Two years ago in Istanbul, Rafael Benitez's team refused to believe they could lose; last night they never seemed convinced they could win. A Milan team in disarray, a sixth European Cup waiting and the chance of a glorious triumph slipped away in a warm Athenian evening. Liverpool like to think of themselves as a club that shapes history - last night it simply passed them by.

Carlo Ancelotti's side are undoubtedly the classiest team in Europe but they will rarely play as badly as they did last night. Benitez's men are the masters of containment - happier to be the spoilers and the scrappers - and when they were asked to overwhelm Milan they fell short. There is an innate conservatism in Benitez and his side, and last night it seemed ultimately to inform their response.

For Milan you could say it was the perfect revenge for Istanbul: after the final they never expected to lose in 2005, last night was the final they never looked good enough to win. They left town with the club's seventh European Cup - Paolo Maldini got his hands on the trophy for the fifth time - but they will prefer to remember the raucous post-match celebrations than an evening of mediocrity punctuated by two opportunist goals from Filippo Inzaghi.

The first came at the end of a first half in which Liverpool had dominated Milan, a half in which the Italians had been unable to deal with Jermaine Pennant in particular. The Englishman, his side's outstanding performer, was a constant threat on the right wing; Kaka was reduced to a bystander and Rino Gattuso was deserving of Steven Gerrard's withering assessment that the Italian is no more intimidating than a kitten. The game, it became increasingly clear, was Liverpool's to win.