Liverpool Gifted Milan the Champions League Cup

It took me almost two days to assimilate the bad feelings of Liverpool's suicide act against AC Milan in the Champions League Final Wednesday night. This match has brought all the bad memories of the World Cup Final in 2006 when France lost to Italy.

As a Liverpool fan since 1977 I was very excited with this game. Although all of the boys and girls who have just took off their dipers and started watching football were convinced Milan will win I was feeling very optimistic. Most people thought Milan would win easily for two reasons:

1- Milan demolished Manchester United 3-0 in the semi-final.

2- Liverpool finished 21 points behind Manchester United in the English League.

This was purely unrealistic for three reasons of my own:

1- Milan can never repeat the United match again.

2-Liverpool is more solid and compact than United.

3- Benetiz is a better coach than Ancelloti.

As it turned out I was damn right in my first two conclusions and miserabely wrong in the third.

While watching the team selection and line-up I noticed Benetiz is playing with one striker upfront (Kuyt) who is not a goal scorere but a good work horse who will provide openings for his team mates. Benetiz also selected the useless Zenden instead of Kewell and Gonzales. I thought Benetiz wants to control the game in the firts half and then go for the jugular in the second.

When the match started everything was Ok. Mascherano put Kaka in his small pocket. Gattusso was only running after Gerrard's shadow in each move and Pirlo and Seedorf were pedestrians. The tactics were fine and Liverpool have won the midfield battle. Liverpool's defence was solid as always and Reina untroubled. The game is ours and we need to score.

With the match reaching the 44th minutes I was relaxed and happy and almost certain of victory, then the stupidity factor integrated with the luck factors to give a killer blow to Liverpool. Xabi Alonso made a needless foul on Kaka and suddendly I had a bad feeling. I thought Pirlo will go for the direct hit but what happened was a disaster. Pirlo shoots a wide and weak hit but the lucky Inzaghi deflects the ball into an empty net. I was shocked. This was Milan's only attempt at goal and scored. What a bad omen, and the Gods are not smiling on Liverpool tonight.

Well, we still have Benetiz and his genious tactics should mitigate the problem.

In the second half I was waiting for Crouch to come and exploits Milan's defence of oldies. Benetiz wanted him on the bench. Liverpool attcaked in vain and the only opening comes to Gerrard whose finish made Dida look like a world class goalkeeper.

The clock was ticking away and my nerves started to boil. At last Crouch is introduced in the 78th minutes and then Kaka gets very excited as Benetiz chooses Mascherano to be substituted to bring Crouch. Kaka enjoys his first free movement and sets the second goal for Inzaghi. It is all over.

Kuyt's vey very late goal was no reward for the hard work done by Liverpool. Although I saw some Milan supporters getting nervous in fear of another amazing comeback like in 2005 I had no false hopes. The match has ended with Liverpool's inability to show eagerness upfront.

It is so disappointing to see Liverpool losing to a side inferior to Barcelona and Chelsea. I know Milan fans are so happy but they are only fooling themselves if they think their team is better. Milan should thank Benetiz for gifting them the Cup.

As for me, I am waiting for a striker in the ability of Drogba to be bought by Liverpool to translate all the hard work of the defence and midfield into scoring goals.