Friday, 4th May 2007 at 2:01 pm

Liverpool-Milan round two

It’s probably the definitive football match of the last decade, if not more: the 2005 Champions League final, and Liverpool’s Lazarus-like recovery to steal a title that was already packed and headed for Milan. The city of Liverpool was drunk for a week; Italy wept for far longer, only the World Cup triumph exorcising the final ghosts of an extraordinary night in Istanbul.

But all that emotion will come sweeping back in Athens later this month, when the same teams contest the same trophy, but against the backdrop of two years ago, and a quite ferocious European rivalry. The heartbreak of Istanbul remains vividly painful for Milan, and Manchester United’s comprehensive defeat by a team of men possessed was inspired more by a desire to get back at Liverpool in the final, than by simply beating United.

The quality of Milan’s home leg suggests Liverpool, who ground out their Chelsea win in a game that rarely sparkled, will have a hell of a task in Athens making it two continental titles in three years. And while England would have loved an all-Premiership final, it’s a Liverpool-Milan clash that will have the football neutral most excited. There’s not a chance we’ll have the drama of 2005, certainly, but the build-up will be rivetting, the rhetoric fierce, and the match day intoxicating. Bring on Athens.