Something to cheer you up

[Kathy]

My lad's view of Istanbul so far his english coursework

 

 

The day was 25th May 2005, the day of the UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul between AC Milan and Liverpool. This game was built up to be one of the biggest games in European Cup history. AC Milan being 6 times winners of the trophy and Liverpool being 4 times winners. AC Milan?s last final was in 2003 while Liverpool?s last final was two decades ago. For my English coursework I will go through my experiences of the final in Istanbul and share many other experiences.

 

The stage was set the UEFA Champions League Final in Istanbul. I had my ticket up in the stands to the right of the big screen. The ground was packed with both AC Milan fans and Liverpool fans. The tickets were supposed to be distributed evenly but it seemed to be that AC Milan fans were out numbered 3:1 by Liverpool fans. I was sitting next to my Mum and her friend. We along with more than 20,000 Liverpool fans had travelled thousands of miles to get from all over the U.K. to Istanbul in Turkey.

 

So far it had been a total disaster because for my team the mighty reds Liverpool. We were 2-0 down and that was just the first half and there was still several minutes remaining when suddenly a through ball from Kaka somehow managed to reach Crespo. Who seemed to convert the chance with great ease. I must admit though I could not tell how easy or how hard the chance was due to where I was situated in the ground. As soon as the ball hit the net the stadium just fell silent as if it was a funeral.

 

As the clock ticked on I could see that Liverpool would be going into half time 3-0 down unless Milan got another goal. I looked around at fellow supporters and saw different reactions to the third goal. My reaction to the third goal was just a blur all I could remember was seeing other reactions. The first reactions I saw of other people were the reactions of my mum and her friend. My mum just sat in her seat and could not even look up at the match. This was probably because she had been to European cup finals and seen Liverpool win and had never seen Liverpool been outplayed like they did in the first half. She was distraught to say the very least. Then I looked to my left and saw my mum?s friend, she was standing up watching the highlights on the big screen. She was shaking like as if she had Parkinson?s disease.

 

Then I saw a tall man about 2-3 rows behind me. He seemed to have the biggest reaction. He was sitting in his chair just motionless with his head in his hands. Then I saw a teardrop drop from his hands on to the concrete floor below. He then murmured something to himself which I could just about make out and it was ?I?ve come all this way to see us lose 3-0. What?s the use. I?ve had enough if another Milan goal goes in I?m making my way back to the airport.?

 

After this fan said this it gave rang a nerve with me over a previous match. Olympiacos. This is because it was a similar situation we need two clear goals to progress to the knockout stage and we were 1-0 down at half time when another Liverpool man said something on the same lines but he infact said ?If we don?t score within the first 7 minutes I?m off. Off course we scored and the man stayed. So I decided to watch his reactions through the game. When the second went in he was shouting to the team to get a third. So when the ball fell to Gerrard in the last 10 minutes all you heard was the same man shouting of the top of his voice ?Shoot!!!!!?. Which Gerrard did and the ball flew into the net like a bullet and the kop along with the man roared and sent the nearest seismometer of the rictor scale.

 

Then suddenly out of the blue all of the Liverpool fans started to sing telepathically our world renown song ?You?ll Never Walk Alone?. This was all to surreal because this song is usually sung at the start of each game to will the mighty reds on an to also scare the opposition with the atmosphere but playing it at half time when we were 3-0 down seemed a bit weird. During this song the triumphant AC Milan walked out fixing their hair making sure that they looked all right. This is because they thought they had both hands on the trophy. Then the dejected Liverpool players walked out with a point to prove.

 

The second half was now in action and Liverpool were pushing AC Milan back and suddenly an almost like balloon type cross was crossed in from the left and landed straight flesh on to our skipper Steven Gerrard?s head and was directed with great accuracy into the bottom right hand corner of the goal. As soon as the ball reached the back of the net the same man that said he would leave shouted out ?I always knew we would score?. Which I thought to myself is this the same man or was it just me.

 

With this goal I remembered the away match at Juventus another great Italian side. Were we 2-1 up on aggregate and Juventus needed 1 goal and we were out. Luckily Liverpool played the best defensive masterpiece I had ever seen. We were probably better defensively than Brazil were when they won the world cup. I probably remembered this certain match because if Milan scored another it would have gone on to be 6 maybe 7-0.

 

Then suddenly the ball came to Smicer and everyone was thinking cross the ball in but no he released a thunderbolt of a shot. This just beat the keeper and from that moment we all knew we would score another. We could see that we were all over AC Milan and looked like scoring with every attack. Everyone around me was in uproar with shock. Even the same man who was blubbering at the end of the first half was cheering the reds on. This atmosphere was almost as good as Chelsea at fortress Anfield. Were after the sixth minute and a controversial goal the roof could have come of because it was so good. You couldn?t even hear the visiting supporters it was only a little murmur. This was the exact reverse but in Istanbul not Anfield. The support was electric.

 

All of a sudden Gerrard made a sprint through the middle and he was dragged down were the referee blew for a penalty. The same man who was crying said ?Were gonna win?. I wasn?t to sure but Xabi missed and there was a loud sigh but he ran on and scored the rebound. From that moment on I always knew we would win.

 

 

 

 

By Matthew Williams

[Spike]

Lovely read that