This Is The Stuff Dreams Are Made Of
I still don't believe it. My beloved Liverpool has done it! We've won the Champions' League!!! I bet no other team could stared at defeat in the face like they did and still they came barnstorming back into the match to be on level terms with the great Milan team before our goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek won the tie for us with a series of stunning saves and an amazing execution of "Crazy Legs", Bruce Grobbelaar styled... which distracted the Milan penalty takers.
The match couldn't have started off worse for Liverpool. In the first minute, Evergreen oldie, Paolo Maldini sneaked in unmarked in the penalty box and unleashed a weirdly struck volley with his right foot and there it was. Milan took the lead from the most unlikely of sources. The brilliant Milan team then managed to tear Liverpool to shreds with their incisive passing and finishing with 2 more goals from Chelsea's on-loan striker, Hernan Crespo. I thought that was it... My flu was getting worse and the medication was making me really groggy by then. And my team were getting their asses whooped by a magnificent Milan team.
The team looked dazed and confused as they trooped back to the dressing room at half-time. Only a mircale could win them the game now... I doubt the players themselves believed that they could have won the game against this great AC Milan team. They've won this sodding Cup 6 times already!!! And they did this 3 times in the last 10 years. But somehow... the boys from Liverpool didn't give up. They just didn't.
The fightback had to begin somehow, it had to be led by someone. And there's no one better to lead the comeback than Steven Gerrard in the 54th minute of the match. After Riise had doggedly gotten the ball down the left flank and sent in a superb cross into the Milan's six-yard box, Stevie G rose unmarked to turn the ball into the far corner of the goal. No chance for the opposing goalkeeper! 3-1! The fightback is on!
Just 2 minutes later... another Liverpool player wrote his name into Liverpool's folklore. Vladimir Smicer. He's playing in his last ever game for Liverpool... the boss told him that he was not needed anymore. But that didn't stop him from giving it 200% in this match that meant everything to all the Liverpool supporters around the world. Valdie Smicer picked up a loose ball that cannoned to him from the left flank and looked at the goal. Everyone was screaming at him to pass the ball. The Milan defenders ignored him and gave him the space that he needed to shoot. 9 out of 10 times, he would have blasted that shot into the stands. Not this time apparently. The shot whizzed straight into the bottom corner of the goal... 3-2!!!!
I had to pinch myself to believe that we were back into the game. Now all we have to do is get the equaliser. This time, Luis Garcia managed to squirm his was into the box and laid off a superb ball to Stevie G who was odds on to smash in the equalising goal but at the last moment, he was hauled down by the Milan defenders. PENALTY!!! Xabi Alonso... looked edgy when he took the shot and it was saved by the keeper but Xabi instinctively propelled himself forward to smash home the equalising goal!!!
3-3!!! Game on!!! From then onwards, it was a ding dong battle all the way till the end of extra-time. But it could have all been over if Dudek did not pull off a fantastic double save off Andrei Shevchenkov in the dying minutes of extra time...
He proved to be the hero once again when he brilliantly saved 2 penalties during the shootout to deliver the European Champions' League Cup back home to Anfield. And this was extra special coz as it is the 5th time we've won it... It's going to be our's for keeps!!!
Surely UEFA will allow us to defend our title next year! With a gut-busting performance like this, we're deserved winners! We've stood up against Bayer Levekusen, the Mighty Juventus, the Rouble Funded Chelsea and the Great AC Milan... and we've prevailed as the Champions of Europe!!!
This is our year... somehow you've just got to believe that it was destiny for this team to win it. The last time Liverpool won it in 1981, there were a series of happenings that mirrored events that happened this year... Firstly, the Pope passed on that year. Secondly, Prince Charles married that year too. And that year, when Liverpool won the European Cup, they finished 5th in the league too!!! This year, the same few things happened again... just that Prince Charles married his long-time lover, Camilla. Oh yeah... and everytime, when Liverpool wore Red and the opponents wore White in an European Final, they WOULD WIN!
Such were the signs that made us believe that there was still hope at halftime. Althought hope was faint... but it grew stronger and stronger as the match wore on... Any by the time the penalty shootout was over... We are the Champions of Europe once more!!! And yes, we'll never walk alone on this amazing journey...
