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Six-minute magic sinks AC Milan
ON A night that served as the perfect metaphor for the last 20 years of their history, Liverpool rose from the depths of despair to the pinnacle of European soccer.
ON A night that served as the perfect metaphor for the last 20 years of their history, Liverpool rose from the depths of despair to the pinnacle of European soccer. Trailing 0-3 at half-time and looking totally outclassed in the Champions League final against a rampant AC Milan, Liverpool fought back with three goals in six astonishing minutes at the start of the second half before winning 3-2 on penalties.
It was a remarkable turnaround and represents a complete transformation in Liverpool's fortunes too. Milan were utterly in control, had scored in the first minute through 36-year-old skipper Paolo Maldini, appearing in his seventh final, and then cut Liverpool to ribbons.
Argentina international Hernan Crespo, on loan from Chelsea, scored twice at the end of the first half to put Milan in sight of their seventh European Cup victory. At that stage it looked like Liverpool's Spanish boss Rafael Benitez had made a major tactical error, leaving out midfielders Dietmar Hamann and Igor Biscan and giving mercurial Australian forward Harry Kewell a place in his starting lineup instead.
The Italian side's three first half goals were testimony to their dominance. Kewell, who limped off injured after 23 minutes contributed little and was replaced by Vladimir Smicer. But it was a second enforced substitution that was crucial. An injury to defender Steve Finnan ended his involvement at halftime and Benitez switched to a three-man defence with Dietmar Hamann coming on in midfield. The move worked. Suddenly Milan had less space to exploit and Liverpool began to play some football at last with the impressive Xabi Alonso and captain Steven Gerrard trading passes and wresting the initiative from the Italians.
Fittingly it was Gerrard, the man who kept his team in the competition when they were four minutes from elimination at the end of the group stage, who gave Liverpool renewed hope with a 54th minute header.
Two minutes later Liverpool really were back in contention when Smicer rifled home and after 60 minutes they were level when Gattuso brought down Gerrard and Xabi Alonso fired into the roof of the net on the rebound after Dida saved his penalty. But worse was to follow. With Milan trailing 2-3 in the shootout and Shevchenko needing to score to keep their hopes alive, he shot weakly at Dudek who saved. It was the last action of the night.
