h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

So then, who's going to bother watching it?

I might as well, got a few beers in and there's nothing else on TV. Watching Gattuso eat Mascherano should be amusing, and Harry Kewell's comedy cameos are always worth tuning in for.

Milan 1 - 0 Liverpool anyone?

I put something in my journal about this. But in a nutshell, Liverpool are Satan's own team, and "Special Dispensation FC" will fluke another win. Alan Green will spontaneuously combust, the media will fawn sycophantically over them for weeks, and spin a flukey win into some kind of triumph, and lots of plastic Liverpool "fans" will emerge from nowhere for a few weeks, only to vanish again.

I hope I'm wrong, but I think they'll be dancing in the streets of Truro tonight.....

I'm going 2-0 against Liverpool.

B

I never thought I'd say this, but I hope B's right. I just think that Milan midfield are on a completely different planet to Liverpool's. I mean when pundits are talking about Kewell and Maschereno as potential match winners you /know/ that Gerrard's going to be carrying the team again.

Forza Milano!!!

And now Benitez's tactical coup of playing your best midfielder as a second striker. I do hope he plays as well there as he did for England before the World Cup.

If hoofing it out for a goal kick is going to result in "nearly a goal!" from Clive every time it happens, I may kill myself.

How many mascots do they really need for these games. And what's the idea of having three of them for the referees all dressed up in mini-referee kits. Very odd...

Before the game I was neutral - but now I want Milan to stuff them just to shut that smug commentator up. If he was to be believed, Liverpool winning is a manifest destiny and Milan are just there to make up the numbers.

I love flukey goals. I do...

Like all Champions League games when one of 'our' sides loses, I feel mildly dissatisfied yet strangely emotionless.

Did you see Berlusconi pocketing a medal?

That'll be on e-bay tomorrow

Like all Champions League games when one of 'our' sides loses, I feel a sense of unbridled mirth. Ha ha.

I'm pleased with the result, not just because I'm an Evertonian, but because I like Milan as a team, and Paolo Maldini is my all time favourite non-Everton footballer.

But I have to say, Liverpool were very graceful in defeat-something increasingly rare in top-level football.

It seems that the Liverpool website got a bit ahead of itself with tonight's result! Sums them up, really....

http://www.ole.com.ar/notas/2007/05/23/um/01424333.html

Ooops, someone pushed the wrong button

I suppose it's easy enough to do. It's a bit like all the pre-prepared obituaries for the great and the good that all the newspapers have got on file. There is the potential for an embarrassing error waiting just around the corner.

Still, I'm pleased that Milan won

"pundits are talking about Kewell and Maschereno as potential match winners"...

most recreational drugs i have nothing against, but for that kind of stuff? JUST SAY NO!

"Forza Milano!!!
"Like all Champions League games when one of 'our' sides loses, I feel a sense of unbridled mirth."

strange... i have to say that i consider english fans the very best in the world, but i know that every fan in france would be behind any french team 100%. when lille lost to MU, i was crushed and so were all my fellow lyonnais.

"But I have to say, Liverpool were very graceful in defeat-something increasingly rare in top-level football."

graceful? the only one that traded shirts was seedorf. i found them pouty and classless, especially SG.

my reaction? regrets. because looking at the often inept rossoneri beat the terminally uninspired scousers, all i could only think of was how big a new OL would have torn either of them. yards wide.




kewell a match winner... crisp that...

Why are we only luke warm at best in our support of the English team in the competition?

Well I guess that it's a manifestation of our club v country situation. We are far more concerned about the successes and failures of our clubs, and view the success or failure of the national team as a side show. Therefore when it comes to an international 'club' competition our club prejudices outweigh the 'international' nature of the match.

ie why should I support the Red Scum just because they are from the same country as me.

Well, I'd always be happy to support Arsenal in the Champions League and all of our UEFA Cup teams. I wouldn't neccesarily wish defeat on Chelsea or Man Utd, but for me, Liverpool are a different case.

As someone put it on an Everton forum earlier this week, the thing with Liverpool is that their fans and the media portray them as the bestestest club ever with the bestestest fans and the bestestest history when they're winning - and brave, plucky, little underdogs when they lose. Without seeing any contradiction between the two.

"Alan Green, Mark Lawrensen, Alan Hansen, Jimmy Tarbuck, Michael Howard.... your boys took one hello of a beating!"

I was delighted Liverpool lost. Not because they're English, or because of Clive effing T*****y, but because having them as European champions twice in three years would be a travesty. Milan are hardly what they were either, but at least they play proper football.

I hate the way Liverpool play, all percentages, power, bodies behind the ball, and general stifling negativity. SG is the only one worth watching, and Benitez doesn't even play him in his best position because defending is more important than attacking. It sums his philosophy up totally. Maybe if enough power teams lose, then we'll see more teams built on flair.

Athleticism is hugely important in football today, but you only have to look at Arsenal to see how that can be used to enhance it as a spectacle, when it's allied to flair and an attacking philosophy. Benitez uses athleticism to smother other teams, he's all about denying space and doubling up.

Shit hanging from a stick, indeed.