Lucky Liverpool again!!

How much do these European referees cost? I'm serious. To get Materazzi sent off for nothing in the first leg is one thing, but this Burdisso sending off is something else!

I'm not going to judge Inter Milan as a European force on the basis of these two games because it is totally unfair - in both matches they were unfairly reduced to 10 men. Inter were comfortable in both games up to the dismissals. It changed the whole dynamic of the tie.

Great finish by Torres, who's on a good run of form. I'm not going to get too excited about him yet though - he was up against Inter's second choice centre backs.

That's the 4 English teams through to the 1/4 finals now. Why are we starting to dominate the CL? I put it down to money and managers. Foreign teams like Porto, Valencia and Sevilla were working wonders in Europe but our clubs can pay them top dollar and hence the Jose's, Rafa's and Juande's come over here. Had Rafa and Juande stayed in Spain, I'd argue that Spain would have had the strongest quartet (Barca, Real, Valencia and Sevilla).

Money talks; managers deliver.

That damned Torres is doing an excellent season!

Johaldo8: I think you're right on some aspects, but I think the main key to it all is the style of football played in their respective leagues.

Spain and Italy clubs are used to having time on the ball and being able to pass it around with little pressure; but when they come up against an English side, that time on the ball is significantly reduced. (Yet, they still give the English side time on the ball, which makes them that much better.) It causes trouble to a lot of teams when they are not allowed to take it easy and pass it around looking for the right moment to attack the goal.

Italy deals with the pressure since they are more tactical in their approach. They'll sit back and soak in the pressure till they get their opportunity to go forward. This was very evident in the Arsenal v AC Milan matchup. Milan stayed back, took the pressure, counterattacked when given the opportunity, tracked back to soak up more pressure.

Spain clubs are not accustomed to playing ugly/physical football to grind out a win, which is usually needed when facing an English side. If you're getting manhandled, your chances of success is reduced. Spain plays with a lot of flair, great attacking wise, but with the lack of time on the ball, the flair tends to go away. Not to mention, they aren't put together in the back like Italy, so they don't have the ability to soak up pressure for 90 minutes.

Isn't a surprise to see so many english teams in the last rounds like in the last season because the premier is where there is clearly more money, the surprise is that english clubs aren't the clubs with more champions and uefas because if you see in every country the clubs with more money are who won more titles, then english clubs waste a lot of money.

As CFC said nobody was spouting that Inter were world beaters but at the same time we knew it'd be a tough 2 legs. You're comment on Liverpool not being the better side was laughable. What exactly did you want a side 2-0 up, playing away from home to do exactly? Go gung ho? all out attack? Inter did have their chances but that was expected, they where chasing the game. Liverpool did their job very well indeed & Nando killed them off at the end.

Its actually laughable how untrue this statement is in the first leg, yes. However, they were far from comfortable at the san siro as they were 2-0 down and had about half an hour or so to score 2 goals (whilst conceding none).

Congratulations Liverpool, another cracking result for an English team in the San Siro!

Inter weren't comfortable before Materazzi was sent-off. We were putting pressure on their back-four which played a part in Materazzi's dismissal, He didn't deserve to be sent-off though.

Back to last night, ive only seen the chances that Inter missed and the Torres goal so I can't comment too much but what a fine finish! His his technique for the turn and shot was beautiful! The defender did back-off slightly and paid dearly for it but who cares? We're through to the quarters now and want to avoid an English team, but I doubt we will though.

Well i have just got home from the San Siro and i don't know if we looked bad on tv, but let me tell you we were shocking, we couldn't defend, or attack, we couldn't ever boss midfield , we were awful, makes me wonder if we had a game plan ??.But we won so that was a bright note.

Didn't see much of Torres's goal as we were at the other end of the stadium, but that was just about the only good move of the hole game for us.

Shame about the red card another very harsh decision, i did feel for Inter at that point, good atmosphere in the ground from both sets of fans.

The funniest thing was the fact me and my sons went with some Italian buieness friends who are all AC fans, so at the end of the game i wasn't sure who was the happiest us or them.

But i have to say Inter were the better team on the night.

You in the right stadium lad? What game where you watching?

Unbelivable

Come on mate you have to face facts, we were out played, but we did just enough ..

Not really true. Sticky said they were the best in the world. Their domestic form certainly suggests they are world beaters - and the media purported them as such beforehand.



Ahh Crabster. You seem to be underestimating my thinking as incredibly simplistic - when i say we weren't the better side, i didn't mean because we didn't attack relentlessly, i meant because we were the worse side. Which we were. We were very sloppy throughout - our touch and passing was shocking and we struggled to retain possession, or carve chances out even when served on a platter (through Inter mistakes). Of course i don't expect us to go "gung ho", i'm not stupid. But you do have to exert your chosen gameplan expertly, regardless, if you want to base whether you go through on your own performance; as it happens, it wasn't based on our performance, it was based on the fact that Julio Cruz and Ibrahimovic are crap finishers (on the night). Our fragmented defensive line offered them 4 glorious chances to score, and that's not what you want at all when defending a 2 goal lead - 3 of them were as good as one-on-ones, whilst the other was from about 3 yards out. When defending and hitting on the counter-attack you need to be flawless in defence and offer them scraps, half-chances, not clear-cut chances to score their needed amount two times over. We played on very thin ice and you can't disagree that on another night it could have been oh so different. Also, we killed them off only after the sending off - that was the only point we looked composed, and even then they still had a couple of extremely good chances immediately after.

