What will it take to win the European Cup in Athens?
A great defence?
A tactical coach?
Fantastic esprit de corps?
World class goalscorers like Kaka and Rooney and Drogba?
Last night’s thriller from the Theatre of Dreams was a testing night for Sir Alex and his injury-weakened side but they started and ended strongly against Milan, the world’s finest 60-minute team.
It was young against old, guts against know-how, passion against expertise, graft against craft. Two-assist Ryan Giggs, 33, was the only United player old enough to get into the Milan team, while two-goal Kaka, 22, was the only Milan player young enough to get into the United team.
United demonstrated that they had the collective desire to come back from 2-1 down, the physicality to contest every ball, the red-blooded Anglo-Saxon combativeness to make up for what they lacked in finesse.
They won a corner in five minutes when a Rooney shot was deflected over the ball by Nesta’s block, and Ronaldo got up to head Giggs’s right-wing inswinger. His header rebounded off the chest of the hesitant Dida and flew up in the air and as Heinze went for it he was pushed in the back by Gattuso, and Dida knocked the ball over the line with his flailing fingertips. A Dida own-goal
1-0 to United.
In 22, Seedorf’s crafty pass released Kaka, who exploded past Heinze and hit an early left-foot shot across Edwin van Der Sar, measured perfectly
In 37, Dida’s goal clearance bounced 20 yards inside the United half and Kaka accelerated away from Carrick, outpaced Fletcher and after the ball bounced once, headed the ball between Evra and Heinze and slotted beautifully for 2-1.
Heinze tried a Bryan Robson forearm smash but Kaka was brave and ignored that assault and buried the chance like the gladiator he is : 10 goals in 12 Champions League games this season.
On 48, Carrick muffed a chance at the far post when Giggs’s cross from the right found him unmarked.
Bonera had replaced Maldini at half-time and Brocchi now came on for Gattuso, the dog of war.
There wasn’t a Keane or a Beckham in the field, someone who could wrest control of the game from Milan, so it was 2-1 heading for 3-1 and 4-1 but when Gattuso went off that exposed Pirlo and Ambrosini, and Scholes got back into the game and that got Carrick and Giggs back into the game
On 59, Scholes lifted an artful flick for Rooney, surprising Nesta, who reacted quickly but could not quite get there, and Rooney’s shot went in off Dida’s elbow for 2-2.
At 2-2 it was fighters versus boxers but this wasn’t a 12-round title fight and, while mindful that Milan are a 60-minute team, I was still thinking that a good boxer always beats a good fighter because the fighter wastes too much energy.
The individualistic Ronaldo played mostly for himself, hitting a swerving thunderbolt which scared Dida in 35, and firing another in 83 which Dida touched past the post.
And just as I was deciding that Kaka is better than Ronaldo because he is more efficient, and that Kaka is the new Shevchenko, and that Milan would therefore reach the final, Ryan Giggs won the ball from a throw on the right, cruised forward and swerved infield and played the sweetest, sweetest pass forward, so that the ball was almost dead as Rooney raced onto the edge of the box and blasted it inside the near post.
Giggs had carried the ball forty yards to make a five-yard pass that gave Rooney no problems except deciding where his shot should go. He didn’t have to think about what the ball was doing, he only had to think about where it was going. And it only took him a nanosecond to decide. A splendid winning goal which had a pinch of Papin, a soupcon of Shearer, a bit of bang-bang Batistuta.
DIFFERENT CLUBS have a different DNA, I thought.
Milan made a decision to defend a 2-1 lead and when Rooney scored his first goal they made another decision to defend their two away goals.
That was a shame because their first half was a masterclass : how to mark, how to close down, how to pass, how to finish.
Predictably, Milan had an Italian mindset in the second half, especially after Gattuso went off. They allowed space to a United team that had hammered seven goals past Roma and who were always likely to score a third here.
A marvellous game, a Big Night, five good goals, an exciting climax, and the second leg to come. Big chance for Meelan, but Man United always come to play, even in the San Siro.
Ronaldo should get DVDs of Kaka and watch them over and over and over and over and over and learn from a master. Don’t stand square of your full back, so you can look good beating one extra man. Mix it up, son, and look to beat one less man, not one more man. Study Kaka and learn !
CHELSEA and Liverpool won’t provide such tremendous entertainment.
Jose Mourinho was up to his old tricks yesterday. He wants to get his retaliation in first, wants to get his excuses in, wants to referee the game before a ball’s been kicked. When the pressure is on, his nastiness always comes out. He plays the victim. He sulks and squeals and whimpers and reeks of self-pity.
He says things like, “Our opponent is preparing this game for a long, long time. We are preparing this game since yesterday.”
He says, “In the year of 2007, almost four months, we played 27 matches, Liverpool plays three or four. You push me to give you a favourite, I think in this moment Liverpool should be favourite.We have a lot of players with two yellow cards, it would not surprise me if tomorrow they chase Drogba for 90 minutes to try to get him suspended for the second game.”
With this sort of spiel, Mourinho sets the tone. His paranoia is horrible to see and hear. His paranoia is nauseating. His paranoia is the opposite of sportsmanship. And the opposite of sportsmanship is gamesmanship.
What does Abramovich make of that? Three days after they decide to keep Jose, he comes out with this nastiness? Abramovich wants legitimacy and love. Abramovich wants entertaining football and gratitude and far less aggro. He wants his Chelsea to be fun to watch and he wants his Chelsea to be loved and respected, not hated.
Rafa Benitez, by contrast, seems to glow.
Rafa doesn’t think anybody can beat his team. He looks as if he doesn’t think anybody can beat Liverpool. He could be right. In this sort of game, the records show that Rafa doesn’t give you very much. In fact, he gives you nothing. Chelsea are up against it tonight. They need to pull out a performance but they look burned out. It will be defensive and probably acrimonious.
CHELSEA KEVIN says he’ll come round and watch the game with me.
Five or six weeks ago, when Chelsea looked invincible, Kevin was laughing and saying, “I hope we get Liverpool. I really, really hope we get Liverpool. We’ll smash them 4-0.”
He also said, “The quadruple is impossible, nobody’s done it because it’s impossible.”
But now he says that Liverpool are fresher. He says Chelsea look weary.
Can they reach down into their guts and pull out one more performance ?