Milan Beats Liverpool

Filippo Inzaghi's double strike ensured that club soccer’s most coveted trophy headed back to Milan for the seventh time. It was a triumphant finale to a season which started with the club being
docked eight points for their involvement in Italy's match-fixing scandal.

Only a successful appeal against an initial, heavier, penalty enabled Milan to enter the Champions League at all, and they were forced to begin their campaign in the final qualifying round.

Defying the odds

"It is the greatest victory we have had," AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "Few believed we could do it, but we have actually done something extraordinary that very few people, perhaps nobody, expected."

Liverpool's chances of pulling a repeat of their 2005 victory over Ancelotti's men were dealt a severe blow by Milan's opening goal: an Andrea Pirlo free-kick that beat Jose Reina with the help of a deflection off Inzaghi's shoulder.

The striker had no hesitation in claiming the credit for the goal. "Of course we worked on that in training and sometimes it comes off," he said, apparently tongue-in-cheek.

Liverpool bruised, but gracious

Liverpool boss Rafael Benitez was enraged by the scarcity of extra time, but played down his touchline explosion afterwards.

"I don't want to use this as an excuse," the Spaniard said. "We were playing well until we conceded the first goal, and they have players with the quality to make the difference."

"We were controlling the game, going forward and creating chances but we conceded a bad goal at a bad time," Benitez said.

Line up changes failed

With just under an hour gone, Benitez introduced Harry Kewell. But he proved no more effective than the man he replaced, Bolo Zenden. The manager rejected suggestions he should have been bolder and started with the Australian winger rather than packing five men across his midfield.

"Kewell could not play a long time, he was ten months without playing," Benitez said. "Milan are well organized in defence and good on counter attack. When you try to attack, you have to keep a balance and not leave big spaces behind. When you lose the balance against them they just need one opportunity and they will kill you."

Lucky opening goal

Ancelotti acknowledged that Milan's opening goal had been the lucky break his side needed against opponents who posed them far more problems than Manchester United had in the semi-final.

"Liverpool did not let us play the way we wanted in the first half," Ancelotti said. "Our midfielders were under pressure and we did not get the ball to Kaka and Clarence Seedorf as much as we wanted."

But he said this was a tough team and they had managed a difficult situation quite well.