Yesterday was the final of the European Champions League, the main European soccer (or football, your pick) tournament.

Heavy favourite AC Milan of Italy was playing Liverpool FC of England. It was a great game. Milan went up in the first minute with a goal by long-time skipper Paolo Maldini, consistently outplayed their opponents, and deservedly scored 2 more goals just before half-time, ending all suspense. In 12 games so far in the tournament they had given up all of 6 goals. In the second half though, everything changed in 6 minutes, when Liverpool scored 3 goals. The last one was a penalty kick that the goalie deflected, only to see the striker beat a defender and slam it into the net. After that Liverpool was happy to relax, take it into overtime, see their goalie make a brilliant (and lucky!) save 2 minutes from time, and finally win it on penalties.

Today a good percent of the male population of Lucca is very sad. Here people of course follow the local team, La Lucchese, but it plays in the Italian Serie C, a long way from the prestigious Serie A. So a lot of people here are also tifosi (fans) of one of the major Italian teams usually Milan AC, Inter Milano or Juventus Torino. So today every milanista in town is crying. And of course every interista or juventino is quite happy!

Simone, the waiter at the Millenium, is a fierce milanista, and he was at the game, in Istambul. His mum said he called her and that he wasn't very pleased with the result. I guess we won't be allowed to talk about the game tomorrow when he comes back.

posted by michel, 2005-05-26