.The fact that they conceded a goal just after Ambrosini scored was shocking.It's obvious that Milan's flanks will be bombarded by Liverpool.We were totally exposed at the back.The only reason i can think of is fatigue.It's not easy for us to compete on both fronts and give a hundred per cent all the time.However the player that disappointed most was Seedorf.He has been looking out of sorts lately.I hope Ancelotti fields Ambro instead of Seedorf.Ambro has proven his worth.He is good in the air and he helps to secure the defence.I hope Crespo or Rui Costa play especially the latter.Costa has the big-match temperament.It is especially important for Milan to get the early goal and settle the nerves.


Latest news from,Sun,British tabloid.They have advised Gerard to start practising how to lift trophies as they feel that we are not as good as we look.I hope Milan can shut the English fans once and for all by beating yet another English team.




FORZA MILAN!
FORZA MILAN!
FORZA MILAN!
FORZA MILAN!
FORZA MILAN!

Personally, I think liverpool is a tough team for Milan looked by the way milan play. Milan always in trouble against a team who play with high pressure, up tempo and high determination like Liverpool did all the time.

I think Pirlo or seedorf should be more careful when playing the ball in their feet caused Liverpool midfielders will chase the ball quickly, steal then give through pass to 'speedy' barros...

Physically Liverpool over than MIlan.....BEWARE !!

Originally Posted by Nadir

by the way, i found this on UEFA.com

"The Sun, clearly unconvinced by Milan, commented: "(Liverpool captain) Steven Gerrard had better practise lifting trophies. Milan are not as good as they think.""

They might have pointed out that Maldini has had plenty of experience lifting trophies, so he doesn't need to practise.

Originally Posted by savicevic

exactly Nadir. the only team that respected the bookmaker's favourites was Milan. so we should be partly happy.

i was thinking, what gear will milan opt for? i think l'pool will go for red, milan white, same gear we used against:

- benfica 63
- steaua 89
- benfica 90
- barcelona 94
- juventus 03

Liverpool will be in their all red kit, which means Milan will be in their "lucky" all white kit.

We have won 5 finals in the white kit, those 5 as mentioned by you above. We beat Ajax in 1969 in our traditional rossonero colors.

Originally Posted by Nadir

what happened was a lengthy ban for english clubs from playing in europe. teams that received most of their income from euro games suddenly found their income stifled. the other teams started focusing on the local titles and hence man u had that great surge in the late 80's early 90's. liverpool still had great talent like barnes, rush, aldridge, nicol and grobelaar and were competing for titles in the late 80's but then the tides changed when they lost their best players and never got around to signing big names because of a lack of $.

In other words - bad management. All the other English teams had to live under the exact same conditions and ManU and Arsenal, although not being incredibly successful in Europe, managed to maintain their stature in the EPL by taking turns at winning the title. Liverpool on the other hand not only disappeared from the European scene but haven't been able to win the domestic title for more than 15 years now and, except for that season under Houllier, they never even came close to doing so.

Originally Posted by Peachtot

Personally, I think liverpool is a tough team for Milan looked by the way milan play. Milan always in trouble against a team who play with high pressure, up tempo and high determination like Liverpool did all the time.

I think Pirlo or seedorf should be more careful when playing the ball in their feet caused Liverpool midfielders will chase the ball quickly, steal then give through pass to 'speedy' barros...

Physically Liverpool over than MIlan.....BEWARE !!

Let's not judge Milan based on 1-2 bad games alone. Against the Milan team from yesterday it would be extremely difficult to find a so-so decent team that won't have the upper hand on us - even Brescia and Fiorentina showed that.
Unfortunately for the arrogant English journalists-wanna-bes, the final is three weeks away and by than many things can and will happen and I am sure we will be able to get over this bad period we are going through right now.

Originally Posted by Nadir

Milan have a superstition for cup finals - that they must wear white. I remember they explicity asked to wear white against Juve. Liverpool probably want to wear red anyway as it is the colour they are known by.

by the way, i found this on UEFA.com

"The Sun, clearly unconvinced by Milan, commented: "(Liverpool captain) Steven Gerrard had better practise lifting trophies. Milan are not as good as they think.""

a little english arrogance there i see. Let's be honest - the liverpoolers are shaking in their boots at the prospect of facing Milan.

Nadir, your not the only one shocked with the reactions of the Liverpool supporters and media, they watched that game last night and they saw a flicker of a life line. I have been reading the British papers, reading and listening to Liverppol supporters; from the way their talking you might think they have already won the CUP. Some are saying that Liverpool forwards will run rings around the "static" Milan defence. It wasn't even worth arguing with with these guys. Milan has not had a single threat in this years Champions league, and by virtue of one off night, everybody thinks Liverpool will win.Suddenly the team they didn't want in the championship match, is the one they are so badly disrespecting. Milan has nothing to prove, all we have to do is get back into gear, and all will be alright, and we will on Sunday. From watching Liverpool all season, I believe they will play us the way lowly Serie A teams play us, with fear.
WE WILL CRUSH LIVERPOOL. Jim_UK what other smack are they saying out there? WE WILL CRUSH LIVERPOOL!

