Liverpool - 0 - Benfica - 2

A primