Topic: RAWK Archive: The Press on our 5th European Cup Win

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May 27, 2005, Times

Benítez defies old maxims

By Mark Pougatch

JUST OCCASIONALLY WHEN I LEAVE A sporting event that I’m privileged enough to attend, I come away thinking: “Did that really happen?” The last time I left a ground with the same sort of amazement that I did on Wednesday was after England’s 5-1 win over Germany in Munich in 2001. Then it was a case of, “you don’t hit Germany for five on their own patch”. Now it was “the Italians don’t let you score one to get back into a game, let alone three”.

Rafael Benítez’s tactics were so out of character and against his own instincts that I was reminded of what happened to the England rugby team when Will Carling was captain in the 1991 World Cup. Then they stuck to their tried and tested tactics all the way through to the final, but a combination of a media onslaught and Australian psychology spooked them into a change of approach. Australia won and England have regretted it ever since.

Here the questions raced between us. Why has Benítez done this today of all days? Why didn’t he change the shape when Harry Kewell was injured and had to leave the field? As Mark Lawrenson said before kick-off: “If they win, he’s a tactical genius; if they lose, he’s a clot.”

Benítez had 45 minutes to save himself from being portrayed as Merseyside’s answer to Claudio Ranieri. Even then, after the second-half comeback, he needed a shade of fortune. Jerzy Dudek made a fine save from Andriy Shevchenko and although the Pole’s block of the rebound was instinctive it was also involuntary. The angle of the ball arcing up into the sky tells you it hit him on the top of the wrist. A couple of inches higher and Milan win the European Cup, Benítez is crucified and Steven Gerrard is off in the summer. Football at this level hinges on such minuscule margins.

After the cup had been presented and the celebrations were in full swing I saw the former Liverpool players in our team, John Toshack and Lawrenson, singing along to You’ll Never Walk Alone. Even 28 years after leaving Anfield, the Wales manager admitted: “You can take the boy out of Liverpool but not Liverpool out of the boy.” Both referred to how the 2005 vintage had adhered to the principles of those legends Bob Paisley and Ronnie Moran, and all the others to have emerged from the boot room, by never giving up. They were both moved by what their old team had done. Liverpool had won the European Cup again, this time after needing snookers.

# Mark Pougatch presents Sport on 5 and Sports Report on BBC Radio 5 Live

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[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

Dudek's wild side a saving grace

By Simon Barnes

How a maverick goalkeeper drained the belief from Milan
NO ONE UNDERSTANDS GOALKEEPERS — although, of course, goalkeepers wouldn’t have it any other way. In particular, no one understands the contradictory demands made by the job. In the first place, goalkeepers are supposed to be utterly reliable and consistent.

Which is fair enough, because when a goalkeeper makes an error it tends to cost. The value of the currency is uniquely high in football, which gives the goalkeeper the most responsible and important job in team sport. A goalkeeper must deal with crosses, dominate his penalty area, make sound decisions about when to go and when to stay, catch cleanly and generally do all the clearing up.

In addition, a modern goalkeeper must kick well enough to deal with the panicky backpasses as well as the good ones. The job, then, consists of a host of dreary and unglamorous roles, with little reward in terms of glory, but the censure of the world when you slip up. But at the same time as possessing these rather humdrum virtues, a goalkeeper must have the talent for inspiration. He must be able to pull off the occasional game and season-changing miracle.

So, in other words, we want a goalkeeper to be safe, solid and reliable but at the same time wild, imaginative and intuitive. He must be able to read the sheet music, but he must also be able to spiral off into jazz at the instant of asking. It is a bit like asking an outfielder to be Roy Keane and Cristiano Ronaldo simultaneously.

A goalkeeper must be at the same time a maverick and a boring old fart. He must claim the cross, distribute neatly, shout a lot at corners and kick clear. And he must then win the game with a devastating moment of wild and impossible skill.

Jerzy Dudek has spent most of the season being regarded as Liverpool’s great weakness. Short, in short, of consistency. He is seen as lacking in the boring-old-fart qualities that give a defence its shape and its confidence; so much so that, according to informed speculation, he is going to be sold in the close season. This may have been his last performance for Liverpool, and it was one that won them the European Cup. Without his inspiration, AC Milan would have won. There is no doubting it.

Dudek has failed more than once this season in the old-fart department. But let us remember that three summers ago we were criticising David Seaman, the England goalkeeper, for his failures in the inspiration department. Seaman was as good as they get in the sweeping-up side of things: he did not make blunders. But he lacked inspiration and was found out more than once by the exceptional. An inspired goalkeeper would have reached Ronaldinho ’s free kick for Brazil against England in the last World Cup.

On Wednesday night, Dudek had a period of inspiration and it was enough to help Liverpool to win the European Cup. The highlight was his stunning double save against Andriy Shevchenko. Either or both of the efforts should have gone in, but Dudek was athletic enough, brave enough, lucky enough and, above all, inspired enough to save them both.

It was the final sickener for Milan. An inspired goalkeeper does more than stop goals. He fills his opponents’ hearts with superstitious dread: a terrible feeling that God does not really want them to win this game. You could see the disbelief and the dejection in the Milan players as Dudek made his immortal double parry.

All athletes have that feeling of the force being with them and Dudek was awash with such sensations as we came to the penalty shoot-out. His behaviour was incredible, out of character: jumping and flapping and posturing as if the absolute master of the situation. And as a result, Milan were able to score only twice from their five penalties, two of which were saved. Dudek was lucky: he took to jumping forward — so much so against Shevchenko that I thought he was going to reach the ball first — but the officials did not pull him up.

But the officials were, like everyone else, caught up in the atmosphere of that crazy night and Dudek read the situation and the officials correctly. Dudek knew he had the advantage over the opposition, having dashed their hopes with the double save. The penalty-takers were in awe — not of Dudek, but of the situation they faced. And Dudek exploited their fear, found inspiration in it and stopped them single, or rather double-handed.

It doesn’t make Dudek a great goalkeeper, merely a good one who found the best side of his game — the inspirational side — when his team needed it. The great goalkeepers can do both things, can do the maverick/old-fart double: Peter Schmeichel for season after season, Petr Cech over the past year.

Great goalkeepers win matches and tournaments and championships, as you can tell when teams go into battle without one. The lack of a goalkeeper who combines inspiration and solidity has scuppered the seasons of Manchester United and Arsenal. The old-fart side of goalkeeping is about taking a grip on a team, a season. The maverick side is about seizing the moment. On Wednesday, Dudek seized his; as a result, Liverpool seized the European Cup.

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Legend likely to be leaving, Times

By Rick Broadbent

The Pole who should milk his moment of fame

IT IS ONE THING TO STOP A COUPLE of penalties and get some part of your anatomy in the way of a point-blank piledriver from the European footballer of the year, but Jerzy Dudek’s heroics on an incandescent night in Istanbul are unlikely to save his Anfield career. Just as he began to bask in his glory, José Reina, the Villarreal goalkeeper, was telling a press conference that he was on the verge of joining Liverpool.

“I’m very close to signing for Liverpool,” the former Barcelona player said. “The deal between the two clubs needs to be finalised, but it’s likely that it will be closed very soon. It had to be something big for me to leave Villarreal and I hope people will understand that I will be signing for the reigning European champions.”

Though only 22, Reina ousted Santiago Cañizares from the Spain squad this week, and is seen as the answer to Dudek’s tendency to waver between the sublime and the ridiculed. His critics might have deemed it apposite that, as the Pole chatted to journalists in the Ataturk Stadium yesterday morning, the team bus began to drive away. For all his endeavours, it was not the only thing he failed to catch.

Dudek deserves his moment of fame, though, and revealed that Bruce Grobbelaar, the eccentric goalkeeping hero of the penalty shoot-out in the 1984 European Cup final, had been a source of inspiration. Before the start of the dramatic denouement in Turkey, Jamie Carragher walked up to his goalkeeper. “He came over to me as if he was crazy — as always — and said, ‘Jerzy, Jerzy, remember Grobbelaar, remember him. He did lots of crazy things and you have to do the same now. You will be the hero’. I said, ‘OK, Carra, calm down’.”

Carragher added: “I mentioned Grobbelaar to him but I’m not sure if he knew what I was talking about. He said he was a Liverpool fan when he signed, but they all say that, don’t they? Now Jerzy will be remembered as a legend for what he did against Milan.”

Dudek, who saved spot kicks from Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko, said he was well aware of Grobbelaar’s own penchant for the unpredictable. “I’ve seen Grobbelaar and what he did with his spaghetti legs many, many times,” he said. “I was thinking about the same thing, but it didn’t work for me, so I did something else.” That something involved moving up and down his line and then clearly moving forward before the missed kicks were taken.

If Dudek was fortunate that his indiscretions in the shoot-out were overlooked, nobody could deny that he had earned his good fortune, the double save from Shevchenko in extra time keeping Liverpool alive. “As the ball came over, I could see he was between a couple of our players and they couldn’t get to the ball,” Dudek said. “I just prepared myself to save the header. After that I saw him running to get to the rebound . I just stood up as quickly as I could to make myself bigger and just got my arm in the way again. It was the best save I’ve ever made and the most important.”

It will ensure Dudek’s place in folklore if not in favour. Liverpool’s courtship of Reina has been an open secret and he will become the sixth Spaniard to join the club under Rafael Benítez. However, Dudek said he was prepared for any challenge. “I can retire now,” he joked in the aftermath of Istanbul. “Seriously, I have two years left on my contract and I am not afraid of anybody. I just want to say thank you to Rafa. He was my biggest supporter at the club.” Dudek should relish his moment while it lasts.

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May 27, 2005, Times

Grobbelaar hails line dance

By Bill Edgar

Talking to the hero of 1984 about the ‘starfish with the jelly legs’
THE SPIRIT OF BRUCE GROBBELAAR was summoned in the Ataturk Stadium on Wednesday night and the man himself watched admiringly 6,000 miles away. The former Liverpool goalkeeper was hailed by Jerzy Dudek as the inspiration for his antics in the penalty shoot-out against AC Milan and the Zimbabwean was happy to return the compliment yesterday.

Grobbelaar’s famous wobbly-knee routine appeared to distract his opponents during Liverpool’s shoot-out win over AS Roma in the 1984 European Cup final and, urged by Jamie Carragher to repeat the trick against Milan, Dudek pranced around on his line to seemingly good effect as three penalty takers fluffed their attempts.

“He looked like a starfish with jelly legs — he modernised my spaghetti legs,” Grobbelaar, speaking from South Africa, said. “Fair dos to him. You can call it gamesmanship, or whatever, but if it’s in the rules that you are allowed to move laterally then it’s fair enough. He played within the rules.”

A change in the rules during the 21 years that separated the two finals meant that Dudek was allowed to move on his line whereas Grobbelaar was required to keep his feet still. His knee wobbles were the best he could do to put off Roma and the ploy appeared to work when Bruno Conti and Francesco Graziani both blazed the ball over the crossbar, leaving Alan Kennedy to convert the winning penalty for Liverpool.

If some felt that his actions were unsportsmanlike, Grobbelaar said that he had shown consideration to Roma’s other two penalty takers by refraining from trying to distract them because they lacked experience. “Joe Fagan (then the Liverpool manager) asked me to try and put off their players. I did it to two Italian internationals. It wasn’t fair for me to do it to the other players. Jerzy Dudek did it to five internationals.”

Serginho, Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko missed for Milan and Grobbelaar has little sympathy when such senior players are found wanting from the spot, even if they are faced by a goalkeeper attempting to upset them. “It’s not my fault that they can’t take the pressure,” he said. “You can’t afford to have any nerves when you are taking a penalty.”

Grobbelaar and Dudek have a shoot-out triumph in common and their similarity extends to their familiarity with the word “clown”. But while the Zimbabwean earned his nickname for larking about, such as walking on his hands during a lap of honour, the Pole has merely been labelled as one for a series of high-profile gaffes, including those at Anfield this season against Manchester United and Bayer Leverkusen.

But Grobbelaar believes that much of the criticism of Dudek has been unjust. “It’s been unfair quite a lot of the time. I think he needs a break (from the derision),” Grobbelaar said. “He needs a lot of confidence and I think this will give it to him. He also pulled off two absolutely spectacular saves just before the end (a double save to deny Shevchenko). He played a major part in the victory.”

Whether Dudek’s fine performance is sufficient to earn him a long-term position as Liverpool goalkeeper remains to be seen, with Chris Kirkland and Scott Carson waiting in the wings and José Reina reported to be ready to sign from Villarreal. Equally, whether Liverpool’s remarkable triumph is a sign that they are about to become a title-challenging side, let alone one as dominant as the Anfield teams of Grobbelaar’s era, is open to doubt, but the Zimbabwean is optimistic for his old club.

“You can call them a great team because they achieved a great result against a world-class side,” Grobbelaar, who won six league titles with Liverpool after arriving in 1981, said. “Anyone who thinks they are not a great team needs their head examining. If they keep their players and make a couple more signings then they can win the league in the next couple of years.”

FROM MINER TO MAJOR

JERZY DUDEK WAS BORN NEAR Rybnik, in southern Poland, an area that was officially part of Germany during the Second World War. The son of a miner — coal was an important industry in the region — he owed his first break as a goalkeeper to his mother and father. He was allowed to play in goal at school because his parents were tall, and he could thus be expected to grow to a good height himself.

He made his senior debut at 18 for Concordia Knurow, a third-division club, and joined Sokol Tychy, a top-flight team, four years later. After only 15 games he was signed by Feyenoord but had to wait a year until Ed de Goey left for Chelsea before he made his first appearance. He played 140 consecutive games for the Rotterdam club and Leo Beenhakker, the former Holland coach, described him as “best goalkeeper I’ve seen in 30 years ”. He made his Poland debut in 1999 and joined Liverpool two years later.

OTHER FAMOUS POLISH GOALKEEPERS

Jan Tomaszewski: Single-handedly prevented England from reaching the 1974 World Cup finals when his acrobatic display at Wembley earned Poland a 1-1 draw.

The late Pope John Paul II: Karol Wojtyla kept goal for his local team in the Polish town of Wadowice.

[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

Milan lost in their minds

By Tony Cascarino

How confidence can quickly turn into terror
AT 3-0 DOWN AT HALF-TIME, YOU’RE finished, gone. History. You’re not talking about 3-0 down against Southampton or Norwich City. You’re talking about AC Milan, with World Cup winners in their line-up, European Cup winners and one of the best defences in the world. What do you say? What do you do?

As a player, I was never in that position. Maybe two goals behind at half-time, but never three. You sit in the dressing-room and you ask yourself: “Is there a way out?” Then the manager gets going and maybe the senior players, too. “For Christ’s sake, let’s get a bit of pride back. Let’s get a consolation goal and then see what happens.” You don’t really believe it, but you cling to hope. Anything.

It can’t really happen in the dressing-room, only when the game restarts. And that’s when Steven Gerrard started it with his header. He ran back to the halfway line, screaming, arms pumping: “Come on, come on.” And it wasn’t just a consolation goal. Not in his mind. He believed that Liverpool could win and it sent the most powerful of messages to his team-mates. That’s what inspired them, the raw emotion of one man. It was as if a season of frustration came cascading out. “How dare you question my commitment. You reckon I’m going to Chelsea? I’ll show you.”

Then Vladimir Smicer scored, then Xabi Alonso. Panic set in. Even mighty Milan didn’t know what to do. The players, some of the best in the world, looked at each other, the coaches shouted from the touchline, but no one could do a thing to halt it. It was like an out-of-control juggernaut that you can’t stop.

