2005 Final: We deserved to win

[Bob]

There are a lot of rival fans coming out with comments at the moment saying we were lucky in the final, we stole the trophy, Milan threw it away, they took their eye off the ball etc etc, you get the drift. :whatever:

I've been setting the record straight with a few of these myself:

Firstly, no way did we 'steal' the trophy! We didn't score our 3 goals in the last 6 minutes and then go straight to penalties FFS. Milan had a whole ONE HOUR to score again but they couldn't do it. Stealing a Cup is what the Mancs do - 2 goals in injury-time and no chance for Bayern to come back. Game over. That's what I call nicking it

Secondly, you MAKE YOUR OWN LUCK. Most teams would have given up and tried to keep the scoreline respectable. Not us, with players Gerrard and Carragher in the team and Rafa at the helm, we were always going to go for it and Milan couldn't handle us just like we couldn't handle them for parts of the first half. I say 'parts' because if you watch the whole game again you'll see although Milan were much the better side in the first half, we did have good chances - Hyypia's header, Garcia shooting wide and not forgetting the blatant handball by Nesta in the build-up to the second Milan goal. It wouldn't have been hard justice on Milan if we had nicked a goal in the first half.

Also, second half Riise & Alonso came close and Gattuso should been sent off in the penalty incident. If he had been who knows maybe we'd won it 4-3 or 5-3? We all saw how they collapsed at OT once he went off.

Thirdly, if you wanna win big trophies like the CL you can never take your eye off the ball as Milan apparently did. They apparently didn't learn their lesson from 2004 when they got hammered by Deportivo 4-0 after winning the first leg by three goals. My opinion is that they just couldn't handle us, the tempo, the wave after wave of attack and the crowd also played their part as always.

Finally, if look you at the whole 2005 campaign IMHO we were the best team in the competition deservedly beating Chelsea, Juventus and Leverkusen. We had one bad performance against Olympiakos losing 1-0 in Greece but we more than made up for that with the 3-1 win at home. Milan on the other hand were very lucky to get past PSV. They could have lost at home and were hammered away only for a late late goal putting them through on away goals. Every report said PSV were hard done by.

So, the next time a Scum or Chavski fan tries to say we nicked it or were lucky, give them both barrels :bird:

That was a good post. Lucky ppfffttt!!!

We were outclassed early doors, but the fans, Gerrard, the kaiser, the dude, Rafa and just about everybody else contributed to a fine turnaround!

AC Milan never said we were lucky and were very gracious after the defeat of which must have hurt like hell after the 3-0 first half.

I reckon this 2007 final will go to pens as well and with Reina I have unequivocal faith. Believe!

[StevieG08]

Gerrard NEVER dived. He was definitely caught by Gattuso and there should have been a red card.

is right

[Bob]

Gerrard NEVER dived. He was definitely caught by Gattuso and there should have been a red card.

I think he has proved enough times since then that he is a diver.

Montana your chain is being yanked mate.

[Reece]

Montana your chain is being yanked mate.

Sssssshhhhhhh!!!!!!

I just thought i'd indulge in some WUMmongery.

[Pacman]

We WERE lucky in the final.

Anyone who tries to claim otherwise is seriously deluded.

We had a bit of luck but so do most teams that win the CL.

Barca last year had luck in the final as did Milan the year before.

We deserved to win that cup in the end though.

[Bob]

Sssssshhhhhhh!!!!!!

I just thought i'd indulge in some WUMmongery.

Yes, but it's not so much fun when it's a relative newbie. Tsk, tsk!

[Montana]

Montana your chain is being yanked mate.

[Charlie_B]

You can't win a cup competition without having some luck along the way. However, I don't consider us winning the European Cup in 2005 particularly "lucky" (not more so than anyone else anyway).

I remember when the groups were drawn and we had one of the harder groups to get through; we got through, albeit on the last day. But who's to say that's lucky?

We beat Leverkusen 6-2 on aggregate after they had topped their group which included Real Madrid.

Juventues - excellent display in the first leg, when I truly believed we could go on and win it. Complete "shut-out" (apologies for the Americanism) in the return leg.

Chelsea. Lost to them EVERY single time up until this point. Over the two legs they had ONE shot on target. The infamous was it/wasn't it goal, but we know what would have happened should that goal not have counted. I seem to remember Cisse having a really good chance in the last 15 minutes or so which would have effectively ended the tie, and of course the Icelandic ******'s last minute failing. Overall, I don't think we were lucky.

