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UEFA Champions League Final.by Ben, last updated 2005-06-12 23:07:22AC Milan v Liverpool - Wed May 25, 2005AC Milan (2.1), Draw (3.2), Liverpool (4)Wednesday sees the final of what is arguably the best football contest in the world (international competitions included). I would have preferred Chelsea to be facing Milan in Istanbul but Liverpool were the better team on the night they knocked Chelsea out.Earlier this month, it was reported that, Arsene Wenger branded Liverpool lucky to be in the Champions League at all. His remarks were probably taken out of context. I read it as saying England was lucky to have 4 places in the Champions League, not trying to put down Liverpool in anyway. As for his remarks comparing Liverpool's achievement to Millwall reaching the FA Cup final last year, I think he was just saying that the Champions League is not a league but a cup, where anyone on their day can get through. If anyone is lucky to be in the final it's AC Milan. I watched both legs and 2-0 at the San Siro was a very flattering score line. 1-0 or 1-1 would have reflected what happened better. Back in Holland PSV won the tie 3-1 but went out on away goals. Milan's away goal was scored in the 90th minute. Very painful for PSV, who really did deserve extra time at least. Liverpool have been playing excellent football in Europe this year. Back in December they looked certain to go out to Olympiacos. 1-0 down at half time, they needed 3 goals to get though to the knockout stages. Against all the odds they made it. They then went on to knock out Leverkusen, winning both legs 3-1, Juventus, winning 2-1 and drawing 0-0 and Chelsea, drawing 0-0 and then winning 1-0. Man U and Arsenal eat your heart out. Milan are going to end up second in Serie A this season. They drew 3-3 with Palermo on Friday which left them 4 points behind Juventus with just a match to go. They effectively lost the title race earlier this month when they went down 1-0 to Juventus. Milan did rest most of their regular players in anticipation for this Champions League clash so I'll not read too much into this. Liverpool ended their season with a 2-1 win over Aston Villa. Djibril Cissé was back in action and scored both Liverpool goals. Their season might have been a lot different if he hadn't broke his leg in October. Cisse was very impressive in the pre-season friendlies in the USA. Having finished 5th just below local rivals Everton, this is Liverpool's only chance of playing Champions League football next year. My pick for this match is Liverpool +0.5 priced 1.76 at gamebookers. Liverpool have always managed to pull something special out of the bag for the Champions League and there is nothing to stop me thinking they can do it again. I'll not go as far as to say they will win but I don't think they will lose in 90 minutes. If you think AC Milan are going to win then the best price is 2.15 -0.5 on the Asian handicap at bet365. I was playing with the idea of going for unders on the goal line of 2 (ie. exactly 2 goals returns stakes). The price is 1.8 at bet365. I had a look at the stats for Champions League Finals. In 12 there have been 6 matches with 3 or more goals, 2 matches with exactly 2 goals and 4 matches where there have been 0-1 goals. Based on this I'll skip this bet as a fair price would be evens for under 2.5 goals. Plus I'll be watching this match and it's horrible watching a game and not wanting anyone to score. ← Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 66 67 68 69 70 71 72 73 74 75 76 77 78 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 90 91 92 93 94 95 96 97 98 99 100 101 102 103 104 105 106 107 108 109 110 111 112 113 114 115 116 117 118 119 120 121 122 123 124 125 126 127 128 129 130 131 132 133 134 135 136 137 138 139 140 141 142 143 144 145 146 147 148 149 150 151 152 153 154 155 156 157 158 159 160 161 162 163 164 165 166 167 168 169 170 171 172 173 174 175 176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200 201 202 203 204 205 206 207 208 209 210 211 212 213 214 215 216 217 218 219 220 221 222 223 224 225 226 227 228 229 230 231 232 233 234 235 236 237 238 239 240 241 242 243 244 245 246 247 248 249 250 251 252 253 254 255 256 257 258 259 260 261 262 263 264 265 266 267 268 269 270 271 272 273 274 275 276 277 278 279 280 281 282 283 284 285 286 287 288 289 290 291 292 293 294 295 296 297 298 299 300 301 302 303 304 305 306 307 308 309 310 311 312 313 314 315 316 317 318 319 320 321 322 323 324 325 326 327 328 329 330 331 332 333 334 335 336 337 338 339 340 341 342 343 344 345 346 347 348 349 350 351 352 353 354 355 356 357 358 359 360 361 362 363 364 365 366 367 368 369 370 371 372 373 374 375 376 377 378 379 380 381 382 383 384 385 386 387 388 389 390 391 392 393 394 395 396 397 398 399 400 401 402 403 404 405 406 407 408 409 410 411 412 413 414 415 416 Next → |
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