Milan 2 Liverpool 1
Rafa Benitez should have played Crouch from the start because he needed the first goal. If he didn’t score the first goal, he was in big trouble.
But the way Rafa operates in the Champions League is dictated by his need to have players who don’t lose the ball. He knows that Champions League football is like international football : you don’t get the ball back as easily as you do in the Premiership. He didn’t want Milan to do what they did against Manchester United in the San Siro, when they won 3-0.
So he didn’t start Bellamy or Kewell or Crouch. He knew that dopey European referees give too many free-kicks against Crouch, who doesn’t foul the defender in most challenges but the whistle goes anyway. So Crouch, ultimately, is a ball-loser. That’s why Rafa didn’t start him
First half, Milan looked brittle and Liverpool dominated. But they didn’t really miss chances. Rather, they wasted good positions because they lacked the composure to produce a final ball, the assist. They didn’t fail because they couldn’t produce a finish. They failed because they couldn’t produce an assist. Pennant had far more of he ball than anybody expected but nothing came from him.
My best friend Doug had come round and after 40 minutes he said, “Both midfields are playing as if they know their forwards can’t score and they know their defence isn’t secure.”
And I said,” Stevie G is having a nightmare. Liverpool’s best player is Mascherano. And their second best player is Benitez.”
For 44 minutes, Rafa was spot-on and Liverpool did nothing wrong but then Kaka was clipped by Alonso, a soft free-kick, a clumsy contact just outside the D. I thought Kaka or Seedorf might score from that free-kick but Pirlo hit it and the ball deflected in off the upper arm of Inzaghi, wrong-footing the luckless Reina.
A fluke goal against the run of play !
That goal knocked the stuffing out of Liverpool. Second half, they lost belief, Pennant was sucked infield and became less effective, and Milan defended so deep and in such numbers that bringing Bellamy on for his pace would have been pointless.
Stevie Gerrard had a stinker on a night when every shot and every pass seemed to be the wrong decision. He is a half-back, not a half-striker. You don’t get many big guys with big feet who have the delicate skills to work the ball and see things round the box, like Bergkamp used to do.
Putting it another way, Rafa tried to turn Gerrard into Rooney and that was where the match was lost. He was too far forward to captain the team or do the things he does best.He should have been roaming from the flank.
Putting it yet another way, in a final where both managers were very conservative, and both used big players who are really third strikers in a second striker position, Kaka’s close skills allowed him to prosper more than Gerrard did in a role that did not really suit him either.
As I’ve always said, Stevie G is a powerhouse, not a craftsman. He is an action-hero or nothing. And in Athens he was nothing. He was a square peg in a round hole all night, never looked comfortable, never looked able to surprise the Milan defence.
Crouch for Mascherano in 78 was the wrong call and that followed Kewell for Zenden in 59, which was another bad call. Crouch for Alsonso in 59, when the score was still 1-0, was the substitution he should have made.
That would have given Rafa a good chance of saving the game.
Liverpool were workmanlike, masters of the obvious, and, crucially, unable to generate the momentum that would have rocked Milan. They showed a vulnerable old Milan team far too much respect, and failed to capitalise on the fact thatleft back Jankulowski was left exposed by Seedorf, who walked through the game and was wholly peripheral.
At half-time he should have put Crouch on and terrified Milan. Instead doing that he waited and took off Mascherano, his best player, and as soon as he did that, Kaka had 20 yards of free space and time to slip a sublime pass through for Inzaghi to make it 2-0 in 82.
Inexplicably, when Crouch did come on, the team didn’t play to him, except when Gerrard, deeper and more comfortable now, flighted a 40-yarder to Crouch, who hit a rasping shot which Dida tipped over. So they got a corner from that.
In 89 Pennant swung in a corner from the left and Agger’s flick-on hit Maldini’s shoulder and flew to Kuyt, who headed in for 2-1. Suddenly, it wasn’t over.
But, actually, it was over because referee Herbert Fandel didn’t fancy extra time and blew after two minutes 43 seconds of injury time when five or six minutes should have been played.
