Champions League Betting Odds Preview And Tips
AC Milan and Liverpool meet in Wednesday night's Champions League showdown for a re-run of the 2005 final.
The encounter in Athens will struggle to live up to its predecessor, which saw Liverpool amaze Milan by overturning a 3-0 halftime deficit, eventually winning on penalties.
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The desire for retribution spurred the Rossoneri to knock out premiership Champions Man Utd in their semi-final second leg with a master class of soccer at the San Siro led by Brazilian, Kaka, dashing hopes of a first ever all Premiership final. Milan are now favourites with Pinnacle Sports to lift the trophy priced 1.658, but can Liverpool at 2.420 repeat the Italian job?
Both managers know what it takes to lift the European Cup. Rafa Benitez was of course in charge of Liverpool on that fateful night in Istanbul in 2005, when his opposite number, Carlo Ancelotti, watched in amazement as his side relinquished a three goal half-time lead to a Steven Gerrard inspired Liverpool come-back. Ancelotti will have better memories of Old Trafford in 2003 when Milan won an all-Italian Champions League final against Juventus, also on spot-kicks, and of 1990 when he was part of the winning Rossoneri side that beat Benfica 1-0 in Vienna.
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Were Milan to succeed in the final it would mark an amazing turnaround in fortunes for the Italian giants. The original judgements of last summer's Italian match-fixing scandal handed AC a 15 point Serie A deduction and banned them from participation in this competition. After an appeal the points handicap was reduced to eight and their Champions League exclusion was lifted, opening the road to the final. Despite the reprieve, the 2003 winners began both their domestic and European campaigns poorly, but have improved immeasurably since the turn of the year. The form of Kaka has been integral, the Brazilian leads the Champions League scoring charts with 10 goals, while Ancelotti's deployment of Dutch midfielder, Clarence Seedorf, in a much more advanced position has been paying real dividends. Milan have lost just once in 13 games are now exuding the kind of confidence that has taken the club to ten previous European Cup finals.
Liverpool's challenge is to match Milan's desire for revenge with their own conviction to repeat the success in Istanbul. Their travelling fans played a huge role that night and will again inspire their heroes to greater efforts. Benitez will have paid close attention to the speed with which Milan attacked United at the San Siro, and guard against a similar onslaught. One common criticism of the Reds is that at times their build-up play can be deliberate, particularly if Gerrard is muted. The Liverpool captain will have to shake of the attention of the bearded Gennaro Gattuso who will be his shadow for 90 minutes, just one element of what promises to be a fascinating final.