It was a decent performance indeed, but we certainly rode our luck - and that's not something you set out to rely on before the match has been played. It was in Inter's hands and they lost that tie, THAT'S why we were not the better team on the night.

It's neither.

Inter just didn't play to their best, and were unlucky to have lost Materazzi in the first leg. Maybe it could've been different, but then again, maybe not. Liverpool are superb in the Champions League, and seem to overcome almost anyone despite most predictions.


Inter were very, very, very unlucky to have two players sent off though.

I wouldnt call it an english domination yet. To dominate you gotta win it, and in last 20 years only two english teams won the CL, once each one, Man Utd and Liverpool. Come close but lose in the final isnt dominate

Oh god, the tripe people are spouting about Inter is unreal.

To judge them on two games is pathetic. Two games in which they got a player sent off in each.

Oh and Gobati, what you said takes the biscuit. You said Inter only won the league because they beat the lesser teams, but never the top teams.

What a joke that is. They've beaten Milan in the last 3 games against them. They've lost just once to a top 4 teams in Italy in the least two years. That was to Roma.




''Say what you like about the red card - Inter Milan up until our matches hadn't lost a match this season... They boasted that statistic not because they roll over and let teams win, regardless of sendings offs, but a team that is resolute, determined and solid. We scored 3 past them when they couldn't score 1; we deserved progression just as much as they did.''

Against us that was the same. Losing 3-0 on aggregate to Liverpool is no disgrace when you consider the decision that went against them, and effectively ended any chance of them winning the first game, and then overturning the deficit in the second one.

They were NOWHERE NEAR their best against us, but in the first leg they certainly were not bad. They were resolute, and were holding us for most of the game despite being a man down. Even when we scored it was quite lucky, as the ball deflected over the 'keeper.

Oh and people seem to forget the team Inter were forced to field against us in the second leg. They are quick to criticise them, but never say anything about them having to play their 5th and 6th best centre backs. FIFTH AND SIXTH!!!!

Imagine if we had to do that. It would be Hobbs and Arbeloa. We would have no chance. It would be even worse for Arsenal. I don't even know who their 6th choice centre back is, but he would play alongside either Sagna or Djourou (not sure which of the two is 5th choice).

Actually, Materazzi, Cordoba, Chivu and Samuel are ahead of them. They were Inter's 5th and 6th choice centre backs.


We were lucky. Who knows how it would've turned out if we weren't lucky, but at least we played really well in the first leg. If i was an Inter fan though i would be incredibly [beep!] off. Everything went wrong for them. The sending off's ruined it for them, they were missing centre backs, and Cruz and Ibrahimovic who have been so good for them this season, didn't perform.

Sticky, I disagree with you. I don't think Inter were such a great team. Same with Real Madrid
Being the first in your league doesn't mean there aren't teams somewhere else that can beat you with not many problems.

So you consider Milan a big team... in Italy Milan is nothing more than an average team, the only big teams in Italy at the moment are Inter and Roma. Inter beat us in the home game (but you have to consider we've played 10 men most of the game) but lose in the Italian Supercup and got a last minute draw some weeks ago after the undeserved double yellow for Mexes. They've 6 points of advantage made of victories against Siena and Reggina and recently they often needed some help from the refs to cope even with them, that's it. Isn't strange that every year they seem an unstoppable power in Italy and then when they face Villarreal, Valencia or Liverpool they magically disappear from international competition?

As I said before Liverpool faced Inter in their worst moment of form and with lots of injured mainly in defence but this doesn't justify them. Outplayed in Anfield Road, incapable to score in San Siro, that's enough

Right, before anyone starts, I know Celtic are poor and they play in a sh*t league but lets stay on topic.

Italian football is a dying force. Long gone are the days where Juve, AC & co dominated the European scene. Italians showed they are not the superr power they used to be. Inter are walking away with the Serie A but when you look at their team, they are vastly overrated. Ibrahimovic, arguably their best player, has a pretty poor goal scoring record throughout his career and I read yesterday that he has 20 goals for Inter, 10 being penalties. Hardly a goal machine to strike fear into opponents, a la Torres.

I think Liverpool fans are looking into this far too much. They played Italys best team. No where near Europe's best though

Yup, that was last season when we beat Barcelona.

Ben, sorry lad but you do talk some rubbish at times

Gee, i forgot how childish you are. I won’t bother replying to your posts in the future.

Oh here we go

Don't worry, i'll stop. Bluenose told me how much i hurt your feelings last time you were here and made you leave. I wouldn't want to do that again.