I’ve seen it before. You look in your opponents’ eyes and can you can see it. They’re sh***ing themselves. Maldini, Nesta, the lot. They’re gone. Why? Because they had thought it couldn’t happen. Because it defies rational explanation. In situations such as that, even the coolest of heads crumble. Paralysis sets in. For ten minutes, Milan could do nothing.

At 3-2, Liverpool could see that they had them on the rack. It is like a boxer. You know that your rival is toppling, that he is there for the taking. And you move in, quickly, for the kill. That’s what all the great fighters do. No sympathy, no mercy. Go for it. Then it was 3-3.

I remember watching a French league game, Montpellier against Marseilles, a few years ago with my wife, Virginie. Montpellier led 4-0 at half-time and she said: “Just watch it. It’s not finished yet.” “Yeah, yeah,” I thought. “Women and football, what does she know?”

Even after an hour, it was still 4-0, but Marseilles recovered and won 5-4. After they had got it back to 4-2, you saw the same panic in the Montpellier faces that you saw in the Milan faces in Istanbul. Keep the ball, just hold on to it, but no one wants the ball. Virginie said the same at half-time on Wednesday night. “You never know,” she said in her silly French accent. “Yeah, yeah,” I replied. “Shut up, woman.”

Gerrard was the catalyst, the man who provided that vital spark. But Rafael Benítez, in his first season as Liverpool manager, has created a special atmosphere in the squad, a bond, that also kept them going. A bit like at Chelsea, when things went against them. That indefinable quality of “Them versus Us”.

Towards the end of normal time and extra time, only one team was going to win it. Milan. Liverpool were out on their legs, they’d given everything, but that togetherness shone through again. And it was Gerrard again, moved to right back for the closing stages, who laid down the marker. He has such an incredible engine, such durability. He drove his team on, he implored them to greater efforts, he bullied them. And it worked.

Now it is time for calm consideration. Gerrard has indicated that he will stay at Liverpool and, as a European champion, it will be difficult for him to leave. But if Uefa refuses the team the chance to defend their title, who knows? In Istanbul, Gerrard’s heart ruled his head. In two weeks’ time, his head may rule his heart.

One thing is certain: he is irreplaceable.

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May 27, 2005, Times

Grand occasion the only place for panic

By Matthew Syed

Why players crumble
HAD IT BEEN BOXING, snooker, cricket or horse racing, the neutrals in the cheap seats would have been jumping up and down shouting: “Fix!” How else to explain that bizarre role reversal? In the first half, Liverpool were so inept and AC Milan so imperious that one felt only pity for the travelling Scousers. Then Hyde became Jekyll, Jekyll became Hyde and the rest of the English-speaking world became hysterical.

Sport is able to produce such preposterous narratives because it transports its protagonists to places that the rest of us fear to tread. Remember during graduation how difficult it was to walk naturally up on stage in front of hundreds of people? For six minutes in the second half, Milan, in front of half the world, forgot how to play football. Talk of rabbits and headlights fails to provide sufficient analogical traction to do it justice.

Milan walked out for the second half grinning, pouting and convinced as to the inevitability of the result. Then Steven Gerrard knocked in that unlikely header against the run of play. Confidence can be punctured by a single pinprick — and the greater the level of confidence, the bigger the metaphorical bang.

As Gerrard was gesticulating to his team-mates and fans, the Milan players looked to be reeling from shell-shock. One second they were as cocksure as a gang of playground bullies, the next they had become only too aware of the scale of the occasion, the proximity of glory and the horror of what it would mean to have it snatched away.

Liverpool, of course, were undergoing the opposite transformation, with an extra yard of pace and renewed hope. Had they not become tired, they would have pinched it within normal time. Even impetus, though, is powerless against cramp.

Such momentum swings are only possible on sport’s grandest stages. Sportsmen get used to the pressure of routine competitions and are, therefore, psychologically equipped to deal with comebacks. Big events are, however, by their very nature, infrequent. The Olympic Games and World Cup finals occur once every four years and, although the European Cup takes place annually, few players expect to play in more than one final in an entire career.

If there have been any more compelling turnarounds, I have not seen them. It was more emotional than Nick Faldo’s comeback from six strokes down against Greg Norman in the final round of the Masters in 1996. It was on a grander scale than Dennis Taylor’s recovery from 8-0 down to Steve Davis in the World Snooker Championship final of 1985. It was more dramatic than Steffi Graf’s comeback from 4-1 and 40-30 down to Jana Novotna in the last set of the 1993 Wimbledon final.

For all the money thrown at sports psychology, the scientists are no closer to understanding what causes the breakdown between mind and body. Perhaps it will always remain a mystery, even to those it afflicts. For spectators, at least, this is no bad thing.

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May 27, 2005, Times

Dream final gives fans songs to sing

By Alyson Rudd

Our correspondent is left bleary-eyed by her magical mystery tour to Istanbul

EVEN THOUGH I HAD TO GET UP at 4am to make the flight to Istanbul on Wednesday, I didn’t want to fall asleep — not even 24 hours later. If I fell asleep someone might wake me with the words, “Hurry up Alyson, you’ve got to catch that flight to Turkey”, and it would all have been a dream.

I had dreamt a lot about the European Cup final. The usual stuff. Liverpool losing. Me playing in it. Having to leave before the end because I had a hair appointment. All very silly but not as utterly ludicrous as the truth.

There is a television advert where a certain beer has the ability to produce the perfect nightclub or the perfect flatmates. On Wednesday I wandered into just such an advert. Every football fan knows the perfect game isn’t winning 6-0. You have to suffer first. But even before the final began, life was special.

The road to the stadium was a bleak landscape punctuated by locals giving us the thumbs-up. Although we were within 300 yards of the stadium with four hours to go before kick-off, all the bus drivers acted as if we were in danger of missing the match and beeped their horns or drove the wrong way along the dual carriageway.

I did not feel four hours of standing in the wind outside what looked an unappealing building in which to host the European Cup final was strictly necessary. However, in true fairytale fashion, a friend appeared with a pass to a hospitality tent. Oh yes, a tent maybe, but a tent draped in velvet with 30 chefs, a fountain, live music and all the free beer you wanted. “I don’t like lager,” I said, “I want champagne.”

I say this quite often. But it is not often that a cute waiter says “Of course” and pours you a free glass. And then another. Then we decided duty beckoned. We had to help to set the stage to let the world know this was Liverpool’s night.

“Stevie Heighway on the wing. We had dreams and songs to sing,” goes the anthem. And, as Stevie H is the reason I love Liverpool and love football I felt nostalgic and optimistic at the same time. All that bubbly didn’t help.

The Liverpool fans were quiet for a while. There was the odd expletive, an attempt to find a scapegoat — usually Djimi Traoré — but Liverpool fans know when a team are rubbish, and we were rubbish. We tried to make jokes:

“We’re going to win 4-3” had a hollow ring. I remembered that Barcelona had been beaten 4-0 in a European Cup final and they had managed to retain their dignity.

Eventually. It took rather less time for Liverpool to regain theirs. I cannot say I felt it was going to happen but there was magic at work. It was sensory overload. It was like having your whole life, the ups and downs, the good times, the bad times, condensed into one evening. As the fireworks hit the sky, the players kissed the trophy and the big screen kept flashing: Liverpool. Winners. So I blubbed again.

And then back to the tent, which now boasted pretty belly dancers and the opportunity to have your photo taken with Phil Thompson. It was just slightly better than sitting in a coach for three hours waiting to leave the stadium. As my friend Gerry and I tried to climb into a taxi some hours later, we were ushered away by a man called Idan. “Me Liverpool, Milan big problem,” he said.

Yes, we agreed, laughing, Milan had big problems but how much did he charge to get to Taksim Square? “Me Liverpool, money no problem,” Idan said. What this actually meant was: “I’m sure you’ll pay me a huge amount of lire because I can say ‘Gerrard very good’.”

The party had ended in Taksim Square. Everyone was exhausted, especially as no one had experienced anything other than a crazy journey to reach Istanbul. We then got in a cab with a rather strange fellow who, despite nodding when we named our hotel, had, as his only plan, to drive all over the city hoping to stumble upon it by accident. It was a long journey. Sleep was interrupted by delayed texts from friends. “Well done,” they said, as if I had scored that lovely glancing header. And, as I drifted off again, I dreamt that I did.

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May 27, 2005, Times

Perfect memories to fuel slow ride home

By Tony Evans

Reflecting on the lessons learnt from a footballing odyssey
SO THE JOURNEY HAS come to a perfect end. The most cramped and arduous part of the trip was the three-hour bus ride back to the city after the game. If the Ataturk stadium really is in Istanbul, then Milton Keynes Dons might well have kept calling themselves Wimbledon. Fell-walking and European Cup finals do not work together, but when the single entry road was clogged four hours before the game, the only thing to do was take to the fields.

The computerised entry system was chaotic and it needed good old-fashioned muscle power to force the turnstile. Some of us didn’t have much of that left after our long hike across the moors. Many of the bars were shut in the early hours of yesterday morning by the time we reached Istanbul, thirsty for beer and wanting to see how the triumph looked on television. What we needed was wall-to-wall coverage of the game and the only place to provide this was an Irish bar.

From the Mersey to the minarets in less than a week and we celebrate success against a backdrop of shamrocks and leprechauns. There was an unusual lack of conversation. Six Scousers sitting in silence. Another first. Shock brought incoherence.

Someone attempted to quantify the magnitude of it all. “It is like the best day of your life, only better,” he said. “The way your wedding day is supposed to be, but isn’t.”

“Well your wedding didn’t cause mass pain to thousands of Evertonians and Man U fans,” Dave said, and this was an ingredient that was relished, the sweet dusting on the Turkish delight. Rivalry brings such pleasure — and pain. A minor disappointment was the timing of the victory parade back in Liverpool yesterday. So many people in Istanbul would miss it. “Should have had it on Sunday,” Dave said.

“Everton already had that day booked for their fourth-place parade,” I said. “They’re holding up four fingers.”

If any lesson comes from this journey, Liverpool’s journey, it is that it’s glory that lifts the spirits. Who cares about fourth place in the Premiership? Those of us at the table yesterday morning want to see cups won, trophies lifted. The managers in the Premiership who play weakened teams in the FA Cup and claim it is more important to finish seventeenth than win something have fallen into a trap.

Fans are not stupid. They will eventually turn away from the mediocre. Now, people like us feel that the game is trying to leave us behind. At the end of the match on Wednesday, when we wanted to sing our songs, the stadium authorities imposed a deafening cacophony of pseudo-classical music, repeated versions of You’ll Never Walk Alone and the appalling We Are The Champions by Queen. All at decibel levels that would leave Ozzy Osbourne pleading for earplugs.

So, during the European Cup final of 2005, the Poor Scouser Tommy — the hero of a song even more pivotal than You’ll Never Walk Alone to some of us — went unremembered. A little bit of our heritage was missing. But for me, this journey was about more than crossing Europe for a single game. It evoked memories and sensations of a lifetime of travelling to watch football. The joy, the misery, the boredom. And if you think this a downbeat end to an odyssey, then you are wrong. This is a hangover. There is no place I’d rather be than sitting in Istanbul waiting for the slow train home, with glowing red memories to fuel the locomotive. You should have been there. You really should.

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The Fink Tank, Times

By Daniel Finkelstein

Bursting a few myths about Liverpool's stunning comeback

“THE WORST TIME TO concede three goals is before half-time”.

I’ve always wanted to create my own football myth. This fits the bill perfectly — it sounds great but is really a load of rubbish. For those of you who wear an anorak to bed, Liverpool’s shock, amazing, incredible, extraordinary, etc, etc victory will have been fun. But what you will have been enjoying is watching football myths bite the dust.

Let me give you the Fink Tank take on the game, using the statistical model of European football that has been built up by academics at Warwick University. Myth One: “The worst time to concede a goal is just before half-time”. There is no good time to concede a goal. Conceding goals is bad. Being 3-0 down is worse. Just before Liverpool scored, their chance of winning was 0.2 per cent (1 in 500). (At 1-0 it was 19.3 per cent, at 2-0 2.9 per cent and at 3-0 0.3 per cent.) But if you really have to let goals in, as Liverpool’s result shows, it’s better to concede sooner than later. There is absolutely no evidence to suggest that conceding just before half-time is particularly bad.

Myth Two: “Penalties are a complete lottery”. No, they are not. The better team (AC Milan) enjoys an advantage. However, a bigger advantage accrues to playing away from home. Fink Tank shows that playing away is the biggest single advantage you can have in penalties. The reason? Almost certainly that home fans induce nerves. So the Fink Tank advises teams to shoot towards opposing fans if they can. On Saturday Manchester United didn’t, on Wednesday Liverpool did.

Myth Three: “Liverpool didn’t stand a chance against the great AC Milan”. The truth? Liverpool weren’t anywhere near as bad as this suggests and AC Milan nowhere near as good. Yes, Liverpool had only a 2.3 per cent chance of winning the trophy when the league stage began. But this isn’t that uncommon, since everyone starts with a low probability. By the knockout stage Liverpool ranked eighth, with a 4.59 per cent chance of the trophy. By the time of the final the probability had risen to 45.5 per cent.

AC Milan were not, as some suggested, the best side in Europe. Nowhere near. They were ranked sixth and only 65 per cent as good as Chelsea. And we all know what happened when Liverpool played them.

[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

The Cup in Brief

Smith says ghosts of past put to rest

Liverpool have lived in the shadows of the teams that contested five finals in eight years, but Tommy Smith, the former defender who scored in the 1977 final, says that the victory over AC Milan will persuade some that they can dominate again.

“The ghosts have now disappeared from the time when we controlled Europe,” Smith, who watched the European Cup final in a bar in Liverpool, said. “It will give the players the confidence that they can play at the top level and now Liverpool will have so much respect from other teams. I’ve been thinking this year if Liverpool get any further down the league, we are going to start struggling, but this gives you such a boost.”

Cech's a mate

Petr Cech, the Chelsea goalkeeper, said that he telephoned Vladimir Smicer, his Czech team-mate, yesterday to congratulate him. “Am I jealous? No. We won the Premiership and the Carling Cup and they won the Champions League,” Cech said. “Next season it will be different.” Cech paid tribute to Jerzy Dudek for his saves from Andriy Shevchenko and in the penalty shoot-out. “He will remember those saves until his last days,” he said.

Absenteeism rises

Business experts estimated one in five workers in Liverpool, not including those who had booked the day off, missed work yesterday after celebrating the European Cup victory late into the night. Many Evertonians are also believed to have taken the day off to escape gibes from colleagues. Frank McKenna, of private sector consortium Downtown Liverpool in Business, said: “From our members’ experience, absenteeism is clearly running quite high at about one in five people.”

Björn tribute

Thomas Björn, the Danish golfer, wore red for the opening round of the BMW Championship at Wentworth in honour of Liverpool’s win. Björn has supported Liverpool since 1977. “I didn’t even know football existed until then, but I’ve been a great supporter ever since,” he said. “There were tears in my eyes to see the two Liverpool boys [Steven Gerrard and Jamie Carragher] with the trophy,” he said. Björn was three over par, but ended only four strokes behind Peter Lawrie, the leader.

[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

Vital statistics

By Bill Edgar

# It was the second time in three seasons that Liverpool have avoided defeat in a European Cup match after falling 3-0 behind. They recovered from three goals down at half-time to draw 3-3 in a group match away to Basle in November 2002.

# Liverpool have won all of their five meaningful penalty shoot-outs. Previously they have beaten AS Roma in the 1984 European Cup final; Birmingham City in the 2002 League Cup final; Tottenham Hotspur in the League Cup quarter-finals this season; and Portsmouth in the FA Cup semi-finals in 1991-92.

