Liverpool Vs Milan the champions league final thread

Puro wrote:Damn! Is it me or has Luis come a long way with his writing skills! Way to go Luis! Keep up the good work buddy! Liverpool will be back next season. Guaranteed!

Thanks mate, I don't know, two consecutive cup finals? very difficult, I don't fancy Russia anyway

He certainly has come a long way, keep up the good work.

Like Stevie said, Liverpool will be back stronger next year.

CT - ynwa wrote:

but the crosses into the box weren't effective, it was crying out for Crouch really.

I disagree. The fact that Zenden and Pennant lacked ANY crossing ability and failed to deliver one final ball meant that if Crouch was on the pitch origonally, it wouldn't have made much difference in that respect.

Gerrard can play off Crouch much more effectively than he can play off Kuyt though. Crouch should have started for that reason alone.

What are you on about, Pennant couldn't cross, nor could Zenden because there was no one to cross to

Luis wrote:

CT - ynwa wrote:

but the crosses into the box weren't effective, it was crying out for Crouch really.

I disagree. The fact that Zenden and Pennant lacked ANY crossing ability and failed to deliver one final ball meant that if Crouch was on the pitch origonally, it wouldn't have made much difference in that respect.

Gerrard can play off Crouch much more effectively than he can play off Kuyt though. Crouch should have started for that reason alone.

What are you on about, Pennant couldn't cross, nor could Zenden because there was no one to cross to

What? They couldn't cross because every time the attempted a cross, it was shockingly bad.

I'd like to see you try and cross a ball to no one

Luis wrote:I'd like to see you try and cross a ball to no one

Pennant should have scored and he should have assisted Gerrard two or three times when he got himself into excellent positions. I'm sorry Luis, but in a champions league final that's just not good enough.

CT - ynwa wrote:

Luis wrote:I'd like to see you try and cross a ball to no one

Pennant should have scored and he should have assisted Gerrard two or three times when he got himself into excellent positions. I'm sorry Luis, but in a champions league final that's just not good enough.

when should he have scored? he had a difficult chance with a difficult angle, you can't blame him for that

Luis wrote:

CT - ynwa wrote:

Luis wrote:I'd like to see you try and cross a ball to no one

Pennant should have scored and he should have assisted Gerrard two or three times when he got himself into excellent positions. I'm sorry Luis, but in a champions league final that's just not good enough.

when should he have scored? he had a difficult chance with a difficult angle, you can't blame him for that

He should have scored that. It was a weak shot which was too close to the keeper, despite what Andy Gray might tell you. Gerrard should have scored with his similar chance.

CT - ynwa wrote:

Luis wrote:

CT - ynwa wrote:

Luis wrote:I'd like to see you try and cross a ball to no one

Pennant should have scored and he should have assisted Gerrard two or three times when he got himself into excellent positions. I'm sorry Luis, but in a champions league final that's just not good enough.

when should he have scored? he had a difficult chance with a difficult angle, you can't blame him for that

He should have scored that. It was a weak shot which was too close to the keeper, despite what Andy Gray might tell you. Gerrard should have scored with his similar chance.

Gerrard's was much much easier

Why are Liverpool fans deluding themselves that they were somehow the superior side? Milan may have been poor, but so were Pool. There was no decent link up play or passing movements, and neither side offered much quality. Any half chances that Liverpool made were either due to the referee acting as a playmaker, or down to shocking mistakes from Milan.

Kaka showed some nice quality for the second goal, but that was about it for game.

Pennant was shocking. I'm sorry, but you can't change my mind. He may be speedy, but he lacks any sort of footballing brain.

CT - ynwa wrote:Pennant was shocking. I'm sorry, but you can't change my mind. He may be speedy, but he lacks any sort of footballing brain.

Hardly shocking

Try Xabi a fucking Lonso

Luis wrote:

CT - ynwa wrote:Pennant was shocking. I'm sorry, but you can't change my mind. He may be speedy, but he lacks any sort of footballing brain.

Hardly shocking

Try Xabi a fucking Lonso

Xabi was miles better than Pennant, and always will be.

Alonso was $h!t tonight, which summed up his season, get out of his ass

Luis wrote: Alonso was $h!t tonight, which summed up his season, get out of his ass

You're confusing quantity of possession with quality of possession. You say we were the better team. How can you lose by 2 goals and be the better team?

Pennant had much more of the ball than Xabi, and did Nothing with it.
Xabi wasn't at his best, but made a few decent passes and tackles.

i think liverpool came into the game like they have done before with a eye for the other team first and then their own strengths and i think it cost them today. milan were always going to be the team in control but they seemed very nervous and liverpool got their chances often from milans screw ups. milan werent ever able to move the ball from defence to midfield and create so kaka and seedorf who should make the final moves were made to look bad. milan got a lucky goal and liverpool had a chance to show they can be the controlling team and i think they failed.
i think benitez approach to the game came back to bite him in the ass and he didnt do anything to correct his initial mistakes so i dont mind that milan won.

CT - ynwa wrote:

Luis wrote: Alonso was $h!t tonight, which summed up his season, get out of his ass

You're confusing quantity of possession with quality of possession. You say we were the better team. How can you lose by 2 goals and be the better team?

Pennant had much more of the ball than Xabi, and did Nothing with it.
Xabi wasn't at his best, but made a few decent passes and tackles.

We lost by 1 goal.

