adiman

"I think that final was the best match this [AC] Milan side have ever played. Compared with the one against Juventus and against Liverpool [FC] in Athens, this one was way more spectacular, more beautiful, more exciting." Carlo Ancelotti recalls the pain of defeat on penalties to Liverpool in Istanbul in 2005. Video from uefa.com

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It looks like a training kit in every way. I was surprised sunderland weren't playing in day-glo bibs to coomplete the impression.

Athens match off but Super Cup on for now

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before the grouo stages its up to the home team to sell the rights and hence set the kick-off time

haven't seen enough of him to be honest to pass a verdict, just reporting what i was told. look forward to seeing him up to full speed as remember he started pre-season a little later than most of the squad due to the under-21s

Going back to Babel. I heard from one of Dutch coaches at Under-21 C'ship that they felt he had had bad coaching early in his career and had been working on fixing his shooting. Said his shooting stance and technique was all wrong and they had to teach him from scratch

For Hels Slavia draw and Vladi pic Smicer story

Draw details Bring on Zurich!!

I wish we had the bottle and big.game mentality to score in vital penalty shootouts

Have seen some small pictures. Looks great but hard to see any great detail yet but very different.

He was the best player for me against Auxerre. Always looked comfortable on the ball and likely to make something happen. I'd imagine gerrard will love playing with him

Good point. Heard he is a nice lad in any case. BTW there was a banner at the match from some local Italian fans with the date of Heysel and We don't forget written in Italian. Not sure amny associated with Liverpool noticed it though

I had press access. Wasn't the most talkative. Not too many stopped to talk as there was a mini-stampede of local kids. Torres told me in English that he doesn't speak English when I asked if he could speak to me.

I was at the game and it wasn't that bad really. Thed first have was pretty boring with the pace slow because it was very hot - 28 degrees in direct sunshine - but one thing i noticed compared to the pre-season games I was at in Switzerland last season is how much further along the players are this pre-season. Maybe soemthing to do with no major tournament but they werecertainly more tuned in, and there were no silly mistakes at the back. That was a factor in our bad start last year as we kept on making individual mistakes at the back in the first few games. Gerrard was on top form, a few stray passes aside, but Benayoun weas the best player on show. we really is very skillful with great close control. Played well on both wings. Babel was not as effective. He was off the pace and he told me afterwards that he's a few weeks behind the others because of late finish to season due to under-21s. Given the Henry comparisons I expected him to be lithe and quick but he was much more muscular. Started on left, then on right and had a little spell in the middle too. Vorinin seems to be like a Kuyt clone and I hope we don't see them playing together too often. Didn't do a whole lot but I suppose on Tuesday he showed he can poach when the chances arise. Mihailov looked a little nervous but didnt do much wrong. Apparently he failed a medical and hasn't got a work permit yet but all will be sorted out. Torres also seems a little bit behind in fitness and it didn't quite happen for him on the day. However, i liked what I saw. He definitely gives us soemthing different as he plays on the shoulder of the defender and always looks to get in behind with pace. But he can also come short and give and go and could open up a few defences with one-twos and wall passes and is not afraid to get involved in the build-up..but not too much either. He was denied a debut goal by a fine save a few minutes from the end. Otherwise, I was impressed my some of our short passing and the Gerrard goal was a peach. It was the first time I've seen Nabil El Zhar and he was excellent. Did everything you want a winger to do and was always looking to get a cross in. Very pacy and has the skills to beat a defender. He is small but put in a wonderful Garciaesque header that was brilliantly saved. He then raced to get Pennant to take the subsequent corner and floated an excellent cross for Agger to score.

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