# It was the highest-scoring European Cup final since Benfica beat Real Madrid 5-3 in 1962. Four years ago Liverpool were involved in the highest-scoring single match in a European final when they beat Alavés 5-4 in the Uefa Cup.

# English clubs have now won the most European club trophies (European Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and Uefa Cup), 28 to Italy’s 27.

# Rafael Benítez has emulated Bob Paisley and José Mourinho in winning the Uefa Cup and European Cup in successive years. Paisley won both with Liverpool in 1976 and 1977; Mourinho won both with FC Porto in 2003 and 2004, while Benítez won the Uefa Cup with Valencia last season.

[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

The teacher who has seen it all before

By James Ducker

WHILE the rest of the world looked on, delirious and dumbfounded, as Steven Gerrard inspired Liverpool to one of sport’s greatest comebacks, one man sat back calmly in his chair. He had seen it all before, only this time the prize at stake was bigger. Much bigger.

For Stephen Monaghan, the sight of Gerrard rallying his team-mates in the belief that they could overturn a 3-0 half-time deficit to win a cup final, when others had all but given up hope, was eerily familiar.

Monaghan used to coach Gerrard when he was a youngster at the Cardinal Heenan Catholic High School, in West Derby, and remembers how, 14 years ago, the midfield player, then 11, galvanised the team’s recovery in the Merseyside Under-11s Cup final in much the same way as he fired up Liverpool in the European Cup final against AC Milan.

Just as Liverpool were in Istanbul, Cardinal Heenan were trailing 3-0 at the interval and seemingly on course for defeat when Gerrard, again as he did against Milan, pulled a goal back. Soon after, he scored again and with Bluecoat High School, the opposition, crumbling, Cardinal Heenan went on to win 4-3. No penalties, but the same outcome. “It felt like history was repeating itself, although it’s safe to say the European Cup is a somewhat bigger prize than the Merseyside Cup,” Monaghan said. “I had to have a chuckle to myself afterwards, but it was weird to see Liverpool 3-0 down at half-time like we were all those years ago and watch Steven, just as he had done his school-mates against Bluecoats, psych up his Liverpool team-mates and lead them to victory, too.”

Monaghan, 50, now head of the upper school at Cardinal Heenan, always knew Gerrard was destined for greatness. “It was obvious he was going to become something special, anyone could see that,” Monaghan said. “I remember watching him in his first game for the school, an 8-0 win against Savio High School. Steven scored three goals and dominated the game, and that night I rang my father (Frank) to tell him to get down from Newcastle to see this kid. In 30 years of teaching, I’ve never seen a talent like it.

“He was always a leader, even then, but in a nice way. He was head and shoulders above everyone else in terms of talent, but he was never big-headed. He would never criticise anyone, only encourage them. I used to take him off if we were a few goals ahead to give the other lads a chance, but he would never complain. I think I’ve subbed Steven more than any other manager.”

Monaghan, who cancelled detention last night so that the pupils could watch Liverpool’s victory parade, believes Gerrard is the perfect role model for youngsters. “His refusal to give up is remarkable,” he said. “You could not ask for a better role model. He still comes into the school and is very popular among the students. I’m very proud of him myself.”

[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

Trouble-free 'Istanpool' rocks to the sound of the Beatles

From Ben Hoyle in Istanbul
 
THE pavements, cafés and parks of Istanbul were strewn with dazed Liverpool fans yesterday. Many had not been to bed; none could quite believe what they had witnessed the night before. Their Turkish hosts seemed equally stunned by the realisation that tens of thousands of English football fans had invaded their city and left it intact.
Fears of a confrontation between Liverpool supporters and Turkish or Italian fans proved unfounded. After 72 hours of heavy drinking and raucous singing there had been not a single serious incident involving Liverpool fans.

 
 
Around 80 charter flights left Istanbul yesterday carrying the first wave of the “Red Armada” back to the celebrations in Liverpool. But, with thousands more fans staying on to do some sightseeing, it will be some time before life in Istanbul returns to normal.

T-shirts printed with “Istanpool FC” were for sale on the streets and the Megavizyon music store was still pumping out a medley of Beatles hits.

“At first I was afraid of English fans coming but now I am not,” Neela Filibeli, who runs a pharmacy close to Taksim square, where the Liverpool fans gathered during the build-up to the match, said. “We love them. All Turks like guests if they are gentle and noble. They did not disappoint us and Istanbul gave luck to Liverpool. I was cheering for them.”

“We have had a great time with the Liverpool fans,” Cenap Gunes, manager of the Huzur restaurant in Cicek Passage, said. “They drink too much but they are happy and laughing. It is no problem.”
 

[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

Liverpool glory night worth £30m

By Ashling O’Connor
 
The value to the winners of an unforgettable match in Istanbul is considerable
 
LIVERPOOL will earn about £30 million from their sensational European Cup win in Istanbul on Wednesday night. The spoils of victory from their spirited campaign in the lucrative Champions League could buy Liverpool another Steven Gerrard if the value of the team’s inspirational captain could ever truly be quantified or his personality replicated.
The European payday will at least ensure that the Liverpool board can offer the England midfield player a sweetened contract to keep him at his home-town club for years to come. The Barclays Premiership club are to receive a £4.5 million bonus from Uefa, European football’s governing body, for winning the final against AC Milan 3-2 on penalties.

 
 
This equates to about £1.5 million per successful spot kick by Dietmar Hamann, Djibril Cissé and Vladimir Smicer or £2.3 million for each of Jerzy Dudek’s Grobbelaar-esque saves, depending on your appreciation of the various skills of a penalty shoot-out. Over the course of the competition, Liverpool earned £20.2 million in performance bonuses and their share of the media revenues.

As an English club, coming from the competition’s most valuable TV market, Liverpool earned considerably more than FC Porto, the Portuguese club and last season’s winners. Liverpool’s share of TV money amounted to £9.2 million. Taking into account gate receipts and sponsorship bonuses, the club’s total earnings from participation in the Champions League will rise to about £30 million, according to Deloitte’s sports business group. The knock-on benefits for the club, such as improved sponsorship agreements, will only be known in time.

“There are other long-term gains in terms of the brand and merchandising but the biggest potential prize is entry into the competition next year, which would be worth another £30 million if they won it again, or at least £10 million from the group stage,” Dan Jones, a Deloitte partner, said.

Whether or not that happens depends on Uefa changing a policy that does not allow the European champions to defend their title automatically. Liverpool missed out on qualification for next season by one Premiership place. Liverpool’s unexpected charge to the final, having swept past both Juventus and Chelsea, had already caused sponsors to elevate the club to a higher category.

Carlsberg agreed to extend its £5 million-a-year shirt sponsorship deal for another three seasons. The Danish brewer has a 13-year association with the club but had been considering terminating the sponsorship contract at the end of this season. Having the moniker of European champions will also give Rick Parry, Liverpool’s chief executive, more leverage in negotiations with companies considering lending their name to the proposed new stadium at Stanley Park.

A naming rights deal could bring in enough money to allow the club to push on with the £140 million project, which is supposed to open at the start of the 2007-08 season but has been beset by funding difficulties. A hike in steel prices has inflated the cost of the 60,000-seat stadium from £80 million over the past five years. Arsenal’s naming rights deal with Emirates, the Dubai airline, for its new stadium at Ashburton Grove is worth an estimated £3 million a season.

Liverpool’s return to the summit of European football is also likely to rejuvenate investor interest in the club, which reported a £22 million pre-tax loss last season and an 11 per cent drop in turnover to £91.6 million, largely because of its absence from the Champions League the previous season.

A series of potential investors, including the Prime Minister of Thailand and a consortium of Hollywood film-makers, have come and gone in the past year but no deal has been convincing enough for David Moores, the chairman, to dilute his family’s controlling 51.6 per cent stake in the club. Steve Morgan, the third-largest shareholder and a property millionaire, withdrew his £70 million offer — his fourth approach to the club — before Christmas.

[Rushian]

Gerrard spurs Liverpool to come back from the dead

From Matt Dickinson, Chief Football Correspondent in Istanbul

AC Milan 3 Liverpool 3
(aet; 3-3 after 90min; Liverpool win 3-2 on pens)

TROUNCED by half-time, triumphant by the end, Liverpool celebrated their fifth European Cup all the more joyously because of the astonishing manner of victory. Alan Hansen and Kenny Dalglish had said that success against AC Milan would surpass any of their achievements and, in coming back from three goals down last night, Steven Gerrard and his team-mates can be sure that they have earned their place in Anfield’s hall of fame.
All the arguments about whether the second best team on Merseyside could call themselves the kings of Europe were forgotten in the drama of a remarkable match and a penalty shoot-out that concluded, famously, when Andriy Shevchenko — scorer of the penalty that secured the trophy for Milan two years ago against Juventus — was foiled by Jerzy Dudek, who was almost certainly playing his last game for the club. Last night’s performance has certainly made him easier to sell.

 
 
The previous time Liverpool won the European Cup, 21 years ago in Rome, Bruce Grobbelaar had staggered around the goalline like a drunk. Dudek did not resort to tricks, but he did break all the rules by bounding yards forward for more than one of the spot-kicks. The saves from Andrea Pirlo and Shevchenko in the shoot-out were not his only heroics — Milan had enjoyed the better of extra time, but Dudek pulled off a miraculous double save from Shevchenko to take the match to penalties.

It is a shame that three of the past five finals have had to be decided on spot-kicks — this more than any other — but Liverpool’s ecstasy was unbounded in the most extraordinary denouement since Manchester United’s improbable comeback in 1999 to clinch the treble. A spectacularly see-sawing match saw Milan take a three-goal lead by half-time and Liverpool strike back with three in six minutes early in the second half.

When it was all over, Rafael Benítez passed into Anfield legend, his name chiming from the terraces more than any of his players’, but it was despite rather than because of the manager that Liverpool overcame the odds. His decision to abandon the system that had worked so well against Juventus and Chelsea, dropping Dietmar Hamann and selecting Harry Kewell, was Ranieri-esque in its perversity. His players saved him.

Fitness was one issue given that Kewell was starting only his second match in three months, but as far as the Liverpool fans were concerned, so was character. “He owes us,” one said of a player whose commitment has been questioned on the terraces and by his manager. His withdrawal after 23 minutes, clutching his groin, was interpreted as desertion and he was jeered off the field.

It was no coincidence that the German’s arrival at half-time, replacing Steve Finnan in a switch of formations to a five-man midfield, prompted the fightback that Carlo Ancelotti, the Milan coach, said was impossible to explain.

An unforgettable evening got off to a terrible start for Liverpool when Djimi Traoré felled Kaká. Pirlo swung in the free kick that Paolo Maldini was allowed to meet with a hooked, right-foot shot. Dudek was not up to the job of keeping it out and at that stage it seemed clear why he will be replaced this summer by José Reina, of Villarreal.

It was a calamitous opening for any team, but particularly one with Liverpool’s inexperience. Gerrard and Xabi Alonso worked hard to establish some stability, but in players such as Traoré and John Arne Riise, they had team-mates who looked overawed.

Every attack from Milan threatened a goal in the first half and only marginal offside decisions delayed the second until the 39th minute. Cruelly for Liverpool, it came from their own attack.

Running at Alessandro Nesta, Luis García believed that he had a strong case for handball against the Italy defender, but the referee waved play on. Seconds later, it was nestling in Dudek’s net as Kaká fed Shevchenko, who crossed to Hernán Crespo at the far post for an easy finish.

Game over, it seemed, and, as if to confirm the fact, Crespo added another before the interval. Kaká’s through-pass was superb and, after Crespo had sprinted behind Jamie Carragher and Sami Hyypia, so was the clipped finish. Benítez had been stalking a technical area the size of a tennis court, but by now he was rooted to his seat in the dugout, knowing that his team were in danger of being embarrassed.

The engraver must have been tempted to get to work during the interval. No one, least of all Milan, expected the comeback, which was inspired by Benítez’s belated introduction of Hamann to add an extra body in midfield and give Gerrard more freedom.

The captain scored Liverpool’s first, meeting Riise’s cross with a looping header beyond Dida. Gerrard waved his arms manically at the great sea of Liverpool fans and they responded deafeningly. Many of them must still have feared defeat, but when the second goal arrived two minutes later, Vladimir Smicer beating Dida with a crisp shot from outside the area, their faith was fully restored.

Back came Liverpool again and when Gerrard charged into the area, the contact from Gennaro Gattuso was enough to knock the Liverpool captain to the floor. The referee pointed to the spot and Gerrard stepped aside to allow Alonso to take it. Dida saved his shot, but the Spaniard pounced on the rebound. Liverpool were back from the dead, but the game still had to be won. It was, unforgettably.

THE SHOOT-OUT

0-0 Serginho slices high and wide


0-1 Hamann shimmies and scores in corner


0-1 Dudek saves to his right from stop-start Pirlo


0-2 Cissé dispatches cool sidefoot


1-2 Tomasson scores with fierce shot


1-2 Riise’s kick saved well by Dida’s dive to his right


2-2 Kaká sends Dudek the wrong way


2-3 Smicer calmly places ball past Dida


2-3 Dudek saves from Shevchenko to secure victory

AC MILAN (4-4-2): Dida — Cafu, A Nesta, J Stam, P Maldini — G Gattuso (sub: Rui Costa, 112min), A Pirlo, Kaká, C Seedorf (sub: Serginho, 86) — A Shevchenko, H Crespo (sub: J D Tomasson, 86). Substitutes not used: C Abbiati, K Kaladze, A Costacurta, V Dhorasoo.

LIVERPOOL (4-4-1-1): J Dudek — S Finnan (sub: D Hamann, 46), S Hyypia, J Carragher, D Traoré — L García, X Alonso, S Gerrard, J A Riise — H Kewell (sub: V Smicer, 23) — M Baros (sub: D Cissé, 84). Substitutes not used: S Carson, Josemi, A Núñez, I Biscan. Booked: Carragher, Baros.

Referee: M E Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain).
 

[Rushian]

750,000 Liverpool fans paint town red, Scotsman

MICHAEL BLACKLEY


THREE-quarters of a million Liverpool football fans and wellwishers packed the city's streets last night to welcome home the club's players following their dramatic victory in the Champions League final.

The streets were awash with red as Liverpool's supporters celebrated their return to the height of European footballing achievement after coming from 3-0 behind to win a nail-biting penalty shoot-out against AC Milan.

The crowds were so big that the team's victory bus was two hours behind schedule as it journeyed at snail's pace through swathes of supporters waving flags and scarves.

The last time Liverpool fans welcomed their side back from European Cup glory was in 1984, after they overcame another Italian side, AS Roma, also on penalties.

While captain Steven Gerrard's grasp on the trophy remained firm last night, the Merseyside club's hold on the actual cup is even stronger - as it was their fifth success, they now need never give the trophy back and a new one will be produced for next year's tournament.

An estimated 40,000-50,000 Liverpool fans attended the match itself, and few of them would have dreamed at half-time on Wednesday evening that such victory scenes would be possible, as their side trudged off the pitch 3-0 down.

But one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of the European Cup ensued, with Liverpool quickly equalising, and going on to hold their nerve in penalties after 120 minutes of football.

Not all those who attended the match were able to make it back in time for the celebrations, however, with many being delayed in Istanbul as a result of hold-ups of up to five hours at the city's second airport, Sabiha Gokcen.

Earlier in the day, the Queen had described Liverpool's victory as a "magnificent achievement". She sent her message to the chairman of the club via Liverpool's lord lieutenant.