Luis wrote:

CT - ynwa wrote:

Luis wrote: Alonso was $h!t tonight, which summed up his season, get out of his ass

You're confusing quantity of possession with quality of possession. You say we were the better team. How can you lose by 2 goals and be the better team?

Pennant had much more of the ball than Xabi, and did Nothing with it.
Xabi wasn't at his best, but made a few decent passes and tackles.

We lost by 1 goal.

Kuyts goal was offside

In a Spanish interview Benitez said Liverpool effectively lost the game "solely due to one error", referring to the free kick Xabi Alonso conceded.

That's not very clever from him, to criticise an already hurt player publicly. What makes it worse is that if we really had to pinpoint one error that lost the match for Liverpool, it was Benitez's team selection, not that free kick.

http://home.skysports.com/matchratings.aspx?fxid=319172&clid=14&cpid=5

Sky ratings , shocking ratings.

the you vote ratings aren´t too bad imho

I dont think Gattuso deserves a 7.

and Masch getting the same as Pennant (talking about people ratings).

Dark Savante wrote:and Masch getting the same as Pennant (talking about people ratings).

not perfect but better than the sky effort no doubt that was andy fooking gray no idea on anything but the prem, and i love english players even when they are sh¡te

Gerrard got a 9 in those sky ratings , a 9 for fook sake.

Well done Milan. Unlucky Liverpool.

I am amazed at the bitterness of some posters who can't give credit to liverpool for being the better team. Sometimes the better team doesn't win and that's football. 2 years ago milan were the better team and lost, this time it was liverpool.

In this case Liverpool's final ball was just not right whether from zenden or pennant, and every long range shot from riise, alonso and gerrard was off-target, and usually they'd hit the target at least sometimes, and with dida in poor form who knows what could have happened. Gerrard should have scored against dida and it is on small moments like that that games are decided. I have long said that Liverpool lack a clinical striker and that is why they don't win games they dominate. The first goal is always the hardest to score.

Add to that a bit of luck with the free kick, and then a great run to beat the off-side trap and great finish from inzaghi from one of very few attacks from milan and the game was over. Milan were poor but maybe this is becasue of the way liverpool played. However they remianed solid defensively and were clinical in front of goal.

As for benitez's management, he deserves credit for his tactics that made liverpool the more attacking team and stopped milan playing well by having hardworking players like zenden rather than kewel, and having gerrard supporting in attack rather than crouch that made it difficult for milan to take it easy at the back and got them really tired. His only real mistake is that he should have brought crouch on earlier, maybe for alonso rather than maschereno. He can't really make the players cross it better or shoot better. The players have got to carry the blame for that.

Earlier in the thread I wondered "if liverpool are the more attacking team will they get appreciation from the neutrals" but looks like in general it is not the case. Respect to manu fans like rez and dark savante who are able to give respect to rivals. Some of the Cr@p from other posters makes me wonder if they can ever be objective about football.

Last thing about inzaghi. I can't help liking the guy. Maybe he has an annoying face and he dives a lot and he is not that skilful, but people don't overrate him and he doesn't overrate himself, but he scores and that's his job and he does it well. Well done to him.

110% as much as i hate liverpool, i said to my mate last night the better side lost, they weren´t better by much but defo the players not rafa to blame imho

The-Frank-Tavern wrote:110% as much as i hate liverpool, last night the better side lost

I dont hate Liverpool but I'll agree , Liverpool was the only team that attacked , had intent and showed desire , just a bit of lack of quality and concentration was there undoing.

I thought it was pretty even for most of the match and the close scoreline was an accurate reflection.

Critically, Milan took their chances and Liverpool didn't take theirs. Inzaghi's second goal was lovely.

2 CL finals - I reckon one win each between the two teams is probably fair!

I think the view that Liverpool were the better team is very is very debatable. Statistics Ive seen, on Eurosport, suggest that Milan had the most possession, which means any concept of Liverpool domination is based on the fact that more of the game was spent in Milans half, and that Liverpool supposedly tried to attack more. But Liverpools attack was completely devoid of any threat, there were few good crosses, no probing passes or really long periods with them holding the ball and testing Milan out. Like Supermadrid said above, some of Liverpools few real chances came from Milan mistakes - their defence looked very hesitant when it came to clearing the ball at times, misplaced headers and so on. Pennant and Zenden obviously arent good enough, though I felt Pennant at least tried to provide some attacking threat and looked for space, asked for the ball, even if he did little with it. Alonso and Mascherano offered nothing going forward, neither did the Liverpool fullbacks with Riise very wasteful. Kuyt was isolated and spent half the time right on either touchline, whilst Gerrard had one or two decent moments and long shots, but largely just hung about in the area and miscued any half decent chance that came his way. And Liverpools central defence was poor for a change - besides from the goals I thought Agger tended to just boot the ball away too much of the time.

Milan played more their type of game, similar to how they played against Man Utd where they sit, pass the ball around and try and maintain possession, then hit with quite quick, direct attacks. I thought they were very poor too, Ambrosini never does anything whenever I see them play, Pirlo didnt seem to stay central and had little effect on the game, couldnt and didnt bring in the fullbacks who struggled to get forward. Kaka did okay, but him and Inzaghi didnt see much of the ball. Seedorf was poor.

Basically, I didnt think it was a great match and neither team performed. Whilst Im not saying the best team won, I dont think the best team lost either. They didnt only lack a final thrust, or a cutting edge or whatever, their attack was quite aimless and without any creativity. It was just two teams holding the ball in different areas of the pitch, neither doing anything much with it.