I agree with Stevie Nicol. He said at half time (on ESPN)--"If it goes in off the arm, it's not a goal."
It'd be nice to obtain a pure finisher this summer. A big time goal-getter. For all the chances we had in the first half we should have come away with at least one goal. It just seems like its a bewitched position right now. Cisse was great in France, average here, Morientes was great in Spain, crap here. Kuyt and Crouch are great, but we need one of them or someone else to be in the top 3 in the scoring table to win the Premiership IMO.
What chances did we have? We had the ball a lot. But chances? We need players that can create chances just as much as we need one who can put them away.
you left out the bit where Nesta was rolling around as if he was about to cough up an organ so it goes
I thought Pennant created several chances in the first half. But I agree with your main point, which is why I think it is important that we try get Carlos Tevez this summer.
I think Liverpool looked a better finalist than my team Arsenal did last year. However, I think a bit of the Premiership pace would have done well in this game. A little bit of urgency along with their possession would have helped the cause. Pace was instrumental in the 2005 comeback. Milan was not punished for their tentativeness.
OK. But if you end up in a debate I'm not sure you can trump the rules of the game with a 'Steve Nichol says...'
I'd like to blame the officius referee-- was he suffering from wind?-- for being inconsistent (blowing for a foul on Kaka but not Pennat) but I think this match encapsulated our season perfectly. We bossed a match but did not convert the chances. Meanwhile the opposition score from their only chances. My biggest gripe is with Benitez's changes, Istanbul 2005 notwi thstanding. I thought that once it became clear Milan were waiting for the odd break, Gonzalez, Kewell or Bellamy ought to have come on.
I am absolutely heartbroken, I am distraught, the tears are trickling down my face as I type and I just feel plain sick. I have congratulated Milan on a good cup final and on their win, people sit here and say “Liverpool were the better side”, “At least we’ve won it five times” and whilst these statements are correct, the pain just stings and I cannot accept or give any excuses, we should have won, because no one remembers the better team or the team which played well, they will only remember the Champions. I thought we were indeed the better team, AC Milan for long periods of the game looked ordinary, they weren’t stable at all, at the back they were unstable, Kaka and Seedorf were shut out of the game for most parts, but Liverpool finally was bitten where it hurts because we do not have an out-and-out striker, someone like Owen, Milan had Pippo, a great player who doesn’t always have the greatest of matches and most people turn a blind eye, but will they after tonight? Pippo is the type of striker we need, someone who doesn’t do much all game, but can produce when it matters, we have far too many work horses and it showed tonight. Alonso was poor and I am fed up of it, I don’t want to see him in the media or elsewhere until he’s taken a holiday and had a rest, because his rash behaviour cost us dear tonight, he wasn’t terrible tonight, but by his own admission he wasn’t brilliant either. Zenden just couldn’t cope, I like the man, he’s a good player, with hindsight he shouldn’t have started, and Kewell was far more effective. Pennant’s delivery into the box wasn’t great and he disappeared in the second half and should have been substituted around the 60 minute mark, so Gerrard could be pushed out wide and Crouch should have come on for Alonso, why was Mascherano taken off, I will never understand that decision, I won’t blame the manager, the manager is always the scapegoat in these situations, Benitez tactically outplayed Carlo, but this counts for nothing because we lacked effective and sufficient fire power up top. Milan had me in an agitated state of affairs, I thought Gatusso was very unsporting like as was Pippo when he got the ball kicked into his abdomen, that’s football, it happens, but it angered me, however Milan for all their time wasting made up for it at the end with the guard of honour. Whatever I might think of AC Milan’s admission into this year’s competition, they are worthy winners and their fans are nice people. I won’t make comments on the referee, because I don’t want to sound resentful or bitter, I’ll leave that to United and Everton, but he should have allowed a more of an ebb and flow to the game. Overall it was a frustrating game for Liverpool, we were the better team, our finishing let us down and AC Milan’s finishing was better and that’s the story of that cup final, I just hope I am able to get through the rest of the week, it’s one thing being ditched by your girlfriend, it’s another to see my passion, my club lose a cup final. I’ll lick my wounds in the days to come and I hope tonight has highlighted the fact that we need a deadly finisher, because work horses aren’t always able to deliver the goods. As I have said Congratulations AC Milan, may we meet again soon and enjoy your cup final, you earned it. I’m off to weep myself to sleep
As for Pippo’s first goal, it was not handball, he used his shoulder to turn the ball in the back of net, he was in the right place at the right time, there is little point in getting angry or upset about the goal, we had ninety minutes to score enough goals and we just didn’t apply enough pressure on the Milan defence or score enough goals, Rafa really needs to spend wisely over the summer and I am hoping he cancels this Voronin transfer.
