Liverpool vs AC Milan

So the shite managed to do it, and they managed it with the greatest come back of all time. It's why we love football.
I watched the match in the Sandpiper, Christchurch, with Faith and Pete - someone who I've probably been to over 200 Bashley games with. Needless to say the pub was full of red shirts and mongs with southern accents thinking they were born down Scottie Road (*Ahem*).
As an Evertonian with a fiancee that supports the shite, it was always going to prove thorny. I asked Faith to stick a few quid on her team for me so that I now had an emotional and financial incentive to sideline my Everton instincts.
Before the game I thought that AC Milan would trounce them - on paper there was no contest - but increasingly before kick off I thought it would be tight, and come down to penalties. I was half right. When Maldini scored I expected Milan to shut up shop and tighten things up, but they didn't and demolished the shite with 45 minutes of sublime football. At half time it looked all over. But ever since Everton came from 3-0 down at half time to level things at 3-3 (ultimately Van Nistelrooy would snatch an injury time winner) against the Mancs, no lead seems unbounceabackable. I said to Pete that precisely because Milan had been so rampant in the first half, the momentum from the shite pulling one back would be massive. Faith brought up the recent Arsenal game where the shite were thumped in the first half, but came back in the second. But none of us really thought it would happen.

Of course the only reason I'd began to think that the shite had a sniff was because of the infantile bandwagon created by the gutter press. It was telling to read the match reports all hail the team as heroes. I must have watched a different game, because I can't for the life of me see how man-for-man the shite were better. For a 20 minute spell Benitez had switched to three at the back, and managed to finally control the midfield. After the three goals in 6 minutes, Ancelotti finally reacted and started playing with wingers - exploiting the shites lack of full backs - and dominated the game. For the last 20 minutes of the second half, and throughout extra time there was only one team in it. There can be no doubt that AC Milan tore them to shreds, or that if Ancelotti had reacted quicker to Benitez's change in formation it would have been a formality. A wonder double-save by Dudek kept them in it, and then won them the trophy with two crucial penalty saves that were illegal. I haven't seen any of the faux-Scouse pinkie press point this out, but the penalties that Milan missed should have been re-taken.

The fact that the game ended in that manner amused me greatly, since I used to coach Jerzy Dudek's son. In fact, I believe I've told him to get up quickly following a save, and suspect he passed that on to his dad.... Indeed Dudek himself came to a Hills Soccer event as a special guest, and agreed to take part in our penalty shoot out. (At this point I must confess that this was perhaps the only day in two years that I wasn't coaching!). I can only imagine what it would have felt like for the kids that supported Liverpool - who scored past him in our shootout - to then watch him in the Chmapions League final! Indeed since Benitez claims that they don't practice penalties, I guess it was at Hills Soccer that Dudek learnt to save them!

Still, that little part of me that wanted Benitez's contempt for penalties to backfire as his contempt for the FA Cup did against Burnley, was perhaps overshadowed by the magnitude of the victory. (By the way, does anyone think that Jonny Wilkinson practices field goals even though he can't recreate the atmosphere? Of course he does - to say that the atmosphere makes practicing redundant denies that there's any technique involved in taking a penalty. And there is) Having the phone going off with friends up in Liverpool was pretty special, and whilst bitterly envious and jealous, well in.

So I've been to the bookies to pick up my winnings (£22 from predicting that the shite would win on pens) and when asked by a mate if I thought it would come to penalties replied "Yes. I did". He didn't believe that I had, since hindsight is a useful tool at improving your reputation, but having put my money where my mouth was I could prove that I did, in fact, think that the shite would win on penalties. If only political commentators would bet on their claims, and we could puncture this vast bubble of cheap opinion that dickheads in the press know will never come back to haunt them. If you don't risk incurring a cost from being wrong, then you'll gladly spout all kinds of ideas. Linking such opinion to a betting market seperates the wise from the noise.

Comments

[Jim]

So, clever enuff to get a glimpse of fame on Newsnow ?
Still a typical, stupid bitter little toffee, I can imagine you come out with all that crap about "Liverpool stopped us from being in Europe in 1985". Not a thought for the dead from you low sods. Once we were equal, on and off the pitch, but through the late 70's and 80's you pissed on that. And now you can't stop . . .When Real finished 5th after winning the Champions League UEFA forced the Spanish FA to push Real Zaragoza into the UEFA. I hope they do the same again to you lot, and remember some of us know you fiddled the figures, we know the money box was empty - and we know that means you should have been liquidated and relegated too, oh and great choice of manager too, just suits you lot - a weird, bitter little gimp.

[AJE]

If you want to start up all that go elsewhere - this is a post about Dudek in a penalty shoot out with my kids, and the value of betting on your predictions.
I've given a match report as I saw it - if you disagree, then by all means contradict me.

To repeat:

"Having the phone going off with friends up in Liverpool was pretty special, and whilst bitterly envious and jealous, well in."

I think it's superb that both teams on Merseyside have had success this season, and the only reason I get pleasure from watching the shite suffer is because 90% of their fans are pinkies like yourself. The real Liverpool fans - reds - welcome Everton's improvements as much as I welcome theirs.

[Frank]

From a Red..Yeah things did go our way on Wednesday, but any 'real' football fan would have to applaud the way they never gave up! I don't believe in fate, but I think a few of the players did (and the fans) and that was enough!

Stop all the bitterness and be glad everyone who bothered to watch, got a brilliant game of football with skill, passion and unbelievable excitement. After
some of the recent boring CL finals, that was a joy to watch whatever way the result landed!

By the way, I do think Everton deserve to be in the CL, not because you're better than us, cos you're not, but because of the way you turned around your fortunes from last season, that was also amazing!

Don't forget though, as much as you hated seeing Liverpool winning on Weds, without the extra 20 odd games Liverpool played this season you wouldn't have been anywhere near 4th place so I think you owe us too!

Rgds...