Depends on which team you support in the CL Semis:
Destiny? No, it's all about revenge
By Clive Tyledsley
Last Updated: 1:16am BST 20/04/2007
So, it looks like destiny is leading us inexorably towards a Chelsea v Manchester United Champions League final, does it? Not in Milan, it doesn't. Providence is taking an entirely different shape in the cafes and bars along Via Montenapoleone. Italian football is nursing several wounds at the moment, but the deepest scars in Milan were inflicted in the final of two years ago. The Rossoneri want another crack at Liverpool.
Destiny? No, it's all about revenge talking football
Painful exit: AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti walks past the European Cup after his side's surprise 2005 defeat
Next Tuesday at 6pm, an ITV4 programme will select the top 10 Champions League games involving British teams. There are no prizes for guessing what is going to be at No 1. The Milan players were rehearsing their victory speeches when they walked to their dressing room at half-time in Istanbul. Liverpool were a beaten team. A boxing referee would have stopped it there and then. I was busily checking my notes for the record score in a European final.
Liverpool's extraordinary comeback in the 2005 final will never be forgotten on Merseyside. In Milan, they have tried to forget it, but they can't either. Eight of the players that had the medals ripped from around their necks that night are hoping to play in this season's final. Nine, if you include Andriy Shevchenko. But Milan don't want a reunion with Sheva. Their president, Silvio Berlusconi, has already said they owe their supporters a revenge victory over Liverpool. Berlusconi usually finds a way to get what he wants.
If Uefa had got their way, Milan would not have even been in this season's competition. The original sentences handed down after the Italian match-fixing scandal docked them 44 points, and Milan faced a season out of European competition. The appeals procedure in Italy softened the blow considerably and they were reluctantly readmitted to the last qualifying round. Uefa's Emergency Panel sanctioned their entry only because they lacked the legal grounds to block it.
The Uefa statement of the time noted: "Milan have obviously not properly perceived the trouble they are in and the damage already caused to European football." Are they any more contrite now? No, signore. Just last week, their coach, Carlo Ancelotti, said: "We felt the weight of injustice on our shoulders at the start of the season. We still feel it now." Milan have made a cause of their conviction in the scandal. The eventual eight-point penalty has been overcome and they are back in Serie A's top four. Official business has almost been looked after, now for the personal business.
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Winning this season's Champions League is particularly personal to a team of 30-somethings. When Paolo Maldini scored in the opening minute of the 2005 final, he must have felt that fate was beckoning him towards another trophy to crown his wonderful career. Inter had been despatched in the quarter-finals, a last-minute goal had accounted for PSV Eindhoven in the semis, it was just meant to be. Or so he thought.
Another of the senior players, Andrea Pirlo, suffered the misery of succumbing to Jerzy Dudek's heroics in the penalty shoot-out before Shevchenko trudged forward with the weight of the world on his shoulders and saw the decisive kick saved. Ancelotti could do worse than show his players the film of them receiving and removing their losers' medals. A few of them must have wondered if they would ever get a chance to return to the high altar of European football.
Old Trafford has good karma. Many of the same Milan players overcame Juventus on penalties in the 2003 final there. Two years ago, they beat Manchester United with two Hernan Crespo goals in the knockout stages. Crespo and Shevchenko have given way to Italian World Cup winner Alberto Gilardino in attack, with the brilliant Kaka just behind him. With the likes of Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf and Alessandro Nesta at the core of the team, you won't need me to identify too many of their players for you. Milan have won their last four games, scoring 13 goals in the process.
Italian football has had better World Cup-winning years. The second phase of the match-fixing inquiry has unearthed new evidence dating back to 2004. The death of a policeman at a match in Palermo in February led to much soul-searching. And now, the 2012 European Championship finals have been awarded to Poland and Ukraine in preference to Italy. Last summer it all ended in tears of joy in Berlin. Milan are planning a similar finale.
