Just Another Football Fan: May 2006

Those 6 minutes

Well the last 2 champions league finals were decided in a span of 6 minutes, first liverpool overturned the 3 goal deficit against the mighty Milan defence in a span of 6 wild minutes and then Barca struck 2 past almunia in a span of 6 minutes. Well both the finals were very different in character in one an english team played well only in 6 minutes and won while in the other the english team involved played bad football in 6 minutes and lost.

ManU also won the finals in space of 3 minutes but then it cant be said that they played well only in the space of 3 minutes or bayren played exceptionaly bad, it was a constant spell of pressure during the last 10 minutes of play which eventually paid dividend in the last 3 minutes of the game. In the last years final liverpool were simply outplayed throughout the game it wasnt constant bombardment of goal which fetched them the goal it was a header from nowhere from gerrad which was followed by a long range curler and another goal 6 minutes later. This years final had much more, 10 men arsenal hung on against the mighty barca and actually played very good football but then barcelona struck 2 in the space of about 6 minutes, though in this case it cant be said the victory was undeserved, barca were clearly the best side of the tournament and deserved to win. The other thing which differenciates this final from the last was that it wasnt barcelona who played exceptionally in the 6 minutes but arsenal played bad, well they were tired after covering the pitch with 10 men for virtually whole of the match and eventually lost the opportunity of grabbing a remarkable victory with just 10 men on the ground for virtually the full match.

I dont know how the english teams manage to produce 6 minutes of exceptional football good or bad but these six minutes decide who will be crowned the champions of europe.