The ref was shite, but at least he was evenly shite. Kaka was clean through at one point but it was called for offside wrongly, so no complaints there
Well, that sucks. Tough loss. We bossed Milan for large portions of the game, but weren't able to make it count on the scoreboard. We created a lot of offense, pressuring their defense and creating dangerous situations, but never creating many good goal-scoring opportunities to pressure Dida. And that cost us the game today. Everyone knew that the first goal would be critical, and we looked the more deserving of a 1-0 advantage, but that went to Milan against the run of play on a furtunate, if not lucky, deflection and at the worst possible moment IMO: right on the stroke of half-time. If that goal is scored at the 25 minute mark it's effect on the game is much different I think. Instead of Milan going into the locker room deflated by how Liverpool took them out of their game and how their defense was being made to work so much harder than normal and had been shakey throughout, struggling at times to simply pass the ball out of the back, they went in elated by being ahead. Instead of the them thinking about their tiring legs and how much longer they could hold out, they were re-energized and could think about how if they can keep a clean sheet for 45 minutes they would be champions of Europe. Liverpool on the other hand had to spend 15 minutes fighting against feeling deflated by being down 1-0 despite carrying the bulk of play. Even though it might have been disappointing to go in to half scoreless 0-0 despite having the clear upper-hand, it still would have been encouraging to see their game plan working so well and think that the it was only a matter of time 'til they went ahead. I think we win if not for that goal, but we'll never know. Ohh well. Our game plan did work quite well in that we nuetralized Seedorf (invisible) and Kaka (quiet), even causing them to play defense to help win back the ball, and making their back line work hard, and forcing them into errors by closing them down quickly. All that was missing was quality shot opportunities and a goal. We didn't play as consistently high-energy in the second half, but played well. Milan improved some and we weren't as sharp at times. I wasn't sure if we really looked like scoring despite the offense we were generating, but I liked our chances and I thought someone would make it happen. And if we equalized I beleived we'd go on to win one way or another. I didn't think we'd concede another either. But we did. And that was that. And that second goal had to do with pulling a CM and putting on Crouch to chace the equalizer. By passing for the second goal, Kaka saved himself from being remembered as a non-factor after all the hype he has received (much of it deservedly so). I thought our lads all played well. Everyone worked hard, played their part, and contributed to a very solid display. Can't really fault anyone. Collectively we didn't create quality goal-scoring opportunities unfortunaately. It would have been nice if Reina could have saved the second Inzhagi goal, but the loss isn't on him or anyone else. Just wasn't our day to win. But we showed how much we deserved to be there and how we were more than capable of running out champions even though it didn't happen for us this time. Nothing to be ashamed of. Just lacked a moment or two of brilliance (or luck) that could have put us ahead first and made it a different game. Ohh well. Heads up high, Liverpool! YNWA!
And don't forget that Xabi Alonso and Agger should have received yellow cards in the first half and got away with it.
On the radio their talking about some fans being tea gassed by police. Nothing bigger yet, lets hope they all calm down
Same old story, it seems the more we look like we can win a game, we seem to loose. We definatly seem to play better in a tight game than when we have control like we did in the first half. That said we played well tonight we just lack goal scoring quailty which hopefully will be fixed this summer. Well done Pennent and Mascharno.
let me ask you this (not intended as a debate -- do want the opinion of a ref-type) RE: "the referee was good" I am not claiming that 'we we're robbed' -- by no means (Roy Carroll digging the ball out from three yards deep in his net and getting away with it was robbery) and the "Arm of God" goal today: without video replay, I would not expect officials to automatically catch it -- with video replay, I think you cancel the goal -- we don't have video replay, end of story IMO however, I don't believe the "ball-to-hand" argument is as simple as some claim -- if a defender in the box extends his arms out (NBA-style) and the attacker hits his arm attempting to play it by the defender, even though the defender made NO "hand-to-ball" motion, shouldn't that be ruled a handball? where you leave/place your arm should be of some relevance (I'll have to look again, but, I believe Inzaghi knew he was directing the ball with his side, and knew his arm was on that side) but, I was disappointed in general with the referee, in particular, in regards to whistling down Kuyt any time he and the ball were in Milan's box -- that's not an automatic foul in England pre-match, some of us speculated that Rafa would not start Crouch just for that reason -- any time Crouch's shadow got near a Milano, they could crumple and win a foul -- seemed like Referee decided he was going to call it that way regardless of who was playing and Nesta clearly playing a ball out (near Riise IIRC) and winning a goal kick, etc. I was not impressed
How unfair!!! am i united fan and liverpool and arsenal are 2 times i hate with my heart.... but tonight liverpool fans have every right to feel bad... they played beutiful football but lacked SHOTS!... unbelievable misses from gerrard!... milan played like shit... it was like man utd in san siro only this time they got lucky.... i was absoulutly gutted with the player ratings..... giving milan any credit for their win was unfair... only player that played well was Nesta.... the rest was absoulty hurrendus!!... Liverpool tho need a Van Nistlerooy time strikers who stays front and can shoot + head the ball.... crouch isnt bad.. bellamy and kuyt completely useless!!!. Hard luck tho.... it shoudve been for liverpool.
Masche played very well I think MOTM for Liverpool was def him, but overall I think Nesta had an incredible game also think Benitez may have blown it by not putting in Crouch earlier
The refree was very, very bad but he was not the reason why we lost. We lost becasue we did not convert dominance into goals.