It said: "Congratulations on your remarkable win last night. It was a magnificent achievement which will be remembered for many years both in Liverpool and across the country."

A Downing Street spokesman said that Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, sent a message to manager Rafael Benitez and his team, which said: "Unbelievable. Incredible. Brilliant. The whole country is very proud of you."

Liverpool legend Terry McDermott, who picked up winner's medals in the European Cup finals of 1977, 1978 and 1981, believes the current squad's achievement eclipsed any other. He said: "I'm in shock that they actually did it."

[Rushian]

May 27, 2005, Times

Punters who kept faith have prayers answered

By Andy Stephens
 
BOOKMAKERS were left squealing after Liverpool’s amazing fightback in Istanbul cost them in the region of £2 million. Most firms offered the Anfield club at 100-1 to lift the trophy at half-time and those punters who kept the faith were left doing a victory jig that Djibril Cissé would have been proud of.
“Over £10 million was riding on the match, it was one of the biggest betting games ever,” Warren Lush, of Ladbrokes, said yesterday. “We estimate the industry has lost over £2 million. The turnaround in the betting will go down in history. Liverpool were 100-1 to win at half-time and more than 100 people backed them at that price. The biggest bet at this stage was £50 from a punter in Kirkby, Liverpool, who scooped £5,000.”

 
 
William Hill, who alone recorded bets of £2.5 million on the match, also made Liverpool 100-1 at half-time, but demand meant that they halved that price to 50-1. Their biggest single winner was Dave Bushell, a Liverpool fan from Preston, who is £40,000 better off after placing a bet of £500 on them at 80-1 back in December. One Hills internet client from Norway could not share his joy. He staked £10,167 on AC Milan when they were 3-0 up at 1-100. He stood to win just £102.

On Betfair, the internet betting exchange, more than £10 million worth of bets were matched.

Those who missed out on backing Liverpool could yet make up for lost time. Ladbrokes make Steven Gerrard 11-10 to still be at Anfield at the start of next season, Hills are 4-6, while Paddy Power go 1-2.

WHERE WILL STEVEN GERRARD START NEXT SEASON?: Ladbrokes bet: 10-11 Chelsea; 11-10 Liverpool; 10-1 Real Madrid; 16-1 AC Milan; 25-1 Arsenal; 50-1 Barcelona.
 

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

On the spot: Tony Evans

By Times Online Sport
 
"The atmosphere is strangely subdued in Istanbul. Everyone is totally shattered from the emotions of last night. After leaving the stadium it took us about two-and-a-half or three hours to get back to the city centre and by that point everyone was half dead. The bars were all closing up so we got a couple of beers where we could and went to bed at about dawn.

 
 
"The airline schedules were badly disrupted by the extra time. There were plenty of supporters attempting to get back to Liverpool last night who are still here now. There's a huge backlog at the airport but a lot of very smug Scousers wandering around the city. It's still very quiet - I don't think the magnitude of what happened has really sunk in yet. It probably won't until we watch it on television when we get back home.

"It's unbelievable, really. At 3-0 down at half-time, we were thinking we should just try to get out of there. No one did actually leave, but the stadium was depressed. Then someone started singing You'll Never Walk Alone by themselves and everyone just joined in. Then we were all singing "We're going to win 4-3" and laughing about it. We were past the point of no return by then. It was absurd, really. No one thought we could actually do it at that point.

"When Steven Gerrard scored the first goal, the songs got louder and there were a lot of clenched fists. There was a huge surge of momentum in Liverpool's favour and it went right through the crowd, loads of nervous energy. There was a big sense that if we could put them under pressure we could get back into the game.

"It probably compares with the greatest nights the club has ever seen. It was one of the great days, like Rome in 1977. Milan are no mugs. To come back from 3-0 down and win it is exceptional. Some people had said that Liverpool would devalue the competition if they won it, but they can't say that now. It was an unprecedented comeback.

"Ideally we'd like to win it with the best team in Europe so no one could question the legitimacy of the victory. But it is a close second to win it as gloriously as we did. That glory will live forever.

"In many ways we don't care if we don't get to defend the title. We've won it five times now so that cup stays at Anfield and everyone is challenging for a new trophy next season. It reflects badly on Uefa and shows how ludicrous the rules are if they don't allow the champions to defend their title, but no one can take this cup away from Liverpool now.

"Six or seven of the players from last night won't be a part of Liverpool's future but this win should give the team a chance to rebuild properly. If Steven Gerrard decides to stay, we'll be very happy to keep him, but it's easy for him to pledge his faith and conviction after a match like that. It would have been nice for him to have let us know beforehand that he wanted to stay. There were 30,000 supporters last night who were committed to the club even when they were 3-0 down, not just after the final whistle.

"Our Holy Grail is still to win the league. I want to play in this competition again as champions of England. Despite all that went on in Istanbul, the fans will still be after Rafael Benitez's head if we're so far behind in the league next year."
 

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

Gone in 50 seconds, back in six minutes

From Simon Barnes, Chief Sports Writer, in Istanbul
 
FOOTBALL. Bloody hell, the printable expletives are utterly inadequate for the task of summing up a night of football mayhem. Bring out the asterisks: it was a night when football brought us the utterly impossible on a night of perfect insanity as Liverpool won the European Cup final on penalties after doing their best to lose it.

 
 
Liverpool produced one of the greatest comebacks in the history of football. They created for themselves an utter disaster and somehow rose to find hope, and with it, power and effectiveness and purpose and direction. They turned a lost match around in six impossible minutes: one of those periods of total enchantment that happen in football, but very rarely.

Yet it seemed that they had managed to lose everything in less than a minute. After a season of ever-growing hope and burgeoning expectation, Liverpool looked as if they had lost the lot in a matter of 50 seconds. They conceded a goal more or less before a Liverpool player had touched the ball and were 3-0 down at half-time. It was humiliation.

But before you could say “Football. Bloody hell” they were back in it again. After being made to look like small-timers and second-raters, they came roaring back as if they were the old champions of the Eighties, the Liverpool side that expected to win European Cup finals as a matter of course. They drew level in that period of magic and took the game into extra time, a spooky period played in a mood close to emotional exhaustion.

The match proper finished at 3-3, but not before Jerzy Dudek had made a remarkable double save from Andriy Shevchenko that suggested the force was with the Pole. Then came the penalties and Dudek, a goalkeeper often and fairly criticised this season, saved two of them, enough for Liverpool to win the shoot-out 3-2.

There was a Liverpool banner in the stadium that bore the legend no passaran — they shall not pass — a tribute to the startling and complete impregnability of the Liverpool defence over the previous three matches in this competition. Plan A was obvious, then: don’t concede a goal and so the favourites will get worried and grow vulnerable.

As plans go, it had a lot going for it, but it was less than a minute before Liverpool were on to plan B. It is the nature of football that things can go very wrong very quickly. Liverpool were a goal behind while still wondering what the opening ceremony was all about.

The goal was simplicity itself. A foul: Djimi Traoré on Kaká. A free kick, and Andrea Pirlo swung it in. Paolo Maldini was supposed to be a weak link at 36, but his legs had not got tired in three quarters of a minute. He hit a spirited right-foot volley and topped the ball rather than met it sweetly.

As so often happens in such circumstances, it crashed into the ground and rose steeply in a fashion that was hard to read. And on this occasion it found the net and Liverpool’s day was ruined before it had rightly started. The Liverpool supporters had out-sung the Milanese before the start: their silence was shocking. It reflected a feeling of deep dismay and it reflected perfectly the dismay of the Liverpool players.

So much for Rafael Benítez, the Liverpool manager, and his sudden recognition as a tactical genius. You can’t fault him for effort, but he was presiding over a disaster at half-time and his ploy of putting Harry Kewell in his starting line-up looked like an act of folly.

They shall not pass, indeed. Liverpool hardly passed at all in the first half. Liverpool had come with a reputation for outstanding defence, Milan showed that the traditional continental virtues of tight, intelligent passing are worth a mention. Shevchenko, in a moment of gliding wit and eventing, set up Hernán Crespo for a tap-in, then Kaká pushed through a sweetly timed pass. This one required a bit more of a finish. Crespo provided it and in the process made Liverpool look like a team playing a little way out of their class.

Then the tide turned in a manner that defied logical and even tactical sense. It was simply as if God had changed sides. The force, long absent, was suddenly with Liverpool. Steven Gerrard was the man who started it with a looping header from a cross by John Arne Riise. Then it was Vladimir Smicer, who had come on as a 23rd-minute substitute for the hapless Kewell. He reduced the deficit to one with the goal that threw Milan into a state of confusion.

So much so that they promptly conceded a penalty and Xabi Alonso put that one away on the rebound. Three goals within six minutes: rout had become fightback and fightback had become epic.

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

Triumph proves home is where heart is for captain

From Matt Dickinson, Chief Football Correspondent
 
LIKE thousands of young lads growing up on the streets of Merseyside, Steven Gerrard had dreamt of following Emlyn Hughes, Phil Thompson and Graeme Souness in lifting the European Cup as Liverpool captain but never can he have imagined that it would be in circumstances as dramatic as this.
It was in the pursuit of that improbable dream that he had turned down Chelsea last summer to give his home-town club one more chance to keep pace with his ambitions. It must have felt like the best decision of his life as he held the trophy aloft last night — and it will not be his last act as captain. Gerrard all but confirmed that, although Chelsea’s offer is still on the table, victory had made it impossible for him to leave.

 
 
“I had an idea that I would be asked that,” he said. “We will talk soon and it does look good. How can I leave after a night like this and all the nights I have experienced through the season? This is the greatest night of my life. My form has been hot and cold and it has been a stressful season, but I am going to put that to bed and you will see a different player next year.”

Gerrard, who was spared the ordeal of taking his team’s last penalty, was named man of the match by Uefa but there were so many heroes for Liverpool from Jamie Carragher, struck down with cramp in extra time, to Jerzy Dudek, hero of the penalty shoot-out.

The captain admitted that, at half-time, his only hope was that they would not be embarrassed. “At half-time I thought it was impossible, that it would be tears and frustration,” he said. “Milan controlled, they dominated and deserved to be three up. We had got outclassed and we were trying to make it respectable for the fans. There were a few heads down but the manager made some changes and put some belief back.

“I have to hold my hands up and admit that, earlier in the season, I didn’t think we would go all the way. We were underdogs from the start. But we have beaten some magnificent sides so no one can say we don’t deserve to win it.”

Liverpool do not know yet if they will be allowed to defend their trophy. Lars-Christer Olsson, the Uefa chief executive, believes that his organisation must stick to the rules that allow no automatic place for the holders, but the FA is confident that the European governing body will succumb to pressure — and the case was strengthened last night by the scale of Liverpool’s following in Istanbul and the remarkable manner of their victory.

“I just hope the people upstairs give us the chance to defend it,” Gerrard said. “It is called the Champions League so the champions should be allowed to defend it.”

Rafael Benítez, his manager, concurred. “First we had to win the trophy,” he said. “Now common sense says that we should defend it.” The Uefa executive committee is due to meet in Manchester on June 18 and 19 to resolve the issue. “I think they should be allowed to defend it,” Carlo Ancelotti, the Milan coach, said.

The winner of the Uefa Cup with Valencia last season and now champion of Europe after his first season at Anfield, Benítez was both villain and hero last night as he picked the wrong line-up but then made crucial changes at half-time to inspire his team’s recovery.

“We said to the players at half-time, ‘We need to do something. We can’t lose four or five in front of our supporters’, ” he said. “We scored the first goal and we started believing. With two children and a wife, I can’t say it is the greatest night of my life, but maybe it is in football.”

Ancelotti said that he could not explain the transformation in fortunes. “We had six minutes of madness which changed everything,” he said of the second-half spell that yielded goals from Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso. “We didn’t deserve to lose.”

Gerrard admitted that, because of their exhaustion, Liverpool had played for penalties in extra time, although Benítez confessed that his players had hardly practised spot kicks. His argument is that you cannot replicate the pressure in a training seassion and who would have thought that Dudek would thwart Andriy Shevchenko, one of the game’s most lethal marksmen?

RECORD COLLECTION

The only other team to lead by three goals at half-time in a European Cup final were . . . AC Milan in 1989, when they led Steaua Bucharest 3-0 (they went on to win 4-0).

Paolo Maldini’s goal after 52 seconds, right, was the fastest in a European Cup final, beating the goal in the second minute by Enrique Mateos, for Real Madrid versus Reims, in 1959

Liverpool have appeared in two finals this season and both featured a goal in the first minute. John Arne Riise put them ahead 45 seconds into the Carling Cup final against Chelsea when they lost 3-2.

It was the highest-scoring European Cup final since Benfica beat Real Madrid 5-3 in 1962. Four years ago Liverpool were involved in the highest-scoring single match in a European final when they beat Alavés 5-4 in the Uefa Cup.
 
English clubs have now won the most European club trophies, 28 to Italy’s 27 (in the European Cup, Cup Winners’ Cup and Uefa Cup).

BILL EDGAR

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

Defiant Dudek shows new colours to save the day

From Owen Slot, Chief Sports Reporter, in Istanbul
 
THE unlikeliest of victories delivered to Liverpool fans the unlikeliest of heroes: Jerzy Dudek, Calamity J to follow Calamity James. Like so many goalkeepers, we have come to know Dudek for his gaffes and not the glory, but last night it was the Pole between the posts who guided Liverpool to European Cup glory.
When the match came down to a penalty shoot-out, Dudek versus Dida had the Brazilian in the AC Milan colours as the strong favourite. Dudek does not inspire confidence; he does not even inspire the faith of his manager, Rafael Benítez. So unconvinced has Benítez been to Dudek’s dubious talents that he has not been an automatic selection. Yet the difference between victory and defeat came down to the two saves that Dudek made in the shoot-out against Dida’s one. And having gone down to his right to deny Andriy Shevchenko, the game was over, the deed was done. Dudek was a champion of Europe.

 
 
The ultimate irony here is that this may turn out to be Dudek’s last taste of action in a Liverpool shirt. There is some way to go, for sure, but so dire is Liverpool’s goalkeeping problem perceived to be that Dudek’s future is uncertain. Benítez is in the hunt for another No 1 and Dudek would be the obvious casualty. There is hope yet for Chris Kirkland and if the Englishman were to recover from his sequence of injuries, he could still fulfil the long-term talk of potential.

Dudek? Of Dudek, we know too much already. At least, it would seem that Benítez does. More than anything this season we attach to Dudek the gentle shot from Wayne Rooney that he let through his hands at Anfield and his fumble of a drive that gave Bayer Leverkusen a precious away goal and a glimmer of hope in the first knockout round of the European Cup.

Last night, though, Dudek took his inspiration from Bruce Grobbelaar, the Liverpool goalkeeper in the 1984 final, whose wobbly-knees routine helped to put off AS Roma in the shoot-out. “Carra (Jamie Carragher) came to me before the penalties and said, ‘Remember Grobbelaar’. I just tried to put them off,” Dudek said. “We didn’t perform very well in the Premiership but we did a fantastic job in the Champions League. We’re in heaven.” Of his double save from Shevchenko in extra time, he said: “I don’t know how I did it.”

It had seemed an unremarkable night for Dudek before half-time. He had picked the ball out of his net three times and while he was not directly culpable for any of them, he could perhaps have done better with two. For the first, a shot by Paolo Maldini, he reacted too late. The second, from Hernán Crespo, he could not possibly reach, but for the third, from Crespo again, he appeared to launch himself at the ball without using his arms. And with that, it had appeared, the contest was over.

