Grit, spirit and the ultimate glory

Milan 3 - 3 Liverpool (aet; Liverpool won 3-2 on penalties)

Kevin McCarra in Istanbul
Thursday May 26, 2005
The Guardian

The glory of Liverpool is reborn. They are champions of Europe after winning a shoot-out 3-2, with the decider struck by Vladimir Smicer and confirmed by Jerzy Dudek's save from Andriy Shevchenko. But it had taken a near miracle from them to send this match into extra-time. Even there, Dudek, with three minutes left, made a double save from Shevchenko that was all but inconceivable. Liverpool's exhilarating powers of recovery, after being 3-0 behind at the interval, inspired the greatest European Cup final of modern times.

Against all sense, their goals all came in a six-minute spell as they mangled a defence billed as the world's best. That had been beyond conception after Paolo Maldini's opener in the opening seconds and two more goals by Hernán Crespo.
The Argentinian, on loan from Chelsea, could never have guessed that he would be substituted not to enjoy a personal ovation, but because Steven Gerrard, Smicer and Xabi Alonso had put Liverpool on level terms. No one could have conceived of it, except for the Anfield players.

Liverpool were in a final they had scarcely expected to reach and felt for much of the evening that they did not belong there. The encouragement then lay not on the field but in the stands, where the great, undiscouraged believers in this club rallied in remarkable numbers. They had come so far to will their side to triumph but at first were forced to admire the technique and style of Carlo Ancelotti's side.

Milan's immediate breakthrough disrupted an acclimatisation process that had scarcely begun. The goal had something to do, as well, with stagefright in the English side that let their opponents strut the boards. The extraordinary comeback was beyond imagination then.

Djimi Traoré fouled Kaka in the first minute, but the position of the free-kick was not one that would normally make Liverpool quake. Rafael Benítez's men had been well marshalled to stifle Chelsea in the last four, but on this Istanbul evening there was a distracted quality to the marking.

Andrea Pirlo pulled his free-kick slightly behind the main group of attackers and the 36-year-old Maldini hit it hard enough with his right foot from 12 yards to ensure that it flew past Jerzy Dudek on the bounce.

The goalkeeper was beaten twice more before the interval but actually showed a level of aplomb that looked beyond conception for Liverpool. Xabi Alono and Steven Gerrard were left on the sidelines of a midfield full of marvellously articulated moves.

Liverpool were earnest and dogged but there was scant sophistication or cohesion. Minds left in a spin by Maldini's goal took time to steady.

Crespo met a corner in the 14th minute with a header that was blocked on the line by Luis García, well before he got on with scoring.

The first of his goals was traumatic for a Liverpool side already feeling victimised. García had shot wide and then, speculatively, claimed a penalty when he forced the ball against Alessandro Nesta, who had gone to ground, but Milan counter-attacked ruthlessly.

Clarence Seedorf found Kaka and his beautiful pass inside Traoré let Andriy Shevchenko set up Crespo to score at the far post. A minute before half-time, Kaka again split the Liverpool defence with a raking ball and Crespo was on the loose to dink it stylishly over Dudek.

Fans will normally warm to any hint of flamboyance, but there was, as it turned out, a justified ambivalence here about the selection of Harry Kewell. The Australian is at risk of being classified as one of those footballers who is too expensive to be off-loaded.

Naming an attacker whose form is so unpredictable was a cavalier gesture from the roundhead Benítez. Kewell lasted only 23 minutes before going off with a groin strain but his inclusion had its effect, too, on the rest of the team. In particular, it cost Dietmar Hamann his place in the starting line-up, even though it had taken Jamie Carragher to deny him the man-of-the-match award in the semi-final win over Chelsea at Anfield.

Maybe Milan became complacent or, more likely, Liverpool found an urgency inspired by desperation. Facing humiliation, they reacted with so much pride that they created one of the greatest periods in the extraordinarily rich history of this club.

It all started nine minutes after the interval when John Arne Riise crossed from the left and Gerrard climbed to head home. Milan's marking was as lax then as Liverpool's had been at the outset and the consequences were just as extreme. This time it was Ancelotti's turn to gaze in disbelief.

Milan had no chance to regain their poise. All the confidence was Liverpool's as they passed the ball along the edge of the penalty area four minutes later until Hamann put it into the path of his fellow substitute Vladimir Smicer. From 20 yards he drilled a low finish across and beyond Dida.

This was almost certainly the last match for Liverpool of a Czech international who has come to the end of his contract, but this game obliterated the past and the future. A rout had turned into a contest full of compulsive action.

The play roared towards a Liverpool equaliser. All the gaps were in the Milan side as Gerrard drove straight through the middle until Gennaro Gattuso brought him down for a penalty. Dida leapt to his right to save Alonso's kick but the Spaniard smashed in the rebound with his left foot.

The ball had run kindly to him, but all credit was due to Liverpool for making this game alter course and turn back in their favour.

