I have always had a soft spot for the Rossoneri, my dad and I used to watch Italian football on lazy languid Sundays – and AC were always “our” team. Liverpool occupy a different spot in my body; they play with all the fanfare and panache of two 80 year olds playing a chess game. Liverpool may secure victories but they do it by being policemen. My hatred for Liverpool was forged through my support for Everton, I have seen them go from lascivious lazy Spice Boys, to soporific Orwellian jobsworths – and I dislike them in either form. Milan on the other hand are a team who by all rights shouldn’t be in Serie A let alone the Champions League , and yes shady Silvio Berlusconi shouldn’t have been cavorting on the pitch after the victory either, but despite that – or perhaps because of that they have the stolen glamour of bank robbers.

Liverpool started with Crouch on the bench, a surprise. Rafa opted to play Kuyt up front on his own with Gerrard behind him. Milan opted for a similar formation with Kaka sitting just behind Pippo Inzaghi – a player always looking to steal yards on the defence, indeed Alex Ferguson said he was “born offside”, an obsessive kleptomaniac , always returning to the scene of his crimes. Pippo is the archetypal veteran robber, meandering around the Liverpool defence, just this side of legal. Seedorf lay in midfield, still unbelievably young at 30(!) and the evergreen Paolo Maldini played at the back, it makes you wonder if he has a gnarled, disfigured portrait of himself somewhere in his attic.

Before the game I was fascinated about how Mascerano , always an elegant and modest chaperone of the football, and Gattuso, a man who spends most evenings like this hanging from the necks of opposition, would fare. But as it turned out the real action came from Kaka and Inzaghi.

Liverpool had the better of the opening exchanges — their one recalcitrant player – the wide-boy Jermaine Pennant – took advantage of the fact that Jankulovski appeared to be asleep for most of the first twenty minutes.

Just before half time on 44’, Pirlo struck what looked like a pedestrian free-kick, but Inzaghi, with a thieves’ instinct turned it into a goal – Pippo appeared to run forward the moment it was struck and it deflected over Reina.

Inzaghi also scored Milan’s second on 82’, crafted by a wonderful pass from Kaka (who had been granted more freedom after Mascerano’s substitution); Inzaghi rounded Reina before scoring from an angle. Ancelotti chose to substitute Inzaghi in the 88th minute, seconds later Jermaine Pennant’s corner from the left was flicked on by Daniel Agger and headed in by Dirk Kuyt.

But yesterday there was no unbelievable comeback, it was Milan who celebrated wildly, and this time on the final whistle rather than prematurely.