But Dudek reappeared after half-time in new colours: those of Liverpool’s saviour. First, a long, low save from a hard, low free kick from Shevchenko, guided around a post. Then, with time almost up and Milan looking to end the debate, that remarkable double save from Shevchenko: first the parry, then the follow-up, for which he had to rise fast from the ground in order to tip the ball over the crossbar. If ever there was a moment when Milan must have thought that destiny was against them, it would have been then.

And so, finally, to those penalties. Maybe it helped to calm Dudek’s nerves that Serginho, the first penalty-taker for Milan, blasted his shot over the bar, because thereafter only two of the remaining four would go past him.

Next up was Andrea Pirlo, one of the most feared dead-ball specialists in the game. Dudek danced around on the line — he also danced a couple of yards away from the line, a breach for which the referee could have demanded a retake. But the referee let the offence go and Pirlo sent his shot low to Dudek’s right. Dudek guessed correctly and made an excellent save.

Next to face him was Jon Dahl Tomasson, who scored, and then Kaká, who also scored. Last up was Shevchenko, who had to score to keep Milan’s chances alive. Shevchenko sent his shot almost down the middle and again Dudek was equal to it, thrusting up his left hand to parry. And thus did he win the European Cup for Liverpool.

It may have been his last game in a Liverpool shirt, but maybe it will ensure that he is not remembered for the gaffes but the glory.

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

How the teams rated

By Rick Broadbent
 
AC MILAN
4-4-2


 
 
DIDA 5/10

Saved penalty in normal time and could do nothing about Gerrard’s perfect header but could have stopped Smicer’s daisycutter

CAFU 5/10

Not the rampaging player who tormented Manchester United and was pegged back by Riise in the second half

JAAP STAM 6/10

Again underlined Mr. Ferguson’s folly in offloading him. Imperious in the air but less confident when Liverpool players ran at him

ALESSANDRO NESTA 5/10

Got the benefit of the doubt over a possible handball in the area and was beaten to the punch by Alonso after the penalty save

PAOLO MALDINI 6/10

A genuine legend in a hype-filled game, he thought that his first-minute goal had won the cup. Not his fault

GENNARO GATTUSO 6/10

Built like a middleweight boxer, he pummelled Riise into an early submission but conceded the penalty with a foul on Gerrard

CLARENCE SEEDORF 5/10

Has won the European Cup with three clubs, but he struggled to make his experience tell as Liverpool blossomed

ANDREA PIRLO 6/10

An understated but vital cog in the Milan wheel, he kept things ticking over until the improbable happened

KAKÁ 7/10

The schemer for Milan wrought havoc in the first half, a delicious dink in the build-up to the second and an unforgettable pass for the third

HERNÁN CRESPO 8/10

Carry on like this and he will find himself back at Chelsea. His first goal was simple, but his second was a touch of rare class

ANDRIY SHEVCHENKO 7/10

Ensured the Liverpool defence became drop-in centre for the terminally anxious. Drifted wide, had a goal disallowed and created the second

SUBSTITUTES: Serginho (for Seedorf, 86min); J D Tomasson (for Crespo, 86); Rui Costa (for Gattuso, 112)

SUBSTITUTES NOT USED: C Abbiati, K Kaladze, A Costacurta, V Dhorasoo

REFEREE: M E Mejuto Gonzalez (Spain)

LIVERPOOL
4-4-1-1
BY OWEN SLOT

JERZY DUDEK 6/10

Became the hero despite having to pick the ball out of the back of his net three times. Saves from Shevchenko will become stuff of legend

STEVE FINNAN 5/10

Tiny mistakes pay. Overran Crespo and thus caught out for the second goal. Substituted at half-time

SAMI HYYPIA 4/10

An ageing rock that does not move too fast. Hated the pace of the Milan attack and showed uncharacteristic nerves early on

JAMIE CARRAGHER 8/10

Voted yesterday into Uefa’s Champions League XI. Two crucial interception tackles in the second half made it clear why

DJIMI TRAORÉ 5/10

Conceded the free kick that led to the first goal. Struggled to find his feet thereafter, but cleared crucially off the line in the second half

LUIS GARCÍA 6/10

Presented with best chance of first half — a volley sitting up nicely, asking politely to be buried — but sliced it horribly wide

XABI ALONSO 7/10

One of the engines driving forward Liverpool’s remarkable comeback, the young Spaniard even atoned for penalty miss by scoring on follow-up

STEVEN GERRARD 9/10

Struggled to make an impact in the first half. Was the prime force of the second. His goal gave Liverpool hope

JOHN ARNE RIISE 5/10

Against players of this quality, he does not have the technique to match his ambition — and took far too long to realise this

HARRY KEWELL 2/10

Rafael Benítez’s gamble up front — and it did not work. Substituted, clutching his groin, after 23 minutes

MILAN BAROS 5/10

Took the ball off Alonso’s feet in one of Liverpool’s few decent first-half attacks. Not enough ammunition to frighten Milan defence

SUBSTITUTES:
Vladimir Smicer (for Kewell, 23min): Great strike for his team’s second goal. Energised the right-wing position 7/10 Dietmar Hamann (for Finnan, 46): Fitted in well to old system. Should have been on from the start 7/10
Djibril Cissé (for Baros, 84): Played his part 6/10

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

Kewell the odd man out on a night for pride and passion

From Owen Slot
 
THE story in Istanbul was all about pride and passion and for that you need the right cast. Cue the early departure of Rafael Benítez’s gamble of the night, Harry Kewell. Never renowned for leaving a drop of blood, sweat or tears on the field, Kewell had clearly no intent on changing this successfully high-earning formula.
Surprise, surprise, there he was in the 23rd minute clutching his groin, looking a trifle crestfallen and demanding the familiar early bath. Maybe you would not have picked Vladimir Smicer as the obvious antidote, but what a strike he produced.

 
 
You need heroes for a salvage job such as this; spirit and personality, life forces the likes of which do not register on the Kewell radar, yet come thumping in from Steven Gerrard, as his followers in the Kop know so well. Gerrard appeared to be chasing the impossible and so, alongside him, did Xabi Alonso.

The young Spaniard had never won anything in his life. He came close with Real Sociedad in La Liga, as did his village team in a boys’ tournament once in Sweden. But he clearly still believes in the magic and chasing of miracles because he was by Gerrard’s side, powering forward, right from the start of the second half.

And thus did Liverpool drive into six minutes of football that stretched belief.

At half-time, that belting rendition of You’ll Never Walk Alone appeared to be one dispatched with sympathy to the dressing-room. It was also like a symphony to the old team, to the masters of Europe of 20 years ago and more. But as with them, so, too, last night. Liverpool: the rebirth. The cliché: the phoenix rising from the ashes. For two days, the Liverpudlian invaders of this city have been clutching the badge on their shirts and talking about pride. Last night, we were allowed to see why.

The market for sensational European comebacks seemed to be cornered by Manchester United and that famous night in the Nou Camp. But that was one bland, uninspirational display capped by a “don’t look away” finish. The extremes here were greater: Liverpool were farther behind and they could hardly have been playing more poorly. Then they got up from the deathbed and walked.

Twenty-odd years of history wrapped up in a single game. If the glimpse of it last night is a measure, rebirth in the long run would be beautiful.
 
 

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

When it matters, Maldini fails to find the answers

From Rick Broadbent in Istanbul
 
ASK PAOLO. That was the message from Clarence Seedorf when the subject of age came up this week. Paolo generally has the answers and it looked like being the case again last night. Forget the taunt of time and the painting in the attic, the grand old man of Milan appeared to have the answers to life, the universe and Harry Kewell. And then Liverpool started asking unimaginable questions and he did not know what day it was.
Like Franco Baresi before him, Paolo Maldini is the pulse of Milan. This was his 789th appearance for them. His father played in the club’s first European game and lifted the most coveted trophy in club football in 1963. Together they form a timeline running through Milan’s history. In the other corner you had the likes of Kewell, who has spent most of the past two years aspiring to mediocrity and falling short. Playing with the unbridled bliss of someone whose barbecue has gone out, the Australian has been shuffling towards B-list status ever since he scored a delicious volley at Highbury in his previous incarnation as a good footballer with Leeds United. But that was two years ago.

 
 
It was a no-contest for 54 minutes. This was the Maldini who had brushed off the impertinent salvos of Cristiano Ronaldo in the round of 16. It does not matter that you cannot teach an old dog new tricks if the old tricks are good ones, and Ronaldo was sent packing, chastened from the headmaster’s office like a naughty schoolboy. For 54 minutes, Maldini looked like he could go on for ever. He is 37 next month and is the granddaddy of a back four that included Cafu, 35 next month, and Jaap Stam, who is a relative rookie at 32. Given the pre-match criticism of Liverpool’s style, you could have billed it as a clash between a team intent on parking a bus in front of their goal and a defence of bus-pass age.

Ask Paolo, they said. He always has the answers. It was just nobody expected to be asking him about goals. He does not score them. None this season and two in 148 European games. He is not that clever with his right foot either. Hence, a right-foot volley inside the first minute was a seismic shock to the system. It took Liverpool 21 years of hurt to get to Istanbul and 50 seconds for them to lose their way.

That Maldini should score even wrested the romance from Liverpool. The number of retro tops outside showed that lots of Merseysiders have never really got over 1977, when expectations were raised for ever in Rome, and nostalgia seeps from every Liverpool pore. So Milan, vastly experienced, were the pragmatic side of the European Cup, Liverpool its heart. But ask Paolo about romance. Seven finals, one club and a panoramic smile. His goal looked like being the icing on the career cake.

You could have asked Paolo why Rafael Benítez ditched the tried and tested but you should ask him what happened next? Steven Gerrard inspired a revival that had looked as unlikely as an Elvis comeback and Maldini and Milan were bemused.

Suddenly, the Milan back four looked old. Gerrard ghosted into the box for his header and carved a hole in the heart of the defence to win the penalty. Nesta, a mere stripling at 29, was slow in reacting to Dida’s penalty save. The tousled were ruffled. When Shevchenko tumbled over, you could have said things were going arse over titanium plates — he has five in his face.

That Milan ran out of steam in Serie A and had not won in their previous four matches adds to the doubts about the back four, while the way they were terrorised by PSV Eindhoven in the semi-final second leg shows this is not the greatest of Milan defences. They had been here before, too, the collapse against Deportivo La Coruña in last year’s European Cup, squandering a three-goal lead from the first leg, just as baffling.

It remains to be seen what impact this unforgettable night has on Maldini and Milan. He will feel that he is good enough to get another chance, but time may finally be catching up with him.
 
 

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

Winning? All you need is love ...

By Tony Evans

A night to remember for the army of singing, sweating, sober Scousers
 
THERE was a moment at half-time when everything changed. Someone started to sing You’ll Never Walk Alone and we rose as one from our disappointment and pledged allegiance. It didn’t matter that we were three down, what mattered was that we were proud. And once the song finished we began to chant another: “We’re going to win 4-3”.
We laughed at the comedy of it all, because we know that mere scorelines are not to be cried at. The AC Milan supporters went quiet and looked at us in confusion, and then we knew that it did not matter what the result would be. Things had already got better.

 
 
So when things had got much, much better, we celebrated all the more wildly. For, while facing defeat at half-time, we had strengthened the bonds with the team and each other. This was about more than winning the European Cup. This was about faith, belief and love. And when Steven Gerrard held the cup and pointed at it and then to us, we knew it was real. We had seen great feats when it looked like an impossible task and we kept our conviction. Still think we’ve devalued the cup?

About 1½ miles from the stadium, the traffic had been so bad that most Liverpool fans left their taxis and coaches and yomped across the fields. Across the road there were goats grazing, yet some 30 yards away a shambolic red army dressed for the tropics hiked towards the ground as the temperature dropped and the goosebumps rose. But it was hard to cool their spirits. The thought of the club’s first European Cup final for 20 years kept everyone warm.

There was also plenty of warmth in Istanbul during the day from the welcome that the Turks extended to Liverpool fans. One of the favourite ways of whiling away the afternoon was to go to Asia. It was no different there; still Turkey, but beaming Scousers greeted each other with the words “Just been to Asia la.” Well, it is better and more comprehensible to us than Birkenhead.

In a taxi, in the exodus from Istanbul to the stadium, we were shocked to find the streets lined with locals, watching as if it was a parade. They gave thumbs-up signs and even chanted “England”. They had promised a fans’ festival at the ground. Some festival. There were plenty of PlayStation consoles, but nowhere where you could buy a drink. Uefa clearly does not trust us with a beer, but when you have paid €100 for a ticket you expect to be treated in a civilised way. No doubt its representatives were glugging in the corporate hospitality.

Getting into the ground was even more fun. A new system involves a steward scanning a bar code on each ticket in a small computer terminal. Not one worked for the 20 or so people near me. The steward finally detached the end of the ticket in the old way and manually operated the turnstile. That is why there was no beer available. Uefa could not organise a booze-up in a brewery. Yet little matters such as an unrealistic venue could not keep our spirits down. Last night it was the European Cup final, our sixth, and we were enjoying it.

And as we tramped back across the fields in the chill of a Turkish night, we sang again, for we had seen great deeds. You can only envy us. Outside, while grown men wept, we hugged and hugged and bounced about like children.

The slow trip back to the city was cramped, uncomfortable and sweaty — a real Turkish bath of a bus trip — but we were loving every second. The journey ended in the right place. And we are already looking forward to the next one.

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

Liverpool turns into sea of red as fans dance in streets

By James Ducker

PAUL WALKER threw himself in the River Mersey. His friends tried to stop him, but he did not care. This was the greatest day of his life. Only two hours before, he had been among the most miserable men on the planet. Now he was struggling to contain his emotions. “I’m in heaven, f***ing heaven,” he screamed, trying desperately to kiss the badge on his Liverpool shirt as he inadvertently gulped large mouthfuls of water.
Dead and buried at half-time, Liverpool had just pulled off one of the greatest comebacks football has witnessed. The whole of Liverpool tried desperately to draw its breath. Silent at 8.30pm after AC Milan had taken a 3-0 lead, now the city was in ecstasy, pure, unadulterated euphoria. Concert Square was a sea of red. Never before — not in 1977, not in 1978, not in 1981 or 1984 — had the city seen scenes like it.

 
 
Liverpool had defied all the odds to become European Cup champions for the fifth time. “I feel sick,” James Waller said. “I need my inhaler, I can’t breathe. Nothing will ever compare to this for as long as I live.”

Every corner of the city was draped in red. Statues, shops, fences, even the odd passing dog, anything Liverpool fans could lay their hands on they covered in shirts, scarves and flags. “Rafa Benítez” was the roar from Matthew Street, home of the Cavern Club made famous by the Beatles. At the Philharmonic Hall, hundreds of supporters, accompanied by an enthralled organist, wailed to the sound of You’ ll Never Walk Alone. Never had the song sounded so sweet. “If I never live another day, I won’t give a damn,” Peter Moores, his body totally drained, said. Franco Colangeli, the 65-year-old owner of Bar Italia, slumped in his chair. As one of the few Italian Liverpool supporters in his enchanting little restaurant in Castle Street, he was being ridiculed by his Milan fan friends after his team had found themselves 3-0 down.

They were not laughing, though, when Xabi Alonso drew Liverpool level after six of the most remarkable minutes in football history. “I’ve experienced all of Liverpool’s European Cup final wins first-hand, except for 1977, and nothing, I can tell you, compares to this,” Colangeli said.

To his left, Tony Antonelli, a close friend and a Milan supporter, cut a forlorn figure. He could not speak. How could he? Arguably the greatest defence in Europe had just been thoroughly embarrassed.

