Referee Herbert Fandel (Germany) who’s in charge of tonight’s CL final will be faced with different emotions from both sides fans.
He was in charge last for the Reds when they went 0-1 down to Barca at home in this campaign’s round of 16. Previously, he officiated 2 other games for them, one last season against Chelsea in the Bridge (ended 0-0) and the other 4 seasons ago when they lost 0-2 to Valencia.
This means that Liverpool have yet to score when Mr Fandel in at the center of the field.
On contrary, this gentleman was in charge in 5 games for Milan, the latest of which was the group stage home game vs. Anderlecht in which Milan came on top with a 4-1 scoreline. Earlier he was the ref in a 1-0 home win over Man Utd 2 seasons ago, a 1-0 victory over Shakhtar the year before, and yet another 1-0 win over Club Brugge in 2003.
His first game officiating a game involving Milan was in 2002 and they won 2-0 over Hapoel tel Aviv.
The oppointment of Fandel to officiate this game sent the Italian fans on an overwhelming optimistic wave, as we all know the Italians believe much in omens, so I had to defuse this one before it spread further.
Whom did Milan play under Fandel? Man U? We all know Man U doesn’t know how to play Italian teams, and especially Milan. They don’t even play well in Europe to begin with.
Shakhtar? That was 2 seasons ago, when Shakhtar didn’t have any experience in Europe.
Anderlecht & Club Brugge? Both Belgian clubs are mediocre teams at best.
Hapoel? Come on… do I even need to comment on this one?
Liverpool under him lost to Barca.. and they qualified on aggregate. They drew away to Chelsea, and qualified on aggregate. The only time they got knocked out was when they met with Valencia, and they even lost at home as well, so it must’ve had nothing to do with him!
The two teams have met only once before, and it was in 2005 CL final. Almost every soccer fan remembers Milan were 3-0 up at half time and were swept off the filed in the brackets of 6 minutes to find themselves playing a penalty shoot out which they lost.
Domestically, Liverpool finished 3rd in EPL, and Milan is likely to finish 4th in Serie A.
20-8-10 is Liverpool’s record in EPL, while Milan’s in Serie A is 19-12-6 with 1 game remaining.
Liverpool scored 57 goals and conceded 27, while Milan scored 55 and conceded 31.
Liverpool averages a goal scored every 60 minutes, and a goal conceded every 127 minutes, while Milan score every 58 minutes in average and concede every 95 minutes.
The stats are so close, but I have to point out that EPL is a bit more competitive than Serie A.
Now let’s see how they fare in this CL campaign in particular:
Liverpool would stand atop on the overall hypothetical table with 8 wins, 1 draw & 3 losses, having scored 18 and conceded 8, and managing 7 clean sheets from 12 games. They failed to score on 3 occasions (25%)
Milan would stand 4th on that table, managing a 6-3-3 record, scoring 18 and conceding 9, and have also managed 7 clean sheets. The have failed to score on 4 occasions (33%)
Even the teams they had to meet on their way to Athens seem closely matched, with Liverpool disposing of Chelsea in the semi-final, and Milan overcoming Man Utd.
Earlier, Liverpool topped their group of Bordeaux, PSV & Galatsaray, then knocked out Barca & PSV (again), while Milan topped their group of AEK, Lille & Anderlecht, then knocked out Celtic & Bayern, and while Milan had a “cesarian” laboured win over Celtin in the extra time after drawing goalless on both legs, Liverpool took it a step further against Chelsea and had to reach a penalty shoot out to reach this final.
Everything seems so equal so far that one can hardly separate the two. In fact, based on the above I would suspect the draw should be priced at evens, with either
party winning priced at around 3.00
We will need to “guess” how both coaches will approach this game if we are to place a bet on a different outcome (other than the draw in the original 90 minutes)
Both managers always seem to force their own style and pace on the games of their respective teams.
But while Ancellotti plays almost always with the same plan, and only switches players roles within the same overall dynamics, Benitez seems to put a different plan for each game, depending on the opponents style of play. (Kind of, reacting rather than initiating the action). So, in short, Benitez IMHO is more flexible.
Milan plays a 4-5-1 formation. If they are to attack they play Ambrosini as their “pivot” with Gattuso as the midfield defender who’s main role is to stop opponents from building their attacks.
Pirlo becomes the play maker, with Kaka & Seedorf forming the base of a striking triangle, with Inzaghi (or Giladino) at the top of the triangle.
The main action here is for Pirlo to send long passes to Kaka, whose pace and talent allow him to elude his marker. Kaka also gets the freedom to fall back leaving Seedorf alone in what looks like a 4-4-1-1 formation for Kaka to collect the ball and dribble his way forward.
If Milan should dfend, however, Pirlo takes over Ambrosini’s role as the centre pivot, while the latter marks the opponents play maker, and Gattuso also turns into a marker, with Seedorf falling back in what would look like a 4-3-1-2 formation, with Kaka playing alongside Inzaghi.
Benitez –as I said- has a different plot for each game. He played Barca with the X-mas tree formation (4-3-2-1) with Kuyt as the lone striker.
When he turned into an attacking mode, Bellamy joined Kuyt upfront, while Gerrad went to the right side.
Against Chelsea, however, he played a classic 4-4-2 formation, which gave Gerrad more of the defending load. The flanks (Pennant on the right, and Riise/Zenden on the left) would send crosses, and in this case Peter Crouch is likely to be alongside Kuyt as he was against Chelsea (2nd leg) and managed to hit the bar once, and Cech stopped a certain goal on another accasion with the ball chosing to stand still between his feet.
Seeing as to how Liverpool (overall) look the younger team, Milan will have to attack at 1st, in an attempt to take an early lead. Liverpool would be expected to defend first, making sure they maintain a clean sheet, and while the Milan will start to fall back and slow down, Liverpool will try to take the initiative from that point and come forward, but not forgetting to keep it tight at the back, lest they get hit by a speedy counter attack.
2 years ago Hamann did the trick as he came on from the bench. He’s no longer a Liverpool player, so one will have to look for some other Liverpool man-of-the match. Finnan, Carragher, Riise, Gerrad & Alonso are the ones from that final that are expected to feature on this one, with Hyypia watching from the bench this time. Kewell is injured, Baros, Cisse, Traore Luis Garcia & Smicer have also left the team.
The new faces of Reina under the bar, with Agger, Mascherano, Zenden, Bellamy & Kuyt are likely to feature tonight, with Arbeloa, Gonzalez, Crouch, Fowler & Pennant available on the bench.
In Milan; Dida, Nesta, Maldini, Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf & Kaka are the old faces, with Cafu on the bench. New faces may include influential duo Oddo & Ambrosini, with Inzaghi, Jankulovski, Favalli, Gilardino, Kaladze, Kalac, Bonera & Brocchi.
The big names of Stam, Crespo, Sheva, Tomasson, Rui Costa & Serginho have all left the team.
This means the Reds have improved on both their man under the bar and the defence line before him, while gained strength in their midfield and Kaka is a whole different player than he was in 2005.
Kuyt, Crouch & Bellamy are obviously no match to a Cisse-Baros duo upfront, but it could be argued that Kuyt’s pace and continuous running could be the key to exhausting the older guys in Milan’s defence.
Finally; It will be a farce if Milan managed to win the title. A team that should’ve been excluded/banned at the beginning of the season, re-joins threw an appeal, eventhough they HAVE BEEN found guilty of CHEATING, then they go all the way to win the trophy! Simply pathetic from a pure ethical point of view.
Champions League final AC Milan v Liverpool 23rd May
, was hoping to get a feel for this but nothing happening in the 1X2 district..
