(photo courtesy of uefa.com)
Sure, Liverpool's exact starters from 2005 played hard, but maybe AC Milan just wanted revenge more than Liverpool wishes to retain their 2005 penalty kick victory. Liverpool played strong and controlled possession in the first half, but they seemed to give up the control they exercised so beautifully within the first half as soon as Pirlo scored the first goal, off a free kick. Gerrard's early miss to equalize the game dashed Liverpool's hopes and seemed to lead them into their tired second half. Benitez was too slow to send Crouch in for Mascherano, but with those 13 minutes left to play, Crouch sent a 25 yard drive into Dida, but with futile results.
Its unnecessary to go into the petty complaints over how the Italians seem to be able to dish out the penalties and the blatant fouls, but can never take it: unnecessary because everyone who is not a die hard Serie A fan knows how these Italian teams play and as upsetting as it is that Liverpool let their guard down in the second half, they had a brief moment of hope as Kuyt forced Dida to give up a corner shot but it wasn't enough to sustain another goal to tie it and go into penalties.
Kaka was surprisingly absent for all the hype he garnered from the last match against Man U, and the touted Gattuso/Pirlo coupling wasn't as strong as usual either. It was Inzaghi that dominated this match - despite colliding with the ball late in the second half with such dramatic antics that one would think the ball was a canon ball. No matter, at the end of the 90 minutes and 3 minutes stoppage time, Milan came out on top despite Liverpool's scrappy efforts to relive their previous Champions glory.
STATS
AC Milan: Dida, Oddo, Nesta, Maldini, Jankulovski (Kaladze 79), Gattuso, Pirlo, Ambrosini, Seedorf (Favalli 90), Kaka, Inzaghi (Gilardino 88).
Subs Not Used: Kalac, Cafu, Serginho, Brocchi.
Booked: Gattuso, Jankulovski.
Goals: Inzaghi 45, 82.
Liverpool: Reina, Finnan (Arbeloa 88), Carragher, Agger, Riise, Pennant, Alonso, Mascherano (Crouch 78), Zenden (Kewell 59), Gerrard, Kuyt.
Subs Not Used: Dudek, Hyypia, Gonzalez, Bellamy.
Booked: Mascherano, Carragher.
Goals: Kuyt 89.
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