AC Milan Beats Juventus for Sixth Champions Cup
After having an early goal taken away, Andriy Shevchenko made sure a second chance at glory wasn’t wasted.
Shevchenko’s goal in the fifth round of penalty kicks gave AC Milan a 3-2 edge over Juventus after 120 scoreless minutes and brought the Italian club another European Champions Cup title in front of 63,215 fans at Manchester, England, on Wednesday.
AC Milan won its sixth Champions Cup, adding to the titles it won in 1963, ‘69, ‘89, ’90 and ’94.
It is the fourth time in 48 years that a Champions Cup final has gone to penalty kicks after the teams had played to a scoreless tie and it marked the first all-Italian final.
“It was the most important goal in my career, and my most important trophy ever,” said Shevchenko, a Ukrainian striker. “For me it’s a dream after a season plagued by injuries. It was a happy end. Now I feel exhausted.”
Exhausted is how both teams seemed to play from the second half on as neither side created more than a handful of scoring chances in what quickly turned into a conservative approach.
Once overtime arrived, both teams appeared content to wait for penalty kicks, afraid to possibly make a mistake that might lead to a decisive goal.
Before Shevchenko’s winner, five players missed their penalties, including four in a row.
AC Milan’s Brazilian goalkeeper Dida stopped three kicks, including the first one by David Trezeguet, and later on consecutive tries by Marcelo Zalayeta and Paolo Montero.
After Juventus’ Alessandro Del Pierro made his kick to keep his team alive, it set the stage for Shevchenko.
“I felt a lot of pressure,” he said. “I dared not miss it.”
Shevchenko calmly jogged to the ball and slotted a shot into the right side of the net as Juventus goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon guessed wrong on his dive.
Before that, Serginho and Alessandro Nesta scored their kicks for Milan. Alessandro Birindelli scored the other penalty kick for Juventus, which lost in a Champions Cup final for the third time in a row.
“When you lose after penalty kicks, it hurts a lot,” said Juventus midfielder Gianluca Zambrotta, whose team also lost in the 1997 and ’98 finals. “For some of our team it was the third loss in a Champions Cup final, so it was additionally bitter. We trained [for] penalties before the final, but emotion plays a big role at the end of the match.”
Penalty kicks might not have even been a factor had Shevchenko’s goal in the ninth minute counted.
The play began when Rui Costa made a run up the middle and passed to Filippo Inzaghi on the left wing.
Inzaghi then sent a cross in front of the defense to Shevchenko, who drilled a left-footed shot from 20 yards away that deflected off Montero into the goal. But it was immediately ruled offside because Costa had strayed behind the defense and may have blocked Buffon’s view.
Eight minutes later, Milan nearly scored again when Clarence Seedorf crossed to Inzaghi for a diving header that Buffon barely got his hand on after a dive to his left.
Juventus’ best chance came in the first minute of the second half from a substitute who just entered the game.
On a cross by Del Pierro, veteran Antonio Conte, on his first touch, sent a header that caught Dida flat-footed, but the ball bounced off the cross bar and the game remained scoreless.
Juventus, which was without suspended playmaking midfielder Pavel Nedved, never really came close again.
Seedorf, who missed one of Milan’s penalty kicks, became the first player to win the title with three clubs. The Dutch midfielder, who previously won with Ajax Amsterdam in 1995 and Real Madrid in ‘98, was in tears afterward.
“I’m so, so happy, it’s incredible, wonderful,” Seedorf said. “The atmosphere, it has been a great spectacle.”
Paolo Maldini, Milan’s veteran defender and captain, won a Champions Cup for the fourth time. Maldini’s father, Cesare, captained Milan to its first title in 1963.
Copa Libertadores
Matias Donnet and Carlos Tevez scored goals in the first 14 minutes at Buenos Aires to lead Boca Juniors of Argentina to a 2-1 victory over Cobreloa of Chile to advance to the semifinals of Copa Libertadores tournament.
Boca, which won the first-leg quarterfinal against Cobreloa by the same score, will next play America de Cali of Colombia. America eliminated Argentina’s River Plate with a 4-1 rout on Tuesday.
In another quarterfinal game, Santos of Brazil defeated Cruz Azul of Mexico, 1-0, at Santos, Brazil, to advance to the semifinals, winning 3-2 on aggregate.
Brazilian teenager Robinho took advantage of two defensive blunders to score the only goal for Santos in the 13th minute. Robinho, 19, first stole the ball from Cruz Azul’s Jose Hernandez at the edge of the penalty area and passed to William, whose shot slipped through the fingers of goalkeeper Oscar Perez, allowing Robinho to pounce on the rebound for the goal.
Santos will face the winner of tonight’s last quarterfinal involving Independiente Medellin of Colombia and visiting Gremio of Brazil. The teams tied, 2-2, in the first leg.
Howard Near Deal
When Manchester United tours the United States this summer, it could have a Major League Soccer player as its goalkeeper.
Tim Howard of the New York/New Jersey MetroStars reportedly is close to a deal with the English Premier League champion that would pay MLS a transfer fee of $2.5 million with $1.2 million of that going to Howard.
Ivan Gazidis, the MLS’ deputy commissioner, was in Manchester for Wednesday’s European Champions Cup final in hopes of completing the deal.
American goalkeepers Brad Friedel (Blackburn) and Kasey Keller (Tottenham Hotspur) already play in England’s top league.
Adu Gets Agent
Freddy Adu, the 13-year-old prodigy from Ghana who became an American citizen earlier this year, won’t have college soccer as part of his future after signing with an agent.
Adu, who signed a reported $1 million endorsement deal with Nike earlier this week, will be represented by SportsNet LLC, the Washington Post reported. SportsNet LLC already has U.S. Coach Bruce Arena and national team standout Landon Donovan as clients.
Quick Passes
Monaco, which finished runner-up in the French first division this season, is being relegated to the second division for financial reasons, league officials said. Monaco, which won the league cup earlier this month, has debts of $87.85 million and has six days to appeal the decision, although it must first find an investor.... Midfielder Stylianos Giannakopoulos, who scored 13 goals in leading Olympiakos to the Greek league title this season, has signed a three-year deal with Bolton Wanderers of the English Premier League.... Shinji Ono, who helped lead Japan to the second round of last summer’s World Cup, won the Asian Football Confederation’s player of the year award for 2002. Guus Hiddink, who led South Korea to the World Cup semifinals, was chosen coach of the year.
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Times wire services contributed to this report.