Even Everton supporters were jubilant. “I’m so proud of Liverpool,” Ken Jones, a lifelong Evertonian, said. “You have to take your hat off and applaud Liverpool. This is a wonderful night for the whole of Merseyside.” Few would disagree.

[Rushian]

May 26, 2005, Times

Heroes keeping up with tradition

By Brian Glanville

Liverpool’s revival continued the trend of European Cup final drama
 
FEW European Cup finals have been so full of dramatic reversals and explosive surprises as last night’s in Istanbul, where Liverpool came so vibrantly to life, having at half-time seemed dead and buried. Yet from the very first European final, a pattern of sorts was set in a gloriously oscillating match in Paris between Real Madrid and Reims.
Many years later, Real remain a salient power, while Reims have slithered into the lower reaches of French football. But one May evening in 1956, there was a final that featured a titanic contest between two marvellous centre forwards: Alfredo Di Stéfano, of Real, and Raymond Kopa, of Reims.

 
 
The French were two goals up in 12 minutes. First there was Kopa’s free kick, a miskick by Rafael Lesmes, the Real defender, and a header in by Michel Leblond. Then came a second, from Jean Templin.

It was time for Di Stéfano to emerge. He started a move in his own half and ended it with a colossal shot just inside the box. Héctor Rial, his Argentine compatriot, made it 2-2. In the second half, it was Rial who scored Real’s winner.

One of the most breathlessly exciting finishes was Manchester United’s victory in Barcelona in 1999, when they won the trophy for the second time after 31 years. With Alex Ferguson inexplicably using Ryan Giggs on the right, Bayern Munich dominated the match; having gone ahead, they hit the woodwork twice, only for Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer to snatch the European Cup in injury time.

In 1968, when United won it for the first time, they had to make another remarkable, if less sensational, recovery. They had taken the lead but seemed subsequently to run out of steam, Jaime Graca equalising late for Benfica, who looked likely to prevail in extra time. That they did not was largely thanks to an immediate goal by George Best, spinning through the Portuguese club’s defence. Brian Kidd, celebrating his 19th birthday, headed on Alex Stepney’s clearance, Best controlled the ball in an instant and whipped it past Jacinto, leaving the Benfica defence square and powerless. Then he moved in on José Henrique, the goalkeeper, dodged round him to the left, spun again and put the ball in the net.

Benfica would memorably win two finals in a row, in 1961 and 1962, on each occasion having been the underdogs. Not even Bela Guttmann, their wily Hungarian coach, expected them to beat a Barcelona team studded with stars. Benfica had been told by Guttmann that they must fight and so they did. Yet when, even after the “golden head” of Sandor Kocsis had put Barcelona ahead on 19 minutes, Germano kicked off the line from Zoltán Czibor, Guttmann’s fears seemed justified.

But then Benfica scored twice in a minute. Antonio Ramallets, the Spain goalkeeper, who had frustrated England in Rio de Janeiro in the 1950 World Cup, was the unlikely culprit. He was unwisely off his line after Mário Esteves Coluna split the Barcelona defence, and Gomes Cavém’s square pass gave an easy finish to José Aguas, the centre forward.

Away went Benfica again. Gensana, the Spanish defender, headed the ball back, Ramallets pushed it frantically against the post and it fell over the line: 2-1 to Benfica. Coluna made it 3-1 on 55 minutes. Subsequently the goalposts came to Benfica’s rescue. Then Czibor shot home, but Benfica held on.

The next year, in Amsterdam, they were 3-1 down at half-time to Real Madrid, all three scored by Ferenc Puskas, the great Hungary player. One came when Di Stéfano sent him running from halfway, another with his ferocious left foot. But Benfica, inspired by a young Eusebio, surged back to win 5-3.

One vividly recalls another fine Portuguese victory, this one in 1987, in Vienna, by an FC Porto team managed by Artur Jorge, the former Portugal centre forward. Bayern Munich were the favourites and, in the first half, seemed justifiably so.

Little Ludwig Kögl, their scorer, was irrepressible. Such stars as Uli Hoeness, Lothar Matthäus and Karl-Heinz Rummenigge looked hard to deny. But Porto soared in the second half, inspired by the dazzling runs of Juary, the right winger, on as a substitute, and Rabah Madger, the skilful Moroccan winger. Madger scored, Juary got the winner and danced his wardance of delight.

[Rushian]

Translated from Sweden

"Worthy Champions? Huh? I see Xabi Alonso dance, Steven Gerrard laugh, I hear 45,000 sing you will never walk alone. I have seen Liverpool beat Milan in the greatest final that has ever been played. Liverpool-Milan 6-5 (0-3). The question is not if they were worth it. The question is if we were worthy of watching."  Simon Bank, Aftonbladet, Sweden.

"...the night when Liverpool did the impossible, the night when Liverpool went over the Bospor, the night when Liverpool - outplayed, floored, confused, knocked-out - turned 0-3 to victory on penalties against Milan. Consider this: Milan - the mighty, fabulous Milan - were leading 3-0 when Liverpool realised that the red shirts carried the same respect and responsibility as when Clark Kent changes from suit and glasses to his Superman gear." Mats Olsson, Expressen, Sweden.

"The comeback of all comebacks. The greatest feat in the history of football. Tonight Liverpool's heroes cried of joy." Robert Börjesson, Expressen, Sweden.

[Rushian]

General European Press Coverage

The Italian press reacted with dismay to AC Milan's defeat at the hands of Liverpool in perhaps the most dramatic European Cup final in history.

But newspapers in the rest of the continent compared the heroics of Rafael Benitez's side to the Beatles and even the once-mighty Byzantine Empire.

Milan looked to be coasting to victory when a goal from Paolo Maldini and two from Hernan Crespo gave them a 3-0 lead at the interval.

However, Liverpool hit back with goals from Steven Gerrard, Vladimir Smicer and Xabi Alonso to take the game to extra time and penalties with the English side emerging victorious at the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul.

Italian sports daily La Gazzetta dello Sport led with "The European Cup to Liverpool".

Referring to previous European Cup wins from Milan - they thrashed Steaua Bucharest and Barcelona 4-0 in finals, Gazzetta said: "The Cup was thrown to the wind by Milan when we were already starting to think of statistics like Steaua and Barcelona."

However, the paper was still generous to Liverpool, saying: "Honour to Liverpool. There was no Old Trafford repeat (Milan beat Juventus on penalties to win the 2003 final in Manchester)."

Leading daily Corriere della Sera reported: "Milan, the night of blows :Liverpool are champions of Europe."

Their analyst Giorgio Tosatti blamed Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti's failure to make changes to his team in order to defend the lead.

Tosatti wrote: "All it needed was six minutes of madness at the start of the second half, the readiness of (Rafael) Benitez to make changes and the slowness of Ancelotti's changes (which he made only when the score was 3-3) for Liverpool, who were hopeless in the first half, to pull off an incredible win."

La Repubblica reported remarks by Silvio Berlusconi, Italian prime minister and AC Milan owner, that Ancelotti's job was safe.

"Liverpool champions, Milan drama - Berlusconi: poor Ancelotti, I won't sack him."

As far as Il Giornale was concerned it was a case of Milan losing rather than Liverpool winning.

"Milan give the European Cup to Liverpool," the paper reported.

Outside Italy, the mood was less mournful as Liverpool received due credit for their first win in 21 years in Europe's premier club competition, 20 years after the Heysel disaster when they lost in the final to Juventus in a match rendered meaningless by the death of 39 fans.

French sports daily L'Equipe put a picture of the victorious Anfield side on the front page with the headline: "Liverpool are eternal".

The paper's website read: "It's Byzantine for Liverpool."

The Byzantine empire was a Christian empire based in Istanbul (then Constantinople) before the Muslim conquest in 1453 and was renowned for its elaborate ways of doing things - a clear reference to Liverpool's unorthodox way of winning.

The paper also claimed that whether Liverpool could build another dynasty would largely depend on whether they could keep midfielder Gerrard at the club.

Spanish daily Marca understandably focused on the large Spanish contribution to Liverpool's success.

Benitez, Alonso and Luis Garcia were all hailed for their contribution to the win and there was even a word of praise for Spanish referee Manuel Mejuto Gonzalez.

Rival radio station Diario AS was even more Hispanic in its view of the win.

In front of a picture of the victors was the simple headline: "Liverpool. Ole!"

Barcelona-based El Mundo Deportivo gushed about the match, saying: "The Ataturk Olympic Stadium final will go down in history as the first in Istanbul but above all it will be remembered as one of the greatest of all footballing spectacles."

Referring to a Liverpool-based popular beat combo of the 1960s, the paper continued: "As the Beatles would have said 'It's been a hard day's night'."

Portuguese sports daily O Jogo titled: "Crazy, crazy game" with the sub-headline "Epic in the colour red."

"Liverpool have won for the fifth time UEFA's most important competition in the most dramatic manner," it reported.

German tabloid Bild concentrated on Liverpool midfielder Dietmar Hamann, reporting: "Giant Final. Hamann has the pot (trophy)."

It reported: "It was gigantic. It was sensational. The best European Cup final of all time with two heroes - Liverpool goalkeeper (Jerzy) Dudek and Didi Hamann."

[Rushian]

Cup returns to spiritual home
by Chris Bascombe in Istanbul, Liverpool Echo, May 26th

WHEN you get homesick nothing will stop you returning to the arms of those you love.

AC Milan had a few tricks up their sleeves to keep the European Cup away from her spiritual base.

They tempted her with sublime skills, destructive finishing and a fairytale script, courtesy of their legendary captain.

Paolo Maldini wasn't just holding the trophy at halftime, he was planning his fifth acceptance speech.

What he never foresaw was the homing device triggered by 35,000 Liverpool fans in the Ataturk Stadium who inspired their side to transform the most humiliating night in their history to the most triumphant.

The European Cup didn't fancy Paolo. She wanted Steven but it took a series of remarkable chat-up lines from the Liverpool manager to ensure his skipper got his wicked way.

The only reason Liverpool weren't fatally wounded by a first half blitz is the fortunate fact immortals can't be destroyed.

Gerrard and company have rewritten football "possibilities" throughout this campaign but even the heroic efforts of Olympiakos, Juventus and Chelsea were rendered insignificant compared to this.

It shouldn't have happened. Some of us aren't convinced it did. Only the pinch marks confirm it. We thought it was all over. It wasn't.

Liverpool fans faced a sickening dilemma. What do you do when your side is 3-0 down in the European Cup final to a side superior in every position?

Praying was one option. Another, which was rather attractive at half time last night, was to grab the nearest taxi back to Taksin Square and drink the night away trying to forget the embarrassment they had just suffered.

The other alternative, which one red-shirted gent decided was more favourable, was to start an impromptu rendition of You'll Never Walk Alone, drowned in the kind of sentimentality Liverpool's opponents find repulsive.

But the 35,000 didn't sing it with hope in their hearts, nor with fire in their bellies. It was poignant rather than passionate.

The tear in the eye wasn't one of joy but despair. A mere 45 minutes into a ceremony 21 years in preparation and a dream had died.

As the second chorus faded Liverpool's players ran back onto the pitch to an astonishing ovation.

The cresendo of noise somehow injected volumes of self-belief into the hitherto drained souls.

The inspirational orchestrator of the famous anthem had perfectly complimented Rafa Benitez's team talk.

He had inadvertently inspired the greatest fightback ever witnessed in any football stadium in any decade by any team ever.

Okay, a few belated but painfully necessary tactical changes helped.

The previous manager's fatal mis-take in this competition was subbing Didi Hamman during a crucial European clash three years ago.

Far more serious was the decision to omit him completely.

Benitez made an astonishing gamble, abandoning caution for an attacking formation which backfired so hideously, the away end resembled a series of portraits of Edward Munch's The Scream.

Everything which could go wrong did, until Harry Kewell was injured.

Djini Traore endured a nightmare start, conceding possession and then a free kick which allowed Maldini to score in his seventh final.

Then Kewell, a surprising choice, pulled a muscle and limped out of his second showpiece of the season.

Whether this was a blow or a blessing was debatable. The choice of Vladimir Smicer ahead of the overlooked anchorman, however, ensured the only immediate change was to Liverpool's detriment.

Not because of Smicer who gave the performance of a player who should be signing a new deal rather than waving goodbye, rather Liverpool's defence remained exposed.

The Reds pushed for an equaliser as if eight minutes remained, not 89. And they were duly punished.

With no riot gear to protect them the defence was left bruised by the combined force of Kaka, Crespo and Shevchenko.

Three-nil could have been five but for Luis Garcia's goal line clearance and a generous offside flag when Gerrard's tackle sent Shevchenko clean through.

"It's embarrassing," admitted Jamie Carragher later.

If a black hole had appeared in the centre circle some of the players would have dived into it, swiftly followed by the fans.

Halftime was a painkiller. Not losing by more than three represented a triumph.

What followed defied logic. If Elvis rose from the grave, brushed off his white suit and announced plans for a world tour we'd still say it wasn't as good a comeback as Liverpool's in Istanbul.

Freed by the essentially restored Didi Hamman, Gerrard started to advance. The most important cross of John Arne-Riise's life found the skip-per's head.

Then Smicer matched his former nemesis thanks to Dida's careless dive. Yes, Smithy, Vlad has now scored a crucial European Cup goal just as you did!

The improbable was suddenly possible. By the time Gennaro Gattuso (the biggest culprit when it came to counting chickens at halftime) tripped Gerrard Liverpool were rampant.

Gattuso should have seen red. Liverpool's equaliser at the second attempt from Xabi Alonso was an acceptable consolation.

But the momentum shifted back to Milan. The Reds looked like they had punched above their weight once too often. The only winner seemed destined to come from a white shirt with Shevchenko and the increasingly confident Dudek engaging in a personal duel.

When the Pole made an astonishing double save with two minutes of extra time remaining rumour had it the engraver started with an L on the famous trophy.

Penalties were still Liverpool's only hope. The spirit of 1984 was enacted. Dudek was the hero. What's likely to be his final appearance for Liverpool will sit comfortably alongside the images of Bruce Grobbelaar - although the Pole's weren't the only knees wobbling by this stage.

All that remained was for Gerrard to grab his prize.

The European Cup seemed to radiate a smile which beamed as broad as the skipper's face.

The dreams of the captain, the manager, the squad and fans were realised in a way the most elaborate fantasist couldn't have imagined.

Finally a new generation of Liverpool fans and players know how it feels to be no games from greatness.

And the European Cup is coming home.

[Rushian]

BBC Sport, May 26, 2005
Frank Keogh

Eleven reasons why Liverpool's dramatic European Cup comeback win over AC Milan was the greatest Cup final ever.

(1)The Invincibles of Istanbul

Down, out, and downright embarrassing. Liverpool's dreams looked shattered at half-time as gloomy talk of a drubbing ensued.

But this is a team who somehow have overcome all the hurdles placed in their European Cup path - four minutes away from being knocked out by Olympiakos and going on to triumph despite being rated underdogs against top sides like Juventus and Chelsea.

The way the gritty Reds fought back was fitting for a side who were Clark Kent in the league, and supermen in Europe.

From agony to ecstasy, the zeroes became heroes. For once, every cliche seemed to fit the bill.

(2)Sensational start

It was billed beforehand as an austere affair - the 'boring' Brits facing the defensively astute Italians. Fifty seconds in, we were all wrong.

That strike in the first minute, 3-0 up by half-time, and a goal dubiously disallowed. Sumptuous football from one of the most stylish sides in Europe. After 45 minutes, it was set to be the most one-sided final of all time.

