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Football
AC Milan's Ukrainian striker Andriy Shevchenko scores the winning goal past Juventus' Gianluigi Buffon during their penalty shootout in the Champions League final in Manchester on Wednesday.
Andriy Shevchenko stroked home the winning spot kick as Milan won its sixth Champions Cup title on Wednesday beating Juventus 3-2 in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 tie in extra time. Winner in 1963, '69, 89, 90 and '94, Milan edged the 27-time Serie A champion in a tense shootout in which five penalties were missed. Only Spain's Real Madrid with nine has won more titles. Despite no goals in 120 minutes of soccer at a first ever all-Italian final, the atmosphere at Manchester United's Old Trafford was red hot as the match went into a penalty shootout in front of the Juve fans. Juventus' French striker David Trezeguet was first up but his spot kick was saved by Dida. Serginio, Dida's Brazilian countryman, then put Milan 1-0 ahead. Alessandro Birindelli hit the target for Juve and it stayed 1-1 as Clarence Seedorf, bidding to win the title with three different teams, saw his spot kick brilliant turned away by Gianluigi Buffon in the Juve goal. Dida then saved from Uruguayan forward Marcelo Zalayeta but Buffon blocked a penalty from Kakha Kaladze with his legs. Another Uruguayan, Juve defender Paolo Montero was next to miss as Dida again blocked his kick with his legs before Alessandro Nesta coolly fired his penalty past Buffon to put Milan 2-1 ahead. Alessandro Del Piero made it 2-2 with a low shot and it was down to Shevchenko, the Ukrainian chasing his first major honour with the Rossoneri. Facing the Juve fans, he took a long, confident run and drove the ball past Buffon before running to Dida so they could share their celebrations. ``I felt a lot of pressure when I moved to kick the decisive penalty,'' the Ukrainian said. ``I tried to keep calm and win the duel with Buffon. I daren't miss it. ``It was the most important goal in my career, and my most important trophy ever,'' Shevchenko said. ``For me it's a dream after a season plagued by injuries. It was a happy end. Now I feel exhausted.'' Seedorf, the Dutch midfielder, who had previously won with Ajax Amsterdam in 1995 and Real Madrid in '98, was in tears after the game despite the latest of his triumphs — all achieved against Juventus. ``I'm so happy, it's incredible, wonderful,'' an emotional Seedorf said before receiving his third winners medal. ``The atmosphere, it has been a great spectacle. I think at the end we deserved to win. The whole championship, we did a great, great job.'' Milan captain Paolo Maldini, whose father lifted the same trophy 40 years ago at Wembley, collected his fourth winner medal in six finals. ``The joy for tonight's victory is unbelievable,'' he said. ``It was a great emotion 13 years after my first successful final with AC Milan. It's my first Champions Cup as captain and it was the greatest emotion ever. ``I'm just really proud and happy to be the captain of the team. It's a dream come true in Manchester. "It feels like it was the first time it's the sixth time but it feels like it is the first. I feel a deep joy. ``It is so beautiful. It is a great honour that the name Maldini is linked to AC Milan.'' Milan's triumph also meant that coach Carlo Ancelotti had also won the title as a player and a manager. ``The joy, the satisfaction of winning the cup is the very same, as a player and as a coach. I think we deserved it,'' he said.
Everything went wrong for Lippi
It was the third time in a row that two-time winner Juventus had lost in the final and, for Lippi, who was in charge each time, it hurt even more. ``It's really bad, it went bad, then with the injuries, everything went wrong, the whole evening went wrong,'' he said. ``It's terribly bad, we are disappointed. ``We are not losers in the national championship but, in the Champions League, I don't know if we are. We have won so many exceptional matches, I don't think we can be considered losers.'' Midfielder Gianluca Zambrotta said it was hard to watch his teammates miss penalties. ``When you lose after penalty kicks, it hurts a lot,'' he said. ``For some of our team it was the third loss in a Champions Cup final, so it was additionally bitter. We trained penalties before the final, but emotion plays a big role at the end of the match.'' Milan created the better chances in the first all-Italian final in the 48-year history of the competition and, although Shevchenko had a goal disallowed and Buffon made a stunning save from Filippo Inzaghi, Juventus held on to force extra time before 63,000 fans at Old Trafford. Italian champion for the last two seasons, Juventus faced Milan without influential Czech midfielder Pavel Nedved, who was suspended having collected three yellow cards in the competition. Without his runs and all-round midfield energy, Juventus lacked midfield urgency and Milan had three good scoring chances in the first 45 minutes. Shevchenko, had the ball in the Juventus net in the eighth minute but Rui Costa was offside in front of the 'keeper and, to the dismay of the cheering Milan fans, the strike was disallowed. At the other end, Trezeguet headed wide from a good position in front of goal after climbing above Nesta. But it was Milan that then went closer to scoring when Seedorf fired in a low cross from the right and Inzaghi met it well with a diving header. The ball appeared to be flying inside the near post but Buffon kept it out with a stunning, one-handed save diving to his left. Six minutes before the break another chance fell to Rui Costa when Andrea Pirlo found him in front of goal with a run and cross from the left. The Portuguese midfielder made himself plenty of room for the shot put pulled it wide of Buffon's right post. Juventus suffered a blow three minutes before the break when Croat midfielder Igor Tudor was carried off with a leg injury and was replaced by Birindelli. But the Italian champion almost went ahead just before half time when Del Piero collected a through ball from Mauro Camoronesi and fired an angled, close range shot which Dida blocked at the near post. Experienced midfielder Antonio Conte replaced Camoranesi at half time and almost gave Juventus the lead with his first meaningful touch. He climbed to meet a left wing cross from Del Piero and guided a powerful header which thudded against the crossbar with Dida beaten. Few chances were created in the extra 30 minutes although Del Piero should have done better with four minutes to go when a half cleared header dropped to him 20 yards (meters) out and he fired high into the rows of his fans instead of the Milan net. — AP
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