Final - 23 May 2007 20:45 (CET) - OACA Spyro Louis - Athens
Milan
HistoryThe club was founded in 1899 under the name of Milan Cricket and Football club, and the first official headquarters was the Fiaschetteria Toscana of Via Breschet. The first President was Mr. Edwards, who was partnered by Alfred Kipling who chose the official club colours. On the 4th of April 1900 the first official match was played, a 3-0 defeat against the Torinese. The following year the first Scudetto was won, followed by two others in 1906 and 1907, years in which the Cricket part was removed from the name of the team. In the 1940s the team took the definite name of AC Milan, but it was in the 1950s that the team returned to winning ways thanks to the purchases of players such as Liedhol, Gren and Nordhal. In the following decade two more affirmations arrived, which brought other important signatures like those of Schiaffino, Altafini, Rivera and leader Nereo Rocco. Also at international level great successes arrived, such as on the 22nd of May 1963, when Milan won the Champions Cup in London. These were also the years of Rivera, who became the undisputable leader and flag of the team. The results of the 1970s were less brilliant, but the worst moment in the rossoneri’s history arrived in 1980, when the club was involved in the ‘totonero’ scandal and relegated to Serie B. President Colombo was banned for life, leaving his position to Morazzoni, who immediately took the team back to Serie A. The return was not a happy one, and a 14th place finish relegated the rossoneri once again. The club fell in the hands of another owner, Farina, who took Milan back to Serie A and helped them to stay in the top positions of the league, but the definite change arrived in 1986, when the club was bought by Silvio Berlusconi, who in the next twenty years built one of the most successful teams in the history of football. There was the Sacchi cycle, the arrival of Gullit, Rijkaard and Van Basten, the domestic and international victories, and then the arrival of Capello who continued from where his predecessor had left off, taking Milan to the top of the world. Zaccheroni, who won the tricolore in his first season, and then Ancelotti, able to win the Champions League and a Scudetto in two years, gave continuity to the team.
Notes
Some big names have joined the team that already had some of the best players in the world in key positions. AC Milan this year look like a big machine ready to repeat the success of the last two years. It seems that the rossoneri won"t be satisfied with domestic domination, they want to build an invincible image all over the world and become a brand name like Real Madrid and Manchester United. Globalisation has always been on Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi schedule in the past years and it makes perfect sense. For this reason victories are not enough, the points have to come along with entertaining performances by world class players. SEASON GOAL: AC Milan don"t want to win. They want to dominate all their opponents. It"s difficult to believe that somebody at the club will set their mind on a particular trophy and back off another one. The team was already full of great players in each position and now Stam, Dhorasoo and Crespo have joined the club making this line up the best in years. The problems came last year when the players failed to keep the hard work rate up and they lost against Boca Juniors and Deportivo La Coruna. This season the manager will be able to always have a completely fit and high class starting line up in order to avoid these mistakes.
LIVERPOOL
HISTORY
Steven Gerrard lifting the European Cup in 2005
Fans on the Kop hold aloft the team badgeLiverpool F.C. were founded by John Houlding in 1892 to play in his Anfield stadium. For the previous seven years the stadium had been used by Everton F.C.. However, in 1891, Houlding, the leaseholder of Anfield, purchased the ground outright and proposed increasing the rent from £100 to £250 a year. The Everton members objected, left Anfield and moved to Goodison Park. With an empty ground and just three players remaining, Houlding decided to form his own football club and on 15 March 1892, Liverpool Football Club was born. The original name was to be Everton F.C. and Athletic Grounds, Ltd., or Everton Athletic for short, but was changed to Liverpool F.C. when The Football Association refused to recognise the team as Everton. John McKenna was appointed director and signed thirteen Scottish professionals for the new club. Liverpool were elected to the Football League Second Division for the 1893–94 season. They ended the season unbeaten as Second Division Champions, and were promoted to the First Division. In 1901, Liverpool won their first Football League championship; a feat that was repeated in 1906. They played their first FA Cup final in 1914, but lost 1-0 to Burnley. Contrary to some popular opinion, Liverpool F.C. has strong roots in Protestantism rather than Catholicism. Several of the clubs early directors were connected to the Orange Order, including founder John Houlding and John McKenna. Liverpool F.C. also had strong connections to the Working Men's Conservative Association (WMCA), the political expression of the Liverpool Protestant Association. [7]
In 1922 and 1923 Liverpool won their first back-to-back League titles, captained by England full-back Ephraim Longworth. This was to be followed by the longest barren spell in the club's history. Post-war Liverpool seemed to have recovered when in 1947 they became Champions once again, but it proved to be a false dawn, and in 1954 Liverpool were relegated. Between 1954 and 1962 the team languished in the Second division and had no success in the FA Cup. Liverpool's record league defeat, 9-1 to Birmingham City, came in December 1954.
Bill Shankly was appointed manager in December 1959. Over the next fifteen years he transformed Liverpool into one of the top club sides in Europe. Within his first year, he released twenty-four players and rebuilt the team. In his third season as manager, Liverpool won the Second Division Championship by eight points and were promoted to the top division, where they have remained ever since.
