Champions League Final

AC Milan - 2
Liverpool - 1

AC Milan exacted revenge over Liverpool's stunning comeback from the 2005 Champion's League Final. And they did it in a most uneventful manner. This recap is coming from my memory so some of the facts might be a little distorted. Liverpool completely outplayed Milan in the first half. Milan looked lackadaisical out there. Liverpool completely controlled the midfield, taking Milan's superstar Kaka completely out of the game. Milan's left back, Jankulovski, was in no man's land for most of the first half and Milan was lucky he didn't cost them a goal. Liverpool kept coming down their right side and playing balls to the middle. Kuyt and Gerrard had some good opportunities on goal but failed to capitalize.

Liverpool's manager, Rafa Benitez, made sure Kaka wasn't going to beat them. He had Xebi Alonso and Javier Mascherano trailing him closely. But just before the first half was about to end, Alonso made a lazy tackle on Kaka just outside the 18, right in front of the goal. Milan's dead ball specialist Andrea Pirlo lined up to take the free kick. Liverpool's keeper lined up the wall. Pirlo takes the kick and drives the ball low and hard towards the right side of goal. But wait!! That little pest Inzaghi breaks off the wall and deflects the shot and it goes into the goal. The keeper had already commited to the post and the ball trickled through his toes into the middle of the goal. Milan is up 1-0!!!

Note: There's no way in hell that goal should have counted. The Referree and Linesman were sleeping on this one. (And this is coming from an Italian fan). The ball clearly deflected off of Inzaghi's shoulder/arm.

The second half played out the same way as the first except with Milan holding a lead, they started out even more conservatively, if that's even possible. So much so, that I dozed off a couple times. I did wake up for the good part of the 2nd half which was at the 75 minute mark. Milan controlled the ball and kept it away from Liverpool with some brilliant passing. They kept the counterattack alive long enough for Kaka to get a ball in the middle. Kaka waited for the defense to commit and slipped a beautiful through ball to a perfectly timed run by Inzaghi. It was one on one with the keeper and Inzaghi made a textbook move toward the outside of goal and slipped the ball under the keeper's dive. 82nd minute, 2-0 Milan!! Milan looks like a sure thing to win, but uh oh, in the 89th minute Liverpool gets a deflected header in off a corner kick to cut the deficit in half. Will we be reliving the 2005 final?? Sorry Liverpool fans but Milan holds on for the win. Just as Milan outplayed Liverpool for most of the 2005 final and lost, Liverpool outplayed Milan for most of the 2007 final and lost. I give credit to Milan for being mentally focused and sticking to Ancelotti's gameplan.

I do not give credit to Liverpool's gameplan. This is were Rafa Benitez made his tactical errors. He started Zenden at less than 100% and stayed with him for a good chunk of the 2nd half when everyone could tell he wasn't playing well. Down 1-0 he also waited way too long to bring in Mr Roboto, Peter Crouch.

All in all, it was a well-played tactical match with not very much excitement. I'm happy that an Italian team won. Looking forward to some Euro 2008 qualifying matches.