Now that's more like it.game on indeed.

Have some of that!!!!lampsssyyyyyyy!!!bloody refs and linesmen can't do their jobs!we just did ours!

Sigh..hazard

This post has been edited by Kerplunk: May 11 2013, 09:36 PM

Screw the europa league.this feels like a trophy in itself.absolutely love iva trolling the ref at the end with the water bottle.CL football on the line,and he has time to crack a joke.haihhh imagine if we conceded..

Congrats franky!!

Extra special win, this. Thanks to the managerial chaos, insane number of games and paper thin squad…as well as the ridiculous officiating which plagued our matches on the way to those elusive victory steps. The amount of dubious pens (minus the one in the final) given against us as we fought our way to Amsterdam just made me feel there were certain quarters who never wanted us to scoop europe’s second biggest prize.

But we hunkered down, battled on, and now we can parade our trophy in their faces. So proud of the boys in blue. Torres my MOTM by a mile. lead the line shockingly well and showed amazing fighting spirit which the rest of the team practically fed on. Dashed into space with a flash of individual brilliance which left luisao on his butt, and reverted back to ‘liverpool’ torres with the finish. Won a great amount of aerial battles from cech’s long punts forward and eased pressure on the midfield.

Midfield did allright and remained very disciplined, especially lamps and luiz. Ramires was clearly unhappy with his role at wide right, but you could see the man was trying his best. Mata and Oscar were there when it mattered, as always juan has a huge say in our win with a last minute assist.

azpi was a bit silly to stick his hand out for the pen, but the back four generally did a fine job of containing benfica who had minimal clear-cut chances. Iva the unlikely serb hero with a majestic header which took forever to dip in, almost became the villain with a clumsy attempted clearance just seconds later. Cahill did well then to put off Cardozo. Gotta say bran’s header definitely rivals the drog’s munich equalizer in terms of technique and power!

I just don’t feel it’s fair to criticize the team even a single bit for their style of play, after the grueling season we’ve had. They mustered up a victory and defended admirably well, that’s all that matters. Credit to the physios, nutritionists, etc, who are the second ‘team’ behind the scenes. Pretty sure they came up with a specific health regime which helped to keep the lads fit.

This europa league campaign has been quite enjoyable actually, and though most rival fans won’t admit it, it happens to be the third most prestigious trophy after the CL and EPL. I know many here including myself have given stick to utd / city fans for being involved with the champions league’s ‘ugly sister,’ but it’s always nice when you go all the way and win it. Heck not too long ago utd / city would bite your hand off if you offered them the trophy.

Good job rafa, you made some mindboggling subs at times but we’ve managed to secure top four and silverware. Not too shabby at all. Now let’s get to third place and call it a season!

We know what we are, we know what we aareee…champions of Europe, we know what we are!
Hah. Never gets old that chorus. I guess the fans will be singing it for some time to come.

Welcome back jose!4 year contract,i'm impressed.we'll be menacing again in no time.above all,teams will hate playing against us..just like the good old days.can't for our first game already

All this talk about life being short and beautiful..wanting to be where you’re loved, and about being married a ‘second time.’ Shucks man, I think jose has mellowed down a little, and that can only be good for the club.

To be honest I expected his trademark swagger with a huge dose of ‘overflowing’ (to put it lightly, lol) confidence to show in a heartbeat, but this feels different. With his daughter settling down in London, I do believe the special one will be craving for stability now, and that means whatever confrontations he has with the players and especially with roman, no bridges (pun intended) will ever be burnt completely.

As long as he maintains that brilliant tactical nous up in his noggin, I’m all for it