“Totti, what’s the score? Totti, Totti, what’s the score?” Old Trafford sang as the scoreboard read 7-1. What an incredible night in Europe. After losing the away leg 2-1, Rooney clawing back what we thought could be a vital away goal, and seeing our fans get the shit kicked out of them, the atmosphere was kicking at Old Trafford last April. A new record for Champions League football.
Roma finished fourteen points above the European Champions of last season, AC Milan, second overall in Serie A. They were a top quality European side and we totally ripped them apart. It certainly gave us the bragging rights. Then strangely, this season, as Liverpool’s European hopes looked dashed, the dippers pulled a result out of the bag in the Champions League which overshadowed ours. A whopping 8-0 victory at home. What was a lowly 7-1 win compared to giving out an 8-0 thrashing?
Well, quite a lot actually. If you consider Beskitas have only appeared in the competition three times prior to this season, on each occasion not even getting a sniff at the qualifying places in the groups, I am more amazed that Liverpool managed to lose this team, than I am that they beat them!
However, maybe we should have been more concerned about this result than we were, considering the match is apparently now being investigated by UEFA. It has been reported in Germany today that there are suspicions over whether the game was rigged as part of illegal betting activity. An influx of bets were made on the winning margin just prior to kick off which has alerted the European football’s governing body.
Watch this space!