Having started the 1960s in the Second division, Liverpool would end that decade as a major domestic power. In 1964, Liverpool lifted the League Championship for the first time in seventeen years. They were League Champions again in 1966, having won their first ever FA Cup in the previous season, beating Leeds United 2-1 in the final. Liverpool won their eighth league title and defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach to win their first European trophy, the UEFA Cup, in 1973. However, a year later, after another FA Cup victory, Shankly retired. His assistant, Bob Paisley, was offered the chance to manage the team.
Paisley became one of the most successful managers in the history of football. In the nine seasons he managed the club, Liverpool would win a total of twenty-one trophies, including three European Cups, a UEFA Cup, six league titles and three consecutive League Cups.
Liverpool's first European Cup was won in 1977. The final was played in Rome, and Liverpool defeated Borussia Mönchengladbach 3-1. The next year Liverpool retained the trophy, beating Club Brugge 1-0 in the European Cup final at Wembley, and in 1979 the club broke another record winning the league title with sixty-eight points and only sixteen goals conceded in forty-two matches. Paisley's third and last European Cup victory came in 1981 with a 1-0 victory in the final over Real Madrid. Only one domestic trophy eluded him - the FA Cup.
The succession of winning managers appointed from within the club's staff is worthy of note. These managers are often referred to as "the boot room boys" after a part of Anfield where the Liverpool staff discussed strategy and allegedly stored gin[8]. Just as Shankly had been succeeded by Paisley, so too did Paisley hand over the reins to his assistant, veteran coach Joe Fagan. He was aged 63 when he became manager in 1983. In his first season in charge, Liverpool become the first English club to win three major trophies in a single season — the League title, the League Cup and the European Cup. However Fagan's reign ended with tragedy the following season. In 1985 Liverpool again reached the European Cup final. The match was against Juventus and was to be played at Heysel Stadium but, before kick-off, disaster struck. Liverpool fans breached a fence separating the two groups of supporters and charged the Juventus fans. The resulting weight of people caused a retaining wall to collapse, killing thirty-nine fans, mostly Italians. The match was played regardless and Liverpool lost 1-0 to Juventus. All English clubs were consequently banned from participating in European competition for five years with Liverpool receiving a ban for ten years (later reduced to six), whilst fourteen of their fans received convictions for involuntary manslaughter. The event is known as the Heysel Stadium disaster.
In 1985 Kenny Dalglish, already regarded as one of Liverpool's greatest players, became Liverpool's first player-manager. His reign would see the club win another three League Championships and two FA Cups including a league and cup double in 1985–86. However, Liverpool's successes were overshadowed by the Hillsborough disaster. On 15 April 1989, when Liverpool were playing Nottingham Forest in an FA Cup semi-final, hundreds of Liverpool fans were crushed against perimeter fencing.[5] Ninety-four fans died that day and a ninety-fifth fan died in hospital from his injuries four days later. A ninety-sixth fan died nearly four years later never having regained consciousness. The Taylor Report later ruled that the main reasons for the disaster were overcrowding due to a failure of police control.[9]
1992 saw Graeme Souness installed as manager. However, apart from an FA Cup win in his first year, his reign was not successful. After a shock exit from the FA Cup at the hands of Bristol City at Anfield, "Boot room" veteran Roy Evans took over. While his tenure saw some improvement in league form, in five seasons the club never finished higher than third. His only trophy win was the 1995 League Cup. Gérard Houllier, the former French national coach, was drafted into the Liverpool management team for the 1998-99 season to work alongside Roy Evans, but the partnership didn't work out and Evans resigned part way through the season.
2000–01 was Liverpool's best season for many years as the team completed a unique treble of the FA Cup, League Cup and UEFA Cup. They finished second in 2002, a year in which Houllier suffered a heart attack during a match with Leeds and had to undergo major heart surgery. Liverpool looked like becoming a force in English Football once again, but Houllier would only win one more trophy in his time in charge, another League Cup in 2003. Against a background of growing disquiet amongst Liverpool supporters, Houllier and Liverpool parted by mutual consent at the end of the 2003–04 season.
Spaniard Rafael Benítez took over and in his first season Liverpool finished a disappointing fifth in the Premier League. The season had a surprising ending, however, as Liverpool won their fifth European Cup final in Istanbul. The Reds met the heavily favoured Italian club A.C. Milan in an astonishing final. Liverpool trailed 3-0 at half time and looked much the poorer side over the first 45 minutes, but they made a dramatic comeback by scoring three goals in a period of only six minutes in the second half, forcing extra time. Liverpool went on to win the penalty shoot-out thanks to goalkeeper Jerzy Dudek.
In 2005–06 Liverpool gathered 82 points in the Premiership, their highest points total since 1988, and won the FA Cup in yet another dramatic final, this time against West Ham in which Liverpool trailed 3-2 until Captain Steven Gerrard fired home a goal from 35-yards out, as the PA system was announcing injury time. They also picked up the UEFA Super Cup in a 2-1 win over CSKA Moscow.
At the very start of the 2006-07 season, Liverpool beat Chelsea 2-1 to win the Community Shield, after Peter Crouch scored the winner.
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Final - 23 May 2007 [Milan vs Liverpool]
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