Final? How ANYONE can say we were lucky to come back from 3-0 down against an Italian defence, to an arguably superior team? They're ****ing talking out their arse frankly. The double Sheva chance, I dunno what the hell that was, but we still needed to beat them on penalties. Which we did.

Over the course of the competition, there were decisions that went against us and decisions that went on our favour. A lot of teams don't have the "equalling out" of luck as they don't get far enough. Cry me a ****ing river, we're in our second final in three years.

[Dhav]

Good post Charlie. I tend to agree, overall there was very little luck about. I honeslty belive we were the best, most efficient and effective team in that competition.

I would add the bad luck we had, particularly in the group stages, lost to a handball against Monaco, were absolutely robbed against Olympiakos at home before we turned it around (had good goal disallowed for no reason when it squirmed through the keepers hand, hit the woodwork twice, they scored from there only chance which Kirkland ****ed up).

Throughout we lost key players at vital times, practically no strikers for the group games (Baros, Cisse and Garcia injured), Gerrard out of the Juve return leg, Xabi cheated out of the Chelsea second leg - and our squad was thin on the ground so we did remarkably well to compete.

And how can you say a team who never gives in when 3-0 down at half-time against one of the most experienced teams in world football is lucky?

Compare to the luck Mourinho/Porto had in 2004(Scholes' disallowed goal, Howard last minute fumble and winner etc, not beating any team of note throughout the whole competition) then I think you can see how much we deserved.

[Bob]

You can't win a cup competition without having some luck along the way. However, I don't consider us winning the European Cup in 2005 particularly "lucky" (not more so than anyone else anyway).

I remember when the groups were drawn and we had one of the harder groups to get through; we got through, albeit on the last day. But who's to say that's lucky?

We beat Leverkusen 6-2 on aggregate after they had topped their group which included Real Madrid.

Juventues - excellent display in the first leg, when I truly believed we could go on and win it. Complete "shut-out" (apologies for the Americanism) in the return leg.

Chelsea. Lost to them EVERY single time up until this point. Over the two legs they had ONE shot on target. The infamous was it/wasn't it goal, but we know what would have happened should that goal not have counted. I seem to remember Cisse having a really good chance in the last 15 minutes or so which would have effectively ended the tie, and of course the Icelandic ******'s last minute failing. Overall, I don't think we were lucky.

Final? How ANYONE can say we were lucky to come back from 3-0 down against an Italian defence, to an arguably superior team? They're ****ing talking out their arse frankly. The double Sheva chance, I dunno what the hell that was, but we still needed to beat them on penalties. Which we did.

Over the course of the competition, there were decisions that went against us and decisions that went on our favour. A lot of teams don't have the "equalling out" of luck as they don't get far enough. Cry me a ****ing river, we're in our second final in three years.

Good post, stop getting rat-arsed in student bars and post more.

*Woah... there's a flying pot and kettle*

[dirty_sanchez]

I actually don't agree completely.

We won the final through a mixture of luck, Rafa being able to correct a fundamental mistake in his tactics, and Ancelotti being a total mong. In the second half, Milan totally sat back. In the first half, they destroyed us. Absolutely killed us. Hamann did a good job of keeping Kaka out of the game, but it's Milan sitting back that killed them. Seedorf and Pirlo were more than capable of playing the killer passes even with Kaka marked out of the game and Shevchenko and Crespo were more than capable of putting them away.

Someone up there was smiling on us that day, because we were very very lucky.

Oh and also, Dida is a terrible goalkeeper.

[CharlieMansonsSquint]

Who cares if we deserved it or not?

It's a pointless angle to take in any arguement.

We won, and that's all that matters.

[dirty_sanchez]

That's the bottom line.

[Rafa Shankly]

ive had this argument myself recently,for some reason our getting to the final has reminded everyone how lucky we were in istanbul

my take on it is,luck will only get you so far,it definitely wont get you 3 goals.
but then again,when did it become a crime to have a bit of luck,why is that win being frowned upon because we may have been lucky?

[Montana]

ive had this argument myself recently,for some reason our getting to the final has reminded everyone how lucky we were in istanbul

my take on it is,luck will only get you so far,it definitely wont get you 3 goals.
but then again,when did it become a crime to have a bit of luck,why is that win being frowned upon because we may have been lucky?

Yeah, it's definitely the case that with us getting to the Final again, the same old drivel is coming out from rival fans re 2005.