MCdread
Couldn't she get drowned?
- Joined
- Jun 21, 2001
- Messages
- 5,348
Milan had a guy ready to come in since the 89th minute or so but were expecting to the injuree time to do some time wasting. The ref was looking at his official every time the ball went out to check for that. Maybe he intended to give 2 extra minutes, but then added another one to account for the imminent substitution. I don't know but if that was the case, for the sake of clarity he should have added 2 and then add whatever he thought was necessary (he ended the game at 2:40 or so).
I think Liverpool needs some class up front. The other top teams in Europe all have loads of better strikers than Crouch, Bellamy or Kuyt. And better wingers than Pennant or Zenden too, to be honest. In the second half Milan controlled the game and Liverpool's chances only came from defense mistakes. With some better and more clinical finishing and attacking movements in the first half though, Liverpool should have scored at least one goal, because Benitez tactical maneuver of only playing with one lose forward, and filling the midfield (Milan's strongest point), while at the same time putting Gerard playing more advanced so that Gattuso would have to play behind the rest of the midfield line was winning the day big time. At the same time, he puts two open wingers with Riise supporting Zenden often and sometimes unbalancing the defence by drifting to the inside, which also meant Gattuso and Seedorf couldn't help Ambrosini and Kaká as well as they should in the middle. Benitez outsmarted Ancellotti in the first half, but Milan got the lucky advantage and in the second half, I think he corrected it, put the lines a bit more compacted so that Liverpool didn't have a free ride in the midfield anymore and the forwards were more pressed. At that time Milan controlled and for a large part of the game was the better team and looked more less comfortable. Ancellotii also reacted well in my view to Crouch: for all that height he kinda sucks with the head and is much better with the ball on the feet ironically, but Milan decided to put Kaladze in to the center of defense, who's almost as tall as Crouch and move Maldini to the left, as by that time, whatever threats Liverpool posed from there, with the game exhaustion, Maldini didn't need the speed anymore to cover it. Jankulovski usually plays there because of the speed, while Maldini was moved to the center a few years ago to protect him (the man is closing on 40 after all!).
Mascherano played a good game in my view. He was able to stop Kaká from running the show at will as he has done in previous games, but the guy is so good that still earned the free kick for the first goal (the first real Milan chance) and assisted Inzaghi for the second. Many players would like to perform week in week out in what was for Kaká a quiet game.
I know virtually nothing about football - and i won. 