Destiny? No, it's all about revenge
By Clive Tyledsley
Last Updated: 1:16am BST 20/04/2007
So, it looks like destiny is leading us inexorably towards a Chelsea v Manchester United Champions League final, does it? Not in Milan, it doesn't. Providence is taking an entirely different shape in the cafes and bars along Via Montenapoleone. Italian football is nursing several wounds at the moment, but the deepest scars in Milan were inflicted in the final of two years ago. The Rossoneri want another crack at Liverpool.
Destiny? No, it's all about revenge talking football
Painful exit: AC Milan manager Carlo Ancelotti walks past the European Cup after his side's surprise 2005 defeat
Next Tuesday at 6pm, an ITV4 programme will select the top 10 Champions League games involving British teams. There are no prizes for guessing what is going to be at No 1. The Milan players were rehearsing their victory speeches when they walked to their dressing room at half-time in Istanbul. Liverpool were a beaten team. A boxing referee would have stopped it there and then. I was busily checking my notes for the record score in a European final.
Liverpool's extraordinary comeback in the 2005 final will never be forgotten on Merseyside. In Milan, they have tried to forget it, but they can't either. Eight of the players that had the medals ripped from around their necks that night are hoping to play in this season's final. Nine, if you include Andriy Shevchenko. But Milan don't want a reunion with Sheva. Their president, Silvio Berlusconi, has already said they owe their supporters a revenge victory over Liverpool. Berlusconi usually finds a way to get what he wants.
If Uefa had got their way, Milan would not have even been in this season's competition. The original sentences handed down after the Italian match-fixing scandal docked them 44 points, and Milan faced a season out of European competition. The appeals procedure in Italy softened the blow considerably and they were reluctantly readmitted to the last qualifying round. Uefa's Emergency Panel sanctioned their entry only because they lacked the legal grounds to block it.
The Uefa statement of the time noted: "Milan have obviously not properly perceived the trouble they are in and the damage already caused to European football." Are they any more contrite now? No, signore. Just last week, their coach, Carlo Ancelotti, said: "We felt the weight of injustice on our shoulders at the start of the season. We still feel it now." Milan have made a cause of their conviction in the scandal. The eventual eight-point penalty has been overcome and they are back in Serie A's top four. Official business has almost been looked after, now for the personal business.
advertisement
Winning this season's Champions League is particularly personal to a team of 30-somethings. When Paolo Maldini scored in the opening minute of the 2005 final, he must have felt that fate was beckoning him towards another trophy to crown his wonderful career. Inter had been despatched in the quarter-finals, a last-minute goal had accounted for PSV Eindhoven in the semis, it was just meant to be. Or so he thought.
Another of the senior players, Andrea Pirlo, suffered the misery of succumbing to Jerzy Dudek's heroics in the penalty shoot-out before Shevchenko trudged forward with the weight of the world on his shoulders and saw the decisive kick saved. Ancelotti could do worse than show his players the film of them receiving and removing their losers' medals. A few of them must have wondered if they would ever get a chance to return to the high altar of European football.
Old Trafford has good karma. Many of the same Milan players overcame Juventus on penalties in the 2003 final there. Two years ago, they beat Manchester United with two Hernan Crespo goals in the knockout stages. Crespo and Shevchenko have given way to Italian World Cup winner Alberto Gilardino in attack, with the brilliant Kaka just behind him. With the likes of Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf and Alessandro Nesta at the core of the team, you won't need me to identify too many of their players for you. Milan have won their last four games, scoring 13 goals in the process.
Italian football has had better World Cup-winning years. The second phase of the match-fixing inquiry has unearthed new evidence dating back to 2004. The death of a policeman at a match in Palermo in February led to much soul-searching. And now, the 2012 European Championship finals have been awarded to Poland and Ukraine in preference to Italy. Last summer it all ended in tears of joy in Berlin. Milan are planning a similar finale.
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