When you walk through a storm

Wednesday May 23, 2007

I wrote with no little fantasy back in February that it would be wonderful for the city of Liverpool to be home to both European capital of culture and European football champions in 2008. The capital of culture project is moving ahead and the city is clearly energised by it all ("culture of captial" my dad calls it, in reference to the giant and superfluous shopping centre being built in the centre of Liverpool). And tonight, incredibly, Liverpool face AC Milan in the final of the Champions League -a rematch of the greatest game of recent years: the 2005 final.

It isn't just the fact of it being a rematch that I find romantic about the occasion. It was the AC Milan team of the late 1980s that really made it clear that Liverpool (at the time excluded from European competition after the terrible events of Brussels in 1985) no longer had a claim to be the world's best team. I can still remember the radio commentator, the night Milan beat Steaua Bucharest 4-0 to win the 1989 European title, saying, "Let's face it, not even Liverpool could have lived with AC Milan tonight".

Well, let's hope that they can this night. See you in the morning.

ps. the views expressed here are not necessarily those of my employer, who may be cheering for Milan.