Anyone know how they are likely to line up? Im guessing:
----------------Dudek-----------------
Finnan----Carragher--Hyppia----Trarorae
--Biscan-----Alonso----Gerrard---Risse--
--------------Garcia--------------------
----------------Cisse-------------------

After Hamman's good performance against Chelsea Benitez may play him in the centre with Gerrard on the right instead of Biscan or Garcia may play on the right allowing Baros to partner Cisse.

Looking at their side i think cafu can really hurt Trarorae. Stam should stand up strong against Cisse. The worry for me is Garcia in the hole where we have Pirlo who isnt good defensively. Also Kaka and Pirlo may be closed down well by Liverpool's midield. If they can do that they may beat us, but thats a big IF, more so in Pirlo's case who unlike Kaka has learnt to overcome this close marking(thanks to Seria A's smaller clubs). It also looks as if Kaka is starting to come out of the learning curve which he had to go through as a young player in such an important positon.

Im not sure what British press you've all read but everything i've read has Liverpool as underdogs

Anyone know how they are likely to line up? Im guessing:
----------------Dudek-----------------
Finnan----Carragher--Hyppia----Trarorae
--Biscan-----Alonso----Gerrard---Risse--
--------------Garcia--------------------
----------------Cisse-------------------

im not sure Cisse will start, there arent many games left for him to get back to full fitness. He might be used like he was against Chelsea, coming on late to add pace to any counter attacks. The rest of the side looks about right to me though im no great expert on them

One thing that isnt immediately obvious from that line up is how well it shifts into 5-4-1. Riise has spent plenty of his career at left back and knows the position well, equally Traore is comfortable at centre back which allows them to shift to a back 5 with Biscan, Alonso and Gerrard all capable of playing as defensive midfielders. When they do this they are very difficult to break through, almost invincible against crosses and very organised.

i think the key player for us might be kaka... that is, depending on whether he continues his good string of matches, biscan is a slow player and he plays in the center we have to use this, gerrard i think isnt playing well recently, their main threat is definatly luis garcia, that guy must be man marked by some1 like gattuso, riise is also dangerous, we should play our style of football if theyre defence can hold on then we should shift to using shots from outside the box, this is where kaka comes in.. lets hope he finds last seasons form again

dont wrry guys. WE will be in good condition for this one. its just that we arent machines. we have played 4 games in 2 weeks of course we are tired. now we have 1 game every week till the final. WE MUST BEAT JUVE and then win the game after so we can rest players ahead of the CL final. then after the final we will start everyone for the last game with udinese since we have nothing to rest for. so if we win the other 2 games in serie a we can rest for liverpool and we didnt rest against fiorentina. dont wrry people we will get back in shape. why does everyone think we wont be at our best? if milan is on its best in the final no team in the world can stop us. if not well its gona be a long night. if we played like we did with inter, manchester and most of serie a we can add another CL trophy.

Originally Posted by Rosso6

Nadir, your not the only one shocked with the reactions of the Liverpool supporters and media, they watched that game last night and they saw a flicker of a life line. I have been reading the British papers, reading and listening to Liverppol supporters; from the way their talking you might think they have already won the CUP. Some are saying that Liverpool forwards will run rings around the "static" Milan defence. It wasn't even worth arguing with with these guys. Milan has not had a single threat in this years Champions league, and by virtue of one off night, everybody thinks Liverpool will win.Suddenly the team they didn't want in the championship match, is the one they are so badly disrespecting. Milan has nothing to prove, all we have to do is get back into gear, and all will be alright, and we will on Sunday. From watching Liverpool all season, I believe they will play us the way lowly Serie A teams play us, with fear.
WE WILL CRUSH LIVERPOOL. Jim_UK what other smack are they saying out there? WE WILL CRUSH LIVERPOOL!

This is just perfect. I would love for the English media to build Liverpool's confidence - to the point of being overly confident. Let liverpool think they are meeting some mid-table English Premiership team or some over-rated English Premiership team like Chelsea. Let them keep comparing Milan to those teams and plan accordingly. Let them think that Shevchenko is equivalent to Drogba. Let them keep thinking that Nesta and Stam are a pair of "static" defenders with no idea how to win cup finals. Let them keep thinking that Maldini and Cafu are aging has-beens who have no clue how to compose themselves to win cup finals.

Let them believe. Let them dream. Let them hope.

we know what the end result will be.

A BIG FAT RED AND BLACK


BTW, if Liverpool play like a lowly SErie A team, they will be able to get to the second half 0-0 and maybe get half way past the 2nd half without goals being scored. But Milan will eventually crack the Liverpool defensive nut. Liverpool will definitely not hope to take this to penalties as they know Milan have a penalty stopper expert in Dida.