Cue captain fantastic Steven Gerrard. He hadn't read the script. He was too busy writing it.

(3)The joy of six

It wasn't just the scale of the comeback, it was the speed too.

Within the space of six minutes the three-goal deficit had been sensationally overcome.

Has a game ever been turned around in such a short space of time?

Few words could sum it up. So they were short and sweet: Incredible. Amazing. Unbelievable. And some that are just plain unprintable.

Everyone who watched it seems to have had the same sense of utter disbelief.

(4)Dudek's double save

There's a minute to go and a keeper who has been, er inconsistent shall we say, somehow repels Europe's best player from point-blank range.

Not once, but twice. Even Gordon Banks only made one sensational save from Pele back in 1970.

Dudek may have known little about Shevchenko's strikes. He may have got lucky. So what?

Take a goalkeeping curtain call alongside Aston Villa's one-off 1982 Euro star Nigel Spinks and Tottenham's 1984 Uefa Cup shoot-out stopper Tony Parkes.

(5)The Kop Cup

A fifth win means the famous giant trophy is Liverpool's forever.

The Anfield faithful can rightly sing 'It's just like watching Brazil' as Pele's calypso kings claimed the World Cup as their own after winning the competition for the third time in 1970.

After punching below their best for the past decade or so, Liverpool are off the canvas and back as one of Europe's heavyweights.

(6)Fan-tastic

The dark chapters of Heysel and Hillsborough are permanent reminders of torrid times which scarred the Merseyside club's trophy-laden history.

But despite a massive police presence, sparked by fears of anti-English feeling among their Turkish hosts and Italian opponents, it appears to have been a largely trouble-free night in Istanbul.

It's a hard-hearted person who cannot be moved by 40,000 supporters belting out the ultimate anthem - You'll Never Walk Alone.

(7)Calm down, calm down

Wednesday 25 May, 2005, was the night when many Britons became honorary Scousers.

Suddenly, and slightly surreally, neutral fans were transformed into passionate supporters.

From Donegal to Dover, they partied like it was 1999. Well, maybe not exactly like Manchester United, but you get the drift.

There were even a few followers of rivals Everton cheering on their local rivals. Possibly.

8. Penalty shoot-out

Who cares if they are fair or not when you get something approaching the Keystone Cops meeting Tarzan.

Penalty shoot-outs provide the best, nerve-jangling entertainment in sport.

And we even had a Brucie bonus. Dudek somehow managing to upstage the spaghetti legs of his 1980s penalty predecessor Bruce Grobbelaar.

One Italian newspaper reckoned Jerzy was breakdancing, and it was certainly an eye-popping, body-popping treat.

(9)Local heroes

Gerrard and Jamie Carragher - the homegrown Mersey heartbeat of a side they supported as children.

Skipper Gerrard actually slept with the cup as he emulated the likes of Keegan, Dalglish and Souness - great names who thrived when Stevie was in red nappies.

He led like a general, inspired the fightback and waved his arms in a frenzied effort for the fans - his compatriots - to turn up the decibel level.

Carragher even defied cramp - in both groins according to one TV pundit - and let's face it no final could be great without stricken players crippled by cramp.

(10)Against the odds

For a proper final, you need a team to defy those who supposedly know best - the bookmakers.

Liverpool were rated 100-1 no-hopers at half-time. Remember, this is in a two-horse race.

On the computer betting exchanges, they were even bigger, with faithless punters offering prices of up to 350-1 on the most unlikely of comebacks.

Irish betting outfit Paddy Power was left with a £150,000 headache after being forced to refund bets as part of a cashback offer should the game go to penalties.

The bookies out of pocket - priceless.

(11)For Crazy Horse

The victory celebrations evoked memories of Liverpool's epic European glory nights of the 1970s and 80s.

And the late great Liverpudlians of yesteryear, from Bill Shankly and Bob Paisley to John Lennon and John Peel, must have been smiling down from their bench in football heaven.

Chief among them would surely have been Emlyn Hughes - the cheery skipper who lifted the huge European trophy twice.

Hughes, who died last year after suffering a brain tumour, was an archetypal Red.

He was affectionately known as Crazy Horse. And on a crazy, crazy night, there were tears among the cheers and beers.

[Rushian]

Ever-changing menu leaves patrons with open mouths, Times

By James Ducker

FRANCO COLANGELI buried his head in his hands. As the only Italian Liverpool supporter in his restaurant, Bar Italia, the game was as good as over. Tony Antonelli, his friend and a devout AC Milan fan, couldn’t help but smirk. Colangeli had been confident all week that Liverpool would upset the odds and secure their fifth European Cup final triumph. How wrong could he be?

Forty-four minutes had elapsed and Liverpool were already 3-0 down. “Easy, easy,” Antonelli, surrounded by fellow Milan fans and friends, shouted. Colangeli tried to smile, but it was little more than a façade. “That’s it,” he said. “All good things must come to an end, I suppose.” Fifteen minutes after the restart, though, it was not Colangeli who was crying, but Antonelli. Liverpool had done the impossible. They had drawn level.

A comeback instigated by Steven Gerrard, the captain, culminated in the most unlikely of equalisers from Xabi Alonso. “I have never experienced anything like it, how can you compare any football match before to this,” Colangeli, 65, said. He was born in Rome and grew up as a Lazio supporter, but has lived in Liverpool for 41 years.

A close friend of Ian Rush, the former Liverpool striker, he has been serving Liverpool players the “best food in the city” for decades and counts Steve Finnan and Chris Kirkland among the regulars at his restaurant in Castle Street. Michael Owen used to be a frequent visitor, too, before his defection to Real Madrid, but Colangeli still sees him at Northorpe Golf Club in North Wales.

Colangeli experienced the Liverpool European Cup wins of 1978, 1981 and 1984 first-hand, but he said he had never experienced anything like the drama in the Ataturk Stadium in Istanbul. Antonelli slumped in his chair. The 57-year-old had cut the most animated figure in Bar Italia when Hernán Crespo gave Milan a 3-0 lead, but now he was dejected. Shattered by the events he had just witnessed. “I don’t think I’ve felt any worse,” he said.

He was not alone. Italians from across Liverpool who had packed into this enchanting little restaurant sat dumbfounded. Never before had they seen this great Milan defence look so vulnerable. Gloating before kick-off, Antonelli was furious when Andriy Shevchenko was denied a goal in the 29th minute when the assistant referee ruled him offside. “We want Collina,” the Milan supporters chanted, in reference to Pierluigi Collina, the famous Italian referee.

Dennis Moore, 62, an avid Liverpool supporter, was equally amazed. “I’ve watched Liverpool all over Europe but I’ve never seen anything like this,” he said. Few would disagree.

[Rushian]

A poem for Liverpool, Telegraph, May 28th

RESVRGMENT by Paul Farley

The stanzas follow Liverpool's winning formation in the second half of the European Cup final: 3-2-4-1

The quality of comeback: someone hands
Christopher Wren a fragment from the ruins
of the old cathedral; closer to home

The trees come into leaf inside St Luke's
bombed out shell. Let's get this into perspective:

chips off the old block. On a May night
last week I shed hot tears when they brought on
Djibril Cissé, the squad's Symbolist poet,
whose fibula broke spectacularly last autumn

on giant plasma screens the length of the land.

[Rushian]

Liverpool champions of Europe for fifth time

MARK BRADLEY, Scotsman
AT THE ATATURK STADIUM

AC Milan 3 Maldini (1), Crespo (39, 44)
Liverpool 3 Gerrard (54), Smicer (56),Alonso (59)
• After extra time, Liverpool win 3-2 on penalties

Referee: M Gonzalez (Spa). Attendance: 68,000

NO WONDER Liverpool walk on with hope in their hearts. For Rafa Benitez's side completed the most remarkable comeback in the history of European finals to write a glorious new chapter in the club's already rich history.

Carried on the back of Steven Gerrard, their inspirational and defiant captain, Liverpool somehow recovered from a 3-0 half-time deficit with three goals in six breathtaking minutes. It was simply unbelievable.

But they were not finished there, with Jerzy Dudek producing two amazing late saves in extra-time before denying both Andrea Pirlo and Andriy Shevchenko amid the drama of a penalty shoot-out.

In 1984, they had last won the European Cup on penalties, with Bruce Grobbelaar's wobbly knees and Alan Kennedy's decisive strike.

This time, it was penalties again and Dudek dancing his way to hero status on the line, but that did not even tell half the story of a truly unforgettable night in Istanbul.

For captain Gerrard it was a dream come true. "At 3-0 down at half-time I thought I was going to be in tears after the final whistle," he said. "But the manager said keep our chins up and try and score early - and we did. I'm on top of the world."

Standing next to Benitez, Gerrard said: "All credit to this man, he never let us put our heads down. We carried on playing and every one of us deserve credit. And I'm just made up with these fans, they've saved up for weeks and months to come here tonight."

Gerrard, who has been persistently linked with a move to Chelsea, gave an indication that his future could be at Liverpool next season. "I'm going to talk very soon with [chairman] Rick Parry and the manager but it's looking good," the captain said.

Benitez said: "At half-time I had to change things and hope things would be different - we scored and they were. We lost Harry Kewell and other players had cramp. It was very difficult but the players believe and we won."

However, the Spaniard's side had seemed down and out after Paolo Maldini's first-minute strike was followed by two goals by on-loan Chelsea striker Hernan Crespo. Many fans were even feeling sorry for themselves, having been harshly denied a penalty for handball at just 1-0 down, only seconds before Crespo's first goal. But that was reckoning without a tactical half-time masterstroke by Benitez, the talismanic qualities of Gerrard or the reactions of the often-doubted Dudek.

Given licence to push forward by Dietmar Hamannn's arrival, Gerrard headed his side's first goal on 54 minutes to restore belief and won the penalty for Xabi Alonso's third goal six minutes later.

With Vladimir Smicer having scored in between, Liverpool were now level. In the shoot-out Serginho missed from the spot, while Shevchenko and Pirlo were both denied by Dudek, leaving Liverpool's players to dance with unrestrained joy.

And so Anfield has a new crop of legends after surely the most improbable success of their five European crowns.

This was when even Manchester United's dramatic late comeback against Bayern Munich was eclipsed and few had imagined that could ever be possible. But having confounded the odds to beat Juventus and Chelsea, a Liverpool side that had finished just fifth in the Premiership defied their underdog status once again.

It had all started so differently. Benitez may have made the bold move of starting with Kewell, but his side were behind after 52 seconds as the anticipated chess match between two supposedly cautious sides was turned on its head.

Pirlo's free-kick was met with a volley by Maldini, which struck the turf but still flew past Dudek, who was seemingly unsighted. Liverpool were stunned and struggled to recover their poise, with Kewell limping off injured amid jeers to be replaced by Smicer.

Still Milan pressed, with Garcia clearing off the line and Shevchenko harshly denied when his 'goal' was ruled offside. The lead was doubled when the superb Kaka sending Shevchenko hurtling down the right channel and his cutback teed up Crespo to tap home from close range.

It was a harsh blow, but Milan's class was again evident as Kaka played a pass of such exquisite perfection that Jamie Carragher was left stretching in vain as Crespo burst through to score. It seemed all over. Not to Gerrard, however, and not to those in the Liverpool end who defiantly chanted 'we're going to win 4-3' as the teams re-emerged after the interval.

The odds on that seemingly unlikely outcome were cut when, from Riise's cross, Gerrard looped a header past Dida before turning to exhort the crowd to follow his lead.

If some were still uncertain, those doubts were blown away when Smicer let fly from 25 yards out and Dida allowed the ball to slip through his grasp inside the far post. Surely it was not possible? But Gerrard somehow forced his body forward onto Smicer's pass and was clipped on the back of his heels by former Rangers midfielder Rino Gattuso. Penalty. Up stepped Alonso and although Dida flung himself to parry the spot-kick, the Spaniard smashed his follow-up effort into the roof of the net.

Milan rallied again but Liverpool were defiant and so to extra-time, with Djibril Cisse on for Baros. Bodies were being stretched to breaking point and Liverpool were hanging on, but Dudek rescued his side in the last minute of added time with two amazing reaction saves from Shevchenko at point-blank range to force penalties.

Serginho blazed the first effort way over the bar. Hamann was more reliable before Dudek denied Pirlo, but while Jon Dahl Tomasson scored, Riise's effort was saved by Dida. Smicer, playing his last game for the club, struck a superb penalty, setting up Dudek to crown a night of unbelievable drama.

After a 21-year absence, Liverpool are back at the pinnacle of European football. Surely UEFA cannot stop them defending a trophy won with this much determination?

AC Milan: Dida, Cafu, Maldini, Stam, Nesta, Gattuso (Rui Costa 112), Seedorf (Serginho 86), Pirlo, Kaka, Shevchenko, Crespo (Tomasson 85). Subs not used: Abbiati, Kaladze, Costacurta, Dhorasoo.

Liverpool: Dudek, Finnan (Hamann 46), Traore, Hyypia, Carragher, Riise, Gerrard, Luis Garcia, Alonso, Kewell (Smicer 23), Baros (Cisse 85). Subs not used: Carson, Josemi, Nunez, Biscan.

[Rushian]

Miller's tale has happy ending as coach seals Euro double

ANGUS WRIGHT, Scotsman

HIS reaction to Liverpool's victory may not have been as demonstrative as the players', but Alex Miller was as delighted as anyone when he climbed on to the podium at the Ataturk Stadium to receive his Champions League medal on Wednesday night.

Sacked as manager of Hibs and Aberdeen in the 1990s, Miller has flourished at Anfield since 1999. Originally hired by former manager Gerard Houllier as director of scouting, Miller was promoted to first-team coach by Rafa Benitez when the Spaniard succeeded the Frenchman last summer.

The former Rangers defender couples an encyclopaedic knowledge of the game with outstanding coaching skills and has excelled in the challenging environment of European football.

His part in Liverpool's Champions League success means he has now helped the club triumph in Europe's two premier competitions, the previous success coming in the UEFA Cup in 2001.

It's all a far cry from his being hounded out by disaffected supporters at Easter Road and Pittodrie. His long spell in charge of Hibs saw him guide the club to their last major trophy, the League Cup in 1991, but he was sacked five years later.

Murdo MacLeod, the captain of the Hibs cup-winning team, believes Miller's talents are better deployed as a coach rather than a manager. He said yesterday: "Man-management was never his strong point but as a coach he is outstanding."

[Rushian]

Liverpool's night of glory tops them all

STUART BATHGATE, Scotsman, 27th May
CHIEF SPORTS WRITER

STOP IT, Champions League, you're spoiling us. Having been presented earlier in the season with one of the classic club matches in Chelsea's triumph over Barcelona, on Wednesday night we saw what might just have been the best final in the 50-year history of the competition.

Certainly, Liverpool's recovery from 3-0 down at half-time was the greatest comeback in a final. What qualifies the match as one of the best climaxes to the competition, however, was the sheer implausibility of it all.

The most common prediction had been a narrow win for the favourites. One-nil Milan, scorer Andriy Shevchenko, would have got you the shortest odds with most bookmakers. After that, a scoreless draw in 90 minutes and even after extra time seemed a distinct possibility - with the resultant penalty shoot-out probably Liverpool's best chance of sneaking a win. The tie was indeed decided on penalties, but only after a scarcely credible match.

Rafael Benitez's team were perhaps unfortunate to lose a goal in the first minute, but for the rest of the half they were agents of their own downfall. Why, for instance, did they chase the game in such frenzied fashion when they had so much time to get back on level terms, and why had Harry Kewell begun the match at all? The more open and end-to-end the match was, the more likely it seemed that Milan would add to their lead, and so it transpired, with two more goals coming in the closing stages of the half.

