The article reflects on several football finals, focusing on the attacking prowess of teams like Juventus and Milan, led by stars like Trezeguet and Del Piero. However, the matches often ended goalless, revealing a defensive trend in Italian football. Milan eventually won on penalties after a disappointing match, which left even managers like Villas-Boas and critics like Paul Doyle expressing their dissatisfaction with the lack of spectacular gameplay. The tension in domestic country matchups often leads to cautious play, making finals tighter than expected.
Milan prevailed in the shootout, with Paolo Maldini lifting the trophy at Old Trafford, but the final did nothing to dispel the belief that Italian football is a defensive game.
Even Villas-Boas conceded his disappointment that the final had not been the spectacle he had envisaged, while the Guardian's Paul Doyle, on liveblogging duties that night, was a little more forthright in his summary of the match: Well that was torpid. Nice enough goal to win it, though.
How they missed the suspended Pavel Nedved. Milan prevailed in the shootout, with Paolo Maldini lifting the trophy at Old Trafford, but the final did nothing to dispel the belief that Italian football is a defensive game.
It is often the way that finals contested by teams from the same country can be tight, cagey affairs just look at this list which is normally due to the finalists knowing each other well.
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