2007 UEFA Champions League Final
The 2007 UEFA Champions League Final was a football match played at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece on 23 May 2007, to decide the winner of the 2006–07 UEFA Champions League. Italian club Milan faced England's Liverpool; the same two teams that had contested the 2005 final. Milan won the match 2–1, after two goals by Filippo Inzaghi.
Before 2007, Milan's last triumph had been in the 2003 final, while Liverpool's was against Milan in the 2005 final. Liverpool and Milan started their UEFA Champions League campaigns in the Third Qualifying round; both sides progressed to the group stages and won their respective groups. Liverpool and Milan beat former champions on their way to the final. Milan beat 1967 champions Celtic, four-time champions Bayern Munich, and 1968 and 1999 winners Manchester United. Liverpool beat defending champions Barcelona and 1988 winners PSV Eindhoven. Liverpool also beat Chelsea in the semi-final stage for the second time in three years.
Before the match there were ticketing problems because a large number of fans gained entry to the stadium without valid tickets. After the match, a UEFA spokesman accused Liverpool of having the worst fans in Europe, a claim later denied by UEFA president Michel Platini.
Route to the final
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Teams qualified for the Champions League group stage, either directly or through three preliminary rounds, based on both their position in the preceding domestic league season and the relative strength of that league based on itsUEFA coefficient.[1][2] Both Liverpool and Milan entered the competition in the third and final preliminary round: Liverpool by finishing third in the FA Premier League 2005–06, Milan by finishing third in Serie A 2005–06.[3] Milan had originally finished second in Serie A, but were deducted 30 points for their part in a match-fixing scandal.[4][3] The original punishment, reduced on appeal, would have barred them from the Champions League altogether.[4] The group stages were contested as eight double round robin groups of four teams, the top two qualifying for the knockout stages.[5] Knockout ties were decided based on home and away matches, with the away goals rule, extra time and penalty shootouts as tiebreakers if needed.[6]
Problems before the match
Out of 63,800 tickets, only 9,000 tickets for the final went on general sale; the remainder were shared between the two teams, who got 17,000 each, and the UEFA family and sponsors, who received 20,800 tickets.[13][14] This led to some of the problems before the match.[15] While fans were still queuing to gain entry to the stadium, the Greek police informed them that the stadium was full and denied entry to a number of fans who had genuine tickets.[16] UEFA sources said that as many as 5,000 fans either without tickets or brandishing fakes had entered the 74,000-capacity Olympic Stadium. Simultaneously, thousands of fans with genuine tickets were refused entry as police closed the entrance to the ground amid fears that allowing any more to enter could have led to a disaster.[17] The resulting situation became disorderly, with some Liverpool fans attempting to break through checkpoints, set up by the Greek police. Greek riot police used tear gas and batons to disperse the crowd.[16] UEFA spokesman William Gaillard blamed Liverpool fans for causing the problems, stating, "Milan supporters didn't face the same problems because they didn't behave in the same way".[18] A UEFA report released soon after the final branded Liverpool supporters "the worst fans in Europe", with Gaillard stating: "What other set of fans steal tickets from their fellow supporters or out of the hands of children?"[19] However, UEFA President Michel Platini later denied that Liverpool fans were the worst behaved in Europe.[20] UEFA was itself criticised for poor ticket-checking procedures and for implementing insufficient measures to deal with the large number of fans. Simon Gass, the British ambassador to Greece, said, "Clearly there was some element of breakdown where those fake tickets appeared to be legitimate - that's something UEFA must look at."[21] Meanwhile, Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks described UEFA's allocation of 17,000 tickets to each team, knowing that Liverpool would be bringing 40,000 supporters, as "insane" and accused Gaillard of blaming Liverpool fans in order to cover up for his own mistakes.[15] UEFA was further criticised by Milan and Liverpool for their lack of provision for the clubs' disabled fans, providing the clubs with only sixteen disabled tickets each.[22]
Match ball
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For more details on this topic, see Adidas Finale.
