Areverderci Milan - 11/03/08

With the greatest of respects to Inter Milan this Champion’s league tie was never in any danger.

The first leg score of 2-0 to the 5 time European champions was always going to hard to overcome,but,with the cauldron of the San Siro behind them, Milan would of thought they had at least a chance to level the tie up and put it into extra time. They didn’t. They whimpered toward what now seems the inevitable conclusion of Liverpool’s progression into the next round.

Had Milan scored before the 68th minute then things may have been different but with Ibrahimovich having a nightmare in front of goal Milan were always going to be facing an uphill struggle. Liverpool restricted Milan to a few clear chances with several more long range efforts, including a few free kicks, going over the bar, wide or straight at Pepe Reina. The 68th minute was the minute when the tie was won beyond the doubt of everyone but the most ardent Milan fans; the rest of them looked as if they had suddenly realised what the rest of us were all ready thinking. A pass from Babel set up Torres who controlled, swiveled and fired the ball into the net across the floor and beyond the sprawling keeper. The game was won and Milan looked as of they had lost the will to carry on, as if they knew they didn’t have what it took to turn around a 3-0 score line, which they didn’t. To be fair to them they were playing a team that has continually proved they are a force, if not the force, currently playing the champion's league and with 10 men as another Milan player, Burdisso, saw red for his second yellow card offence.

Liverpool played well enough over the 2 legs against a team unbeaten for 5 months in all competitions to show they are more than capable of winning the competition for a 6th time.
Even with all Liverpool’s domestic woes (and there are many) you would have to be blind, or a Man ure fan to deny that there is not a team on the entire continent that is more suited to the style of football that the Champion’s league demands and you would have to be a fool not to give Liverpool as good a chance, maybe better, as anyone else this year.

The only question now is who will be vanquished in the next round as the red army march on to Moscow.