· Fears that the Ataturk Olympic Stadium would prove unfit to stage the final appeared justified last night. The lack of public transport, adequate infrastructure and basic preparations left Uefa officials privately embarrassed at the choice of stadium. Chaotic traffic policing saw one access road closed, stretching journey times to three hours and technicians battled power cuts while struggling to connect telephone lines for reporters and broadcasters in time for kick-off.

Milan (4-3-1-2): Dida; Cafu, Nesta, Stam, Maldini; Gattuso (Rui Costa, 112), Pirlo, Seedorf (Serginho, 86); Kaka; Shevchenko, Crespo (Tomasson, 86). Subs not used: Abbiati, Kaladze, Costacurta, Dhorasoo.

Liverpool (4-4-1-1): Dudek; Finnan (Hamann, h-t), Carragher, Hyypia, Traoré; García, Alonso, Gerrard, Riise; Kewell (Smicer, 23); Baros (Cissé, 85). Subs not used: Carson, Josemi, Núñez, Biscan.

Booked: Carragher, Baros.

Referee: M E Mejuto González (Spain).



A triumph of the imagination

Michael Walker in Istanbul
Thursday May 26, 2005
The Guardian

It took someone with the vision of HG Wells to construct this stadium out amid the pylons and rubble on the extreme margins of Istanbul. It would have required a storyteller with the equivalent imagination to foretell this night of football.
In the space of six minutes early in the second half a formality warped into an epic. It was as if an Andy Pandy tale had been twisted into the Godfather. And at the end of it and with the clock showing half past midnight, sure enough, we had a shoot-out.
These are tense at the best of times but in the context of Liverpool's recovery from 3-0 down at half-time, this is what Bill Shankly would surely have referred to as a matter of life after death.
Liverpool held their breath, held their nerve, and survived. Jerzy Dudek, a goalkeeper pilloried for his errors over four years at Anfield had just defied the great Andriy Shevchenko in the most elasticated fashion with three minutes of extra time remaining.

Now he faced the same predator again. Serginho had by then blasted the first spot-kick over the bar before Dudek denied Andrea Pirlo as Milan began their penalties in the opposite manner from how they started the night. Then the Italians had rolled into a three-goal lead in 44 minutes as Liverpool filled the minor role in a dads versus lads kickabout.

That did not seem inappropriate: Paolo Maldini, who scored Milan's opener on 53 seconds, is 37 next month. As Dudek made save after save two hours later, the ever-young Maldini may well have been feeling his age.

Liverpool's three substitutes, Dietmar Hamann, Djibril Cissé and Vladimir Smicer swept them into the lead for the first time in the evening, and Dudek was suddenly faced again by Shevchenko.

The European Footballer of the Year had won the Champions League for Milan in Manchester two years ago with a cool penalty against Juventus. But now, encouraged by Jamie Carragher who reminded his goalkeeper of the actions of Bruce Grobbelaar in 1984, Dudek read Shevchenko right, dived to his right and won Liverpool their fifth European Cup, just as Grobbelaar had secured the fourth.

Maldini had described that victory over Juventus in Manchester as a "flawless rendition", no one at Liverpool could describe last night in the same way, the first half was flawed indeed. But when Steven Gerrard lifted the famous cup in a blaze of red tinsel, Liverpool could say this was better than flawless.

Comebacks, whether personal or collective, always make for drama but in 50 years of European Cup finals no side had ever retrieved the situation Liverpool did here.

Theirs was a historic deficit and historic recovery. The scenes at the end in a stadium three-quarters full of Liverpool supporters were pure fantasy as Kaka wandered destructively between the Liverpool midfield and defence. When he spun away from a static Gerrard in the 44th minute with Dalglish-like impudence and then sent Carragher sprawling with the sort of 40-yard pass Ian Rush used to latch on to, it felt as though Liverpool had been beaten by one of their own.

Gerrard was no trophy-waving hero then and Rafael Benítez was a manager who had gambled and lost. Harry Kewell had been started by the Spaniard despite misgivings about the Australian's groin - and heart. Twenty minutes of non-delivery and Kewell limped off. Booed by his own fans, Liverpool's night was about to get worse.

As soon as that happened to Kewell, Benítez must have been wishing for the interval. When it came Liverpool were three down and what could a manager with limited English say to players feeling and looking inferior to a Milan side about to confirm its greatness?

Benítez spoke to a German, Hamann, and he responded with one of his more diligent performances. When Gerrard rose to provoke the memory of Tommy Smith, the argument as to whether Liverpool could defend the Champions League title really had legs.

It was Dudek's opposite number, Dida, at fault now. Slow and complacent in reacting to Gerrard's header, Dida's attitude summarised Milan's.

When Smicer then lashed in Liverpool's second, Milan may well have thought about that match at Deportivo La Coruña last season when a 4-1 lead from the first leg was overturned by a 4-0 defeat. Nine of Milan's starting XI last night played in that match.

They had been the holders of the European Cup then, which is how they must have felt at half-time. But the Milanese grip was loosening again.

It is some achievement for Benítez in his first season; he probably does not even consider this his team. But as the banner said: 'Rafa Is The Bosphorous'.

It takes imagination.




By SUN ONLINE REPORTER

LIVERPOOL roared to the most sensational European Cup final win ever.

