congratulations to my beloved liverpool fc, champions league winners 2005. we seem to be making a habit of producing classic finals in recent years. remember the 5-4 win over alaves in the uefa cup final 2001? and how about the belakang mari victory over arsenal in the 2001 fa cup final? and of course, the final of finals, the greatest belakang mari feats of all time, the 2005 champions league final victory over ac milan.

manchester united fans know what it feels like to win in such circumstances. their victory over bayern in 1999 is on a similiar scale. in that sense, i'm glad that anthony, adrian and prince know exactly how i felt on 25/5/05. thanks for sharing the joy.

a personal thank you to adrian loo for waking me up for the second half. i would've committed suicide if i had woken up the next morning realising liverpool won. thanks.

credit must be given when it's due. the modern champions league requires stamina and consistency to win. champions don't turn up at the snap of the fingers and a flash of the wand. compare the match schedules for the previous liverpool european cup victories....

european cup 1981

first round - oulu (who the fuck?)

second round - aberdeen

quarter finals - cska sofia

semi finals - bayern

final - real madrid

european cup 1984

first round - OB (again, who the fuck?)

second round - athletic bilbao

quarter final - benfica

semi finals - dinamo bucuresti

final - roma

european cup 1978

second round - dynamo dresden

quarter final - ajax

semi final - monchengladbach

final - club brugge

european cup 1977

first round - crusaders fc (haha! who?)

second round - trabzonspor

quarter final - st. eteinne

semi final - fc zurich

final - monchengladbach

if i had been a liverpoolfan through all those victories, i'd be happier for this current champions league victory. we overcame monaco, deportivo, olympiakos and rivaldo, leverkusen, chelsea, juventus and ac milan, with professional clowns like traore, biscan, kewell and nunez doing their part.

just for fun, the path to manchester united's victory on 1968 is laden with obstacles like....

first round - hibernians

second round - fk sarajevo

quarter finals - gornik zabrze

semi finals- real madrid

final - benfica

the european cup has come a long way. liverpool are not the worst champions in history as anthony has observed from a guardian article. if you're counting the biggest difference in points between epl champions and champions league winners, then yes, liverpool perhaps are the worst winners ever. manchester united only amassed a meagre 56 points in 42 games in the old english first division in 1968. liverpool has 58 points in 38 games this year. so is manchester united the worst champion ever? all subjective. credit should be given when it's due.

you will never walk alone.

and as an aside, there are rumours in liverpool's official website that rafa is interested in buying john o shea. my god. please don't. if he joins, he'll increase the official clown count at liverpool fc from the current 4 (biscan, traore, nunez, kewell) to 5. that's almost half a team. m.y.g.o.d.