Soccer-Six minutes of madness that turned final into a classic

By Mike Collett

ATHENS, May 21 (Reuters) - AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti called them "six minutes of madness" and they transformed the 2005 Champions League final into one of the greatest matches in football history.

Two years ago this week, on May 25, 2005 at the Ataturk Olympic Stadium in Istanbul, Milan met Liverpool in a match that has no equal in European club football's half-century of drama.

Milan struck first with less than a minute played when skipper and defender Paolo Maldini, playing in his seventh final, found himself in space after Liverpool failed to clear and lashed the ball home for his first goal of the season.

Milan, buoyed by the goal then tore Liverpool apart in a one-sided first half in which Kaka was awesome. They played with mesmeric pace, controlled passing and their movement on and off the ball left Liverpool in tatters.

Hernan Crespo, on loan at the time from Chelsea, seemed to wrap the match up with two goals in a five-minute spell just before halftime to give Milan a seemingly unassailable 3-0 lead.

Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher, who said he has watched the replay of the match many times since, recalled last week how he felt at halftime.

"People always ask me what happened during the interval and want to hear me say we were like lunatics believing we were going to win," he said.

"But the way they were playing I was fearing it was going to be 5-0 or 6-0. And at the start of the second half Milan look like they are going to score again.