Quite simply, Benitez didn’t have a go until it was far too late. When he looks at the DVD and sees what he should have done he will be even more heartbroken than he was at the final whistle. It didn’t have to be that way. It really didn’t. Stevie G. should have screamed at Rafa to bring Crouch on sooner because they were not threatening Milan in open play.
Right back Oddo was excellent but Milan never showed the slick passing we saw when they stuffed Man United 3-0 or when they won 2-0 in Munich. At least give Liverpool credit for that.
In the end, Milan’s old boys knew just enough and did just enough and a true gentleman lifted the trophy. Paulo Maldini is a legend, one of the greatest defenders of all time, an example to all Italians and all footballers, and a real nice guy as well.
SUMMARY ?
Without much momentum, with Gerrard playing out of position and cramped amid a crowd of white shirts, Liverpool rarely threatened Milan in open play and never put pressure on the shaky Dida. They were 2-0 down when they eventually scored in 89 minutes and that came from a corner and two headers.
Team-building and coaching are always a matter of emphasis and Benitez over-emphasized containment of Milan’s fullbacks and danger men Kaka and Seedorf. That worked well but it prevented Liverpool from scoring first. As soon as he took Mascherano off (78), Kaka made the second goal for Inzaghi (82)
As I said in the preview, the first goal was always going to be crucial.
Milan v Liverpool wasn’t the dullest European Cup Final Cup Final I’ve ever seen. But it was the most annoying. The last big match of the season was the most stupidly disappointing match of the season. In my whole life I’ve never seen a football match which was more like a big boxing match, two opponents just shuffling around, looking for one punch.
The only plus on the night was the sportsmanship of Carragher, Kuyt and Gerrard. Their live onscreen interviews were honest, decent, generous and realistic. We heard no excuses, no self-pity, no whingeing.
I totally agreed with Sky pundit Graeme Souness, who said, “Milan were there for the taking.” On the night, an over-cautious tactician stuck too closely to his game-plan, rather than reacting to the evidence in front of his eyes. He left his most effective weapon on the bench for 78 minutes. Big Phil Scolari would have turned that match round in ten minutes and Liverpool would have won 3-1. He’d have gone for the throat and left Milan in tatters.
Clearly, Liverpool need a striker with flair and fire, like Carlos Tevez. The Kop and Tevez are made for each other. And they need goalscoring wingers who are more creative than Zenden, an up-and-downer, Kewell, a crock, and Pennant, a dimwit. The injured Luis Garcia would have given the attack some spark, some invention.
Rafa now feels angry and guilty, so he is lashing out, telling the new owners they need to spend big money.
What he says is interesting and I wish Arsenal showed the same sense of urgency in the transfer market.
What he says about “third choice” players is bang on. If you don’t move, if you don’t decide now, if you don’t make a leap of faith, you won’t get the few top players who can really make a difference at a top club.
He said,”We must improve every department at the club, the sports and the business departments, If we don’t change things right now and understand how crucial this moment is, we will waste one month, two months, two or three targets and then we’ll start having to sign third-choice players and we’ll have to be only contenders to be in the top four again. Nothing else.
“What do you want; to win the Premier League and the Champions League? The team that won the league this year spent £20m after winning the Premiership on one midfielder. Not a striker, £20m for a midfielder. Chelsea, Arsenal and United are spending money, big money, every year for the last five or 10 years. That means there is a big difference. We finished third with 82 points, a record for this club, but were nine points behind Chelsea. Now we’ve finished 21 points behind but reached the final of the Champions League because the work-rate of the team is fantastic and it is a knock-out competition. But we cannot keep the team for nine months at this level.
“We have some targets, cheaper but top-class players. We have one or two clear options and we must say: ‘Sign him’. We can sign top-class targets for £10m to £13m right now. Maybe we didn’t have enough money in the past but now we have new owners who can invest £400m in the club. They want a new stadium full of people. Finishing 21 points behind United is something that, as a manager, you cannot understand. We need to do better things.”