One pair of Scousers was heard on national radio yesterday morning, blaming each other for their decision to leave the stadium at half-time. They cannot have been alone, though, and must have had their equivalents by the thousand in those watching on TV at home.

Certainly, in the opening few minutes of the second half, defiant pride was all that stood between Liverpool and an embarrassingly heavy defeat. With their goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek, still looking shaky, a 5-0 or 6-0 thrashing was very much on the cards for the Premiership team.

Even when Steven Gerrard stole a goal out of nowhere, most of us thought little more than 'Ah well, let's keep watching just in case'. But then came the second from Vladimir Smicer, and after that the equaliser looked like being just a matter of time.

It came when Xabi Alonso was first to the rebound from his own penalty, and then Dudek was twice a hero - first with a remarkable double save from Shevchenko, and then in the penalty shoot-out with his inspired wobbly-legged homage to Bruce Grobbelaar.

Milan, although they regained their self-possession after Liverpool's equaliser, were surely drained of hope by Dudek three minutes from the end of extra time. When the time came for them to take their penalties they were already beaten in their own minds.

As time goes on, especially to football followers further afield than Britain, this will become just as dominant a theme of the game as Liverpool's resurgence. How exactly could a Milan team of such experience and organisation let slip a three-goal lead?

No team controls an entire match at this level, but Milan are past masters at soaking up pressure, at running the clock down. The intelligence of players such as Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta usually sees them safely through when they are holding a lead, but once Liverpool's fightback began even those two looked rattled.

Look at the previous finals which are usually rated as among the best and you will see that most of them were nothing like as genuine a two-way contest. And in the others in which a team did bounce back from a deficit, the pendular swing was altogether shorter.

Manchester United's win in 1999 was a classic example of that latter category. Mr. Ferguson's side were just a couple of moments away from defeat by Bayern Munich before their two late strikes, but, having only been a goal down, did not have to dig as deep into their reserves of self-belief as Liverpool did.

Further back, Porto's 1987 victory, also 2-1 against Bayern, was another late, late show. But, like United's, it was essentially a cameo spell of a few minutes set within an unremarkable surround.

As for the matches which are regularly listed as among the best, most are masterclasses - ties in which one team is so far ahead that the other can only look on in awe and try to learn a few things in the hope of getting back to the final in the following year.

Milan's 4-0 crushing of Steaua Bucharest in 1989 was the prime example of this. The Italian side, with its Dutch trio of Ruud Gulli, Marco van Basten and Frank Rijkaard, was taking the game to new extravagant heights; the Romanians were barely on the stage as spear- carriers.

As for the most feted match of all, that was not too different. Real Madrid's 7-3 win over Eintracht Frankfurt in 1960 is traditionally hallowed as the apex of club football, and not just by Scots proud that the game took place at Hampden.

Madrid, patently, were a great side, and their German opponents at least put up a bit of a fight. But what can you say of a game which yields ten goals, other than that the defences and goalkeepers were not quite up to modern standards?

Old romantics may wish to hold on to that 45-year-old totem, but the reality is that football is now so much faster, more athletic, and more skilful. In fact, it could well be argued that this is the golden age of the game. And if that is the case, then Liverpool's fifth triumph in a European Cup final simply has to go down as one of football's greatest nights.

OTHER CLASSIC FINALS

1960: Real Madrid 7, Eintracht Frankfurt 3

More than 130,000 packed into Hampden Park, Glasgow for Real Madrid's victory over Eintract Frankfurt. It was a fifth straight victory for Real, who had won every final since the cup's inception in 1956. Ferenc Puskas scored four goals and Alfredo di Stefano netted a hat-trick.

1967: Celtic 2, Internazionale 1

Jock Stein's Celtic enjoyed their finest hour in Lisbon when goals by Tommy Gemmell and Stevie Chalmers gave them a comeback victory. The 'Lisbon Lions' were the first British team to lift the trophy.

1989: AC Milan 4, Steaua Bucharest 0

In the Nou Camp, Arrigo Sacchi's Milan put on a display famously described as extra-terrestrial by French newspaper L'Equipe. The night belonged to Ruud Gullit and Marco van Basten, who scored two each in a blistering first 46 minutes.

1999: Manchester United 2, Bayern Munich 1

United's treble bid looked dead and buried heading into the final minute with the Germans leading through Mario Basler after just six minutes. With seconds remaining, Teddy Sheringham swept home an equaliser and then super-sub Ole Gunnar Solskjaer rifled the ball into the roof of the net from a corner for a sensational winner.

EURO CHAMPIONS

OVERALL WINNERS

9 - Real Madrid (1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960, 1966, 1998, 2000, 2002)
6 - AC Milan (1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003)
5 - Liverpool (1977, 1978, 1981, 1984, 2005)
4 - Ajax (1971, 1972, 1973, 1995)
4 - Bayern Munich (1974, 1975, 1976, 2001)

BRITISH WINNERS

5 - Liverpool
2 - Manchester United (1968, 1999)
2 - Nottingham Forest (1979, 1980)
1 - Aston Villa (1982)
1 - Celtic (1967)

[Rushian]

Scotland on Sunday
Sun 29 May 2005
I was there, bought the red T-shirt and marvelled at Jerzy

ADAM PARSONS

THERE are many things that have changed the way we remember modern sport. Some of them are familiar - television coverage, digital photographs, the power of sponsors and merchandisers. But no major event is complete these days without the instant appearance of the post-match T-shirt.

In past years, you had to wait days if not weeks to get a piece of clothing that commemorated a great success. But in Istanbul on Wednesday night the T-shirts were being prepared from the moment Jerzy Dudek was accepting fate's moment of redemption.

As the Polish goalkeeper, for so long perceived as a weak link yet now cast as the hero, disappeared under a pile of his grateful team-mates, so the boys were unpacking T-shirts from the boxes. LIVERPOOL, they screamed in huge letters, CHAMPIONS OF EUROPE.

Nothing has ever been so easy to sell. I don't know how much they were charging - I think it was £10 each, but it may have been more - but they were selling at a furious rate. So unlikely was the victory that it seemed supporters would only allow themselves to believe the fact when they were wearing it.

To be in Istanbul for the middle days of this past week was to see football at its most beguiling. You may not accept that if you were there to support AC Milan, but it is true. This was the sport and its passion put on display, and living up to the billing. For the rest of us it was an utterly remarkable experience.

Remember how dire some Champions League finals have been. Last year, Porto brushed aside Monaco; the previous year Milan won on penalties after a match that was long on tactical nicety but short on excitement for the neutral. Yet what happened in Turkey was a call to arms for those who still savour passion over brilliance.

Liverpool's supporters, of whom there were reams in the Turkish capital, were splendid. Of course they sang and partied in the days before the match, yet they did so with an element of restraint that endeared them to the locals.

Here's an example. On their way over, many had bought replica fez hats at Liverpool airport to wear to the game. But when they arrived in Turkey, they got a message asking them not to wear the fez, which many Turks regard as an insulting throwback to their imperial past.

So what happened? Well, if this had been an England game, you could be sure that the streets would still have been full of hard men deliberately wearing their fezes, intent on provocation, like a troupe of psychopathic Tommy Coopers. But instead, I didn't see one. Not one. They took the advice, and they acted upon it. I think Liverpool's fans deserve credit for that.

They were still boisterous, of course, cheerily drinking into the small hours, chanting insistently in honour of Rafa Benitez, but there was none of the air of menace. So here's the chance to say well done to the Turkish police - a smart display of staying in the background, while ensuring everybody knows you're there. I've seen forces from across Europe having to cope with the wiles of English football fans, and the Turks are about as good as it gets.

But perhaps fate was never going to allow this occasion to be ruined by anything so base as mere hooliganism. This was a match that will be cherished in some celestial footballing vault for a long time to come. Nobody wanted mutterings about crowd trouble besmirching the memory.

So how to explain what happened? You can't. First of all, it's hard to imagine how Liverpool could have reached the Champions League final and then been so utterly outplayed in the first half, when you ended up peering through your fingers at the action, hoping for the clock to speed up and for the end to come soon.

I am not a Liverpool fan and I was beginning to worry that I might be intruding on some horrible personal grief by the end of the game. By half-time, the match was heading only one way. "I was just sitting there praying they wouldn't get to six," said one fan at the end of the game. "Of course we didn't think we could win. You get to be hopeful and optimistic being a football fan, but there's always a limit."

The only highlight of the first half, by most people's estimation, was the much-derided Harry Kewell limping off. The mood was one of hopeless resignation. AC Milan had been wonderful, and Shevchenko hadn't even scored yet.

And yet within a couple of hours, Shevchenko had been the catalyst for Liverpool's victory. Not that the Ukraine striker was anything but superb - he remains, I believe, the best attacker in world football - but Dudek's save from him in the closing moments of extra time made Liverpool and their fans sense that their name was destined for the trophy.

He may never play for Liverpool again, for Benitez is apparently on the brink of signing another goalkeeper, but Dudek will always be a legend in this city, and rightly so. His antics in the shoot-out weren't just funny, they were also absolutely correct. When a player's legs and mind are weary, a wobbly manic goalkeeper fills a goal bigger than any static giant. Steven Gerrard was the man of the match, but Dudek was the man for the moment.

A day later, Liverpool was thronged with people. A city that has an emotional attachment to its football unlike any other in England, perhaps in Europe, was in ecstasy. They were scenes for the supporters to cherish, but also ones that can make all of us feel good about this sport. Football isn't all about contracts, agents and duplicity. Sometimes it can be more good than bad, and sometimes the good is very, very good.

[Rushian]

Reds rejoicing the world over, Scotsman, May 28th

TOM LAPPIN

LIVERPOOL fans already have their Kennedy moments. They came when that hirsute left-back Alan Kennedy scored the decisive goals in the European Cup finals against Real Madrid and Roma in 1981 and 1984, championships three and four as they are now known.

After Wednesday night, though, the global fraternity of Scousers can now ask each other where they were when Jerzy made that unbelievable double stop from Andriy Shevchenko in minute 119 of the most memorable European Cup final since Real Madrid against Eintracht Frankfurt at Hampden.

Personally, I was supping my fourth pint of Keith's India Pale Ale on a sunny afternoon on Bloor Street in Toronto. Gathered in the Pauper's Pub were around a dozen of us, and I was hoping that, as the solitary Briton, the regulars would defer to my deeper cultural appreciation of the beautiful game. Fortunately, though, these were Canadian devotees, sufficiently knowledgeable to know their Steve Finnans from their Jamie Carraghers, and to be aware that Paolo Maldini was no spring chicken.

Fortunately, because had they asked me for a prediction before the game I would have suggested that this was bound to be a sterile tactical skirmish likely to be settled by a solitary goal and some dour defending. Then, had they asked me at half-time about the chances of this Liverpool side hauling a three-goal deficit against Milan and the most illustrious back four in the world, I would have laughed in their guileless post-colonial faces. Then, if they had asked me how I rated Jerzy Dudek, my reply would have been a blend of the dismissive and derisory.

What makes football so addictive, and this match so unforgettable, is that, just occasionally, it enters the surreal world of the preposterous, where all the established rules are overturned.

Dudek is a case in point. He is presently basking in the unaccustomed role of hero, but taking the two hours on Wednesday as a whole, he might have to acknowledge that for long spells it was shaping up as a nightmare. Even after Liverpool had pulled level, we had to watch as Dudek tried to scoop up an innocuous cross, missed the ball completely, and looked mortified as Carragher told him to get an effing grip.

In the Pauper's Pub, they were Canadians, brought up on ice-hockey, and so could appreciate the heroism of a goal-minder. The moment when Dudek defied Shevchenko late on, and more pertinently, the picture when the camera lingered on his face and we witnessed a great moment of triumph, relief, disbelief and redemption in a momentary facial expression, had everybody on their feet yelling "Jerzy".

"What happened?" asked a regular who had popped out for a smoke at half-time, and been waylaid by the important matter of a hot-dog. "Alonso scored the tieing marker, and we look set for overtime," explained the barman in pure North American sport-speak.

Up on the screen, body language was hardly difficult to translate. Liverpool's hapless and hopeless strugglers of the first half had transformed themselves into crazy over-achievers, while Milan had awoken recent memories of their abject capitulation against Deportivo La Coruna after leading 4-1 from the first leg in this competition the previous year.

There will be those who say that, having blown their lead, there was no way that Milan could win the penalty shootout. That's not true, simply because these affairs are so impossible to analyse. Dudek's ludicrous antics on the goal-line looked self-defeating, and yet they were sufficiently distracting for the Italians to miss their first two kicks. The best-placed penalty, that of John-Arne Riise, was easily saved by Dida. But then this was an evening when all the dictates of logic were defied.

One of the regulars, who had been cursing and cheering Liverpool all afternoon, began to strip off. "Steady on old chap" I thought, but it turned out he was wearing a full Liverpool strip under his day-clothes. He had just been too reticent and Canadian to reveal it during the game. But now, Steven Gerrard was lifting the trophy, the red ticker tape was everywhere, and they all shouted as one, "Go on Stevie..."

It won't be easily forgotten. Everybody ordered giant plates of spicy chicken wings to celebrate. Talk nearly turned to the inevitable ice-hockey Memorial Cup games, but the soccer fans wanted to linger on this a little longer. And it was still a blistering afternoon outside...

[Rushian]

750,000 Liverpool fans paint town red, Scotsman

MICHAEL BLACKLEY

THREE-quarters of a million Liverpool football fans and wellwishers packed the city's streets last night to welcome home the club's players following their dramatic victory in the Champions League final.

The streets were awash with red as Liverpool's supporters celebrated their return to the height of European footballing achievement after coming from 3-0 behind to win a nail-biting penalty shoot-out against AC Milan.

The crowds were so big that the team's victory bus was two hours behind schedule as it journeyed at snail's pace through swathes of supporters waving flags and scarves.

The last time Liverpool fans welcomed their side back from European Cup glory was in 1984, after they overcame another Italian side, AS Roma, also on penalties.

While captain Steven Gerrard's grasp on the trophy remained firm last night, the Merseyside club's hold on the actual cup is even stronger - as it was their fifth success, they now need never give the trophy back and a new one will be produced for next year's tournament.

An estimated 40,000-50,000 Liverpool fans attended the match itself, and few of them would have dreamed at half-time on Wednesday evening that such victory scenes would be possible, as their side trudged off the pitch 3-0 down.

But one of the most remarkable comebacks in the history of the European Cup ensued, with Liverpool quickly equalising, and going on to hold their nerve in penalties after 120 minutes of football.

Not all those who attended the match were able to make it back in time for the celebrations, however, with many being delayed in Istanbul as a result of hold-ups of up to five hours at the city's second airport, Sabiha Gokcen.

Earlier in the day, the Queen had described Liverpool's victory as a "magnificent achievement". She sent her message to the chairman of the club via Liverpool's lord lieutenant.

It said: "Congratulations on your remarkable win last night. It was a magnificent achievement which will be remembered for many years both in Liverpool and across the country."

A Downing Street spokesman said that Tony Blair, the Prime Minister, sent a message to manager Rafael Benitez and his team, which said: "Unbelievable. Incredible. Brilliant. The whole country is very proud of you."

Liverpool legend Terry McDermott, who picked up winner's medals in the European Cup finals of 1977, 1978 and 1981, believes the current squad's achievement eclipsed any other. He said: "I'm in shock that they actually did it."