I still don't believe it. My beloved Liverpool has done it! We've won the Champions' League!!! I bet no other team could stared at defeat in the face like they did and still they came barnstorming back into the match to be on level terms with the great Milan team before our goalkeeper, Jerzy Dudek won the tie for us with a series of stunning saves and an amazing execution of "Crazy Legs", Bruce Grobbelaar styled... which distracted the Milan penalty takers.
The match couldn't have started off worse for Liverpool. In the first minute, Evergreen oldie, Paolo Maldini sneaked in unmarked in the penalty box and unleashed a weirdly struck volley with his right foot and there it was. Milan took the lead from the most unlikely of sources. The brilliant Milan team then managed to tear Liverpool to shreds with their incisive passing and finishing with 2 more goals from Chelsea's on-loan striker, Hernan Crespo. I thought that was it... My flu was getting worse and the medication was making me really groggy by then. And my team were getting their asses whooped by a magnificent Milan team.
The team looked dazed and confused as they trooped back to the dressing room at half-time. Only a mircale could win them the game now... I doubt the players themselves believed that they could have won the game against this great AC Milan team. They've won this sodding Cup 6 times already!!! And they did this 3 times in the last 10 years. But somehow... the boys from Liverpool didn't give up. They just didn't.
The fightback had to begin somehow, it had to be led by someone. And there's no one better to lead the comeback than Steven Gerrard in the 54th minute of the match. After Riise had doggedly gotten the ball down the left flank and sent in a superb cross into the Milan's six-yard box, Stevie G rose unmarked to turn the ball into the far corner of the goal. No chance for the opposing goalkeeper! 3-1! The fightback is on!
Just 2 minutes later... another Liverpool player wrote his name into Liverpool's folklore. Vladimir Smicer. He's playing in his last ever game for Liverpool... the boss told him that he was not needed anymore. But that didn't stop him from giving it 200% in this match that meant everything to all the Liverpool supporters around the world. Valdie Smicer picked up a loose ball that cannoned to him from the left flank and looked at the goal. Everyone was screaming at him to pass the ball. The Milan defenders ignored him and gave him the space that he needed to shoot. 9 out of 10 times, he would have blasted that shot into the stands. Not this time apparently. The shot whizzed straight into the bottom corner of the goal... 3-2!!!!
I had to pinch myself to believe that we were back into the game. Now all we have to do is get the equaliser. This time, Luis Garcia managed to squirm his was into the box and laid off a superb ball to Stevie G who was odds on to smash in the equalising goal but at the last moment, he was hauled down by the Milan defenders. PENALTY!!! Xabi Alonso... looked edgy when he took the shot and it was saved by the keeper but Xabi instinctively propelled himself forward to smash home the equalising goal!!!
3-3!!! Game on!!! From then onwards, it was a ding dong battle all the way till the end of extra-time. But it could have all been over if Dudek did not pull off a fantastic double save off Andrei Shevchenkov in the dying minutes of extra time...
He proved to be the hero once again when he brilliantly saved 2 penalties during the shootout to deliver the European Champions' League Cup back home to Anfield. And this was extra special coz as it is the 5th time we've won it... It's going to be our's for keeps!!!
Surely UEFA will allow us to defend our title next year! With a gut-busting performance like this, we're deserved winners! We've stood up against Bayer Levekusen, the Mighty Juventus, the Rouble Funded Chelsea and the Great AC Milan... and we've prevailed as the Champions of Europe!!!
This is our year... somehow you've just got to believe that it was destiny for this team to win it. The last time Liverpool won it in 1981, there were a series of happenings that mirrored events that happened this year... Firstly, the Pope passed on that year. Secondly, Prince Charles married that year too. And that year, when Liverpool won the European Cup, they finished 5th in the league too!!! This year, the same few things happened again... just that Prince Charles married his long-time lover, Camilla. Oh yeah... and everytime, when Liverpool wore Red and the opponents wore White in an European Final, they WOULD WIN!
Such were the signs that made us believe that there was still hope at halftime. Althought hope was faint... but it grew stronger and stronger as the match wore on... Any by the time the penalty shootout was over... We are the Champions of Europe once more!!! And yes, we'll never walk alone on this amazing journey...
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