Adidas, the official match ball supplier to all major UEFA, FIFA and IOC tournaments, unveiled the official match ball for the 2007 UEFA Champions League final on 9 March 2007 presenting the Adidas Finale Athens. The design of the Adidas Finale Athens was based on the widely recognisable UEFA Champions League Starball logo and was blue and white, representing the colours of the Greek national flag.[23]
Match summary
Opening ceremony from Gate 31
The final matched two of the top goal-scorers in the competition that season. Milan's Kaká finished on top of the scoring charts with ten goals, and Liverpool's Peter Crouch entered the game tied for third with six goals in total.[24]
Milan chose to wear their all-white strip for the final, despite being drawn as the "home" team for the match. They considered the kit to be lucky (Italian: maglia fortunata), having won the European Cup five times in this kit. However, Milan had lost finals wearing this kit twice, most recently against Liverpool in 2005. [25] This decision by Milan meant that Liverpool played the final in their traditional home kit of red shirts, red shorts and red socks. Each of Liverpool's five European Cup titles were won in their all-red strip, and two of these came when they were playing against Italian teams who played in all-white.[26]
Milan fielded the oldest starting eleven ever in a Champions League final, with the average age at 31 years, 34 days, while Paolo Maldini was the oldest outfield player ever in a final at 38 years and 331 days.[27] Liverpool fielded five of the players that started the 2005 final, those players were; Xabi Alonso, Jamie Carragher, Steve Finnan, Steven Gerrard and John Arne Riise.[28]
The British bookmaker Ladbrokes offered odds on a repeat of the 2005 Champions League Final, 3–0 to Milan at half-time, 3–3 at the end of normal time and Liverpool to win on penalties, of 2007-1.[29]
First half
The Olympic Stadium in Athens, venue of the Final
The first half started off scrappily, as a number of fouls were given away in the early minutes. The first meaningful effort on goal came in the ninth minute when Jermaine Pennant dispossessed Marek Jankulovski, putting himself through on goal, but his scuffed shot was saved by Dida. Milan fought back with Pirlo coming close to putting Inzaghi through on goal, Pepe Reina saved a Kaká shot on 17 minutes. In the following minutes both John Arne Riise and Xabi Alonso missed the target with shots from distance, while Massimo Oddo and Marek Jankulovski were causing problems down the flanks. In the 35th minute, Pennant once again broke away down the right after stealing the ball off Paolo Maldini, and put in a good ball for Kuyt, whose shot was blocked. Unlike the previous encounter in 2005, however, the first half had only one goal, scored against the run of play by Milan's forward Filippo Inzaghi. The goal came in the 45th minute after a deflection from an Andrea Pirlo free kick, given after Alonso had brought down Kaká. The deflection resulted in the ball being diverted past Liverpool goalkeeper Pepe Reina, who had dived the other way in anticipation of the ball's original trajectory.[28] Replays showed that the ball struck Inzaghi's upper arm on its way to the goal, however the referee did not judge this to have been a handball.[30] Inzaghi later said that while the deflection was intended, he did not intend for the ball to hit his arm.[31]
Second half
Liverpool played cautiously immediately after the break, although they continued to hold the majority of possession. In the 62nd minute, Liverpool created their best chance of the match up to that point, as captain Steven Gerrard capitalised on Gennaro Gattuso's error to burst through one-on-one with Dida, but was unable to muster enough power in his shot to beat the Milan goalkeeper. The game continued in the same pattern with the action concentrated in the Milan half, with Liverpool unable to fashion any real goal-scoring efforts. Liverpool manager Rafael Benítez then took off Javier Mascherano, to be replaced by striker Peter Crouch, in an attempt to equalise.[28] However, Mascherano was marking Kaká, and his removal allowed the Brazilian to run free without being heavily marked. Milan then put the game beyond the English side in the 82nd minute when Inzaghi beat the offside trap via a pass from Kaká and put the ball under the onrushing Pepe Reina to make the score 2–0. Dirk Kuyt gave Liverpool hope as he headed in an 89th-minute goal from Daniel Agger's flick-on from a corner kick, albeit from an offside position, but Milan held on, and the game finished 2–1.[28]
Post-match
AC Milan players celebrate with the trophy
The trophy was presented to Milan captain Paolo Maldini in the Guest of Honour's box, as UEFA President Michel Platini favoured a return to the past tradition of the winning captain receiving the trophy amongst the fans. It had become customary in recent years to have the presentation on a hastily constructed podium in the centre of the pitch. This was the first time that the trophy was presented to a winning captain by a UEFA president who had actually played against him in the past; during Michel Platini's final seasons with Juventus, the then-teenager Paolo Maldini was making his professional debut with Milan.[26]
Match details
Statistics
First half
|
Milan |
Liverpool |
| Goals scored |
1 |
0 |
| Total shots |
2 |
5 |
| Shots on target |
2 |
1 |
| Ball possession |
58% |
42% |
| Corner kicks |
1 |
1 |
| Fouls committed |
6 |
16 |
| Offsides |
1 |
2 |
| Yellow cards |
1 |
0 |
| Red cards |
0 |
0 |
Second half
|
Milan |
Liverpool |
| Goals scored |
1 |
1 |
| Total shots |
3 |
7 |
| Shots on target |
1 |
3 |
| Ball possession |
47% |
53% |
| Corner kicks |
3 |
5 |
| Fouls committed |
8 |
10 |
| Offsides |
2 |
1 |
| Yellow cards |
1 |
2 |
| Red cards |
0 |
0 |
Overall
|
Milan |
Liverpool |
| Goals scored |
2 |
1 |
| Total shots |
5 |
12 |
| Shots on target |
3 |
4 |
| Ball possession |
53% |
47% |
| Corner kicks |
4 |
6 |
| Fouls committed |
14 |
26 |
| Offsides |
3 |
3 |
| Yellow cards |
2 |
2 |
| Red cards |
0 |
0 |
See also
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