And it was English lions Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher who spurred the greatest comeback on the greatest stage.

Milan, so imperious at 3-0 up, reeled as Reds skipper Gerrard, sub Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso levelled with a five-minute blast early in the second half.

Then Kop keeper Jerzy Dudek followed up a point-blank double save from Andriy Shevchenko late in extra-time with the two shootout saves that gave Liverpool their fifth European crown.

UEFA are marking that achievement by letting the Reds keep the cup – and promising they will not let them defend it next season.

The reason? Liverpool’s fifth place in the Premiership left them outside England’s four qualification spots for the Champions League.

Yet, in a perverse way, the Merseysiders' stature might be boosted by not competing in Europe’s top competition next term.

Because what could rival last night’s classic triumph in Istanbul of the fighters over the stylists, of hope over history?

For no other team has won a Euro final after trailing 3-0.

And, with such a lead, Milan must have felt they could go on to add two or three more to complete the biggest ever victory.

Instead, AC were left with nothing from a game that had everything.

Yet Paolo Maldini's first-minute opener and Hernan Crespo's swift double had rewarded Milan's first-half rampage of pace and movement.

But that lead disappeared by the hour as Liverpool pressed, before Carragher's superb defending and Gerrard's midfield energy took Rafa Benitez’s heroes safely through to the last moments of extra-time.

That was when Dudek – a mix of wobbles and wonder saves before then – defied Shevchenko and then shone brightest in the shootout spotlight.

Earlier, with Liverpool famed for their defensive durability, the start few had anticipated arrived after just 51 seconds.

Maldini was given too much space to swivel and volley home Andrea Pirlo's routine free-kick - with Dudek failing to get a firm hand to it.



HACKER ... Jerzy Dudek's save from
Shevchenko's penalty seals cup glory for Liverpool



The 36-year-old defender’s only other Champions League goal came 11 years ago.

And predictions of a dull defensive clash were ripped further apart when Liverpool responded with two clear chances in the fourth minute.

John Arne Riise’s cracking left-footer smashed into a crowd of players following Gerrard's corner.

Then Sami Hyypia's flashing header forced Dida into a low save.

But Milan increasingly left the Reds' rearguard backpedalling.

Main menace Shevchenko twice broke free down the flanks early on.

And Luis Garcia had to nod Crespo's header off the line in the 14th minute, Jaap Stam's follow-up shot eventually being cleared off Hyypia's knee.

Harry Kewell - playing just behind lone frontman Milan Baros - had scarcely touched the ball by the time he signalled to the Liverpool bench that he could no longer go on.

Off he limped, and on came Smicer.

Highly-rated duo Gerrard and Alonso found little time or possession in midfield as Milan found their passing rhythm.

Shevchenko had a classy sidefoot finish marginally but correctly ruled out for offside

Garcia, though, fired a snap-shot high as Liverpool briefly fed off a rare bout of loose Milan play to create a handful of half-chances.

Initially, Alonso whistled a 30-yarder inches wide, while Shevchenko's thunderous swerver produced the save of the night from Dudek.

Gerrard, though, rightly brought Liverpool their first glimpse of real hope on 54 minutes.

The Reds' first real move of quality enabled Riise to measure a curling cross for the captain to power home a superb top-corner header.

Smicer promptly arrowed a 22-yarder that Dida's full-length dive could only tip in.

Then Gennaro Gattuso clipped the goalbound Gerrard's heels to earn Liverpool a penalty.

Dida parried Alonso's bottom-corner spot-kick - but the Spaniard rammed home the rebound.

Riise could even have put Benitez's marauders ahead in the 64th minute, forcing Dida into a sharp tip-over.

But, as Milan finally began to recover from Liverpool's spell of decent possession, only Djimi Traore's goal-line slide kept the Reds level.

Dudek could only fumble Kaka's low centre and Shevchenko's firm right-footer was kept out by Traore's athletic block.

Milan went almost as close when Shevchenko burst down the middle to slip Crespo in on the right of the box.

The hitman measured a near-post pull-back, but Carragher's classic diving tackle denied Kaka.

Liverpool's defending was back to its solid best in the closing stages as Milan pressed.

But, when Stam nodded on an 89th minute corner, Kaka flicked the ball inches off target from just a couple of yards.

Milan looked the brighter side in the first period of extra time.

But Liverpool responded with the type of resilience that dumped Juventus and Chelsea out on the way to the final.

And Gerrard, in particular, chased back to make vital interceptions.

It was Carragher, though, who was left in agony with cramp in both groins after making two virtually last-ditch challenges in the last 15 minutes.

Dudek conjured an amazing double stop two minutes from the end.

His reflexes kept out Tomasson's point-blank header and his instincts thwarted Shevchenko's follow-up - a two-yard shot lashed straight at the keeper's knee.

Then Dudek went even better - taking the starring role as Liverpool completed a classic comeback.

He wobbled on the line, just line Bruce Grobbelaar in Liverpool's last European Cup final win 21 years ago.

And that was enough to block two penalties, while Milan missed another.