The Language of Football: From the Archive – Champions League 2007: In a series of posts over the following week, the languagecaster team will revisit posts from our archive. The 2019 Champions League Final is coming up and it features Damian’s team, Tottenham Hotspur, and Damon’s favourite team, Liverpool. To celebrate, they take a trip down memory lane. The transcript for this post is free, as a special taster, but if you’d like the transcript to our regular shows and our extra posts please show your support by becoming a patron (through Patreon). With the transcript you can improve your English by reading as you listen, or if you are a teacher of English you can use the transcript to make several activities for your learners. If you have questions or comments, email us at: admin@languagecaster.com (Damon=DB). Introduction DB: This was the first Champions League the Languagecaster team covered, twelve years ago. The podcast started the previous year for the 2006 World Cup, so missed the 2006 final between Arsenal and Barcelona, which the Spanish team won 2-1, and the 2005 final in Istanbul, in which Liverpool made a stunning comeback to beat AC Milan on penalties. The post we re-publish today had the title ‘In Ancient Greece…’ This was in reference to the Liverpool fans terrace song, ‘anthems-england-we-won-it-5-times-fc-liverpool-lyrics.html">We won if five times, ‘ with its line, ‘In Istanbul, we won it five times.’ The four syllables of ‘In Is-tan-bul’ changed to the four syllables ‘In An-cient Greece.’ The 2007 final was a rematch of the 2005 version, with AC Milan, still packed with talent looking for revenge. Liverpool, on the other hand, were arguably a stronger side than that which won two year’s earlier. The post was a preview written by me on the day of the match just before kick off. It wasn’t an audio post, so I am reading the text – I’m sure I would have sounded a lot younger back in 2007! From the Archive – Champions League 2007 .. can we win it six times? Yes, says captain, and so often the Reds inspiration, Steven Gerrard. “We do not want to leave Athens upset and with regrets that we have not brought the European Cup home. We want to make history, be heroes and come home as winners.” So here it is. Crunch time. After beating three champions on the way to the final, Barcelona, PSV and Chelsea – by the way two of those were the tournament favourites – Liverpool face one of only two sides to have a better European record in terms of European cups than themselves, AC Milan. It would seem that Liverpool are the underdogs in this clash, with most pundits backing AC Milan to win a tight game relying on their ‘superior’ midfield. But hang on a minute, does a 3-0 thrashing of Man United prove that AC Milan are going to lord it over the Merseysiders? What about AC Milan against Celtic? One goal in 3 hours of football! Steven Gerrard and the team have every right to hold their heads high when they walk out on the pitch tonight in Athens in the full knowledge they deserve to be there and they can win it! And if they don’t? “You’ll never walk alone…” Stinger: You are listening to languagecaster.com (in Italian). Well, Liverpool had to make do with the pride of appearing in the final, as they lost 2-1 to AC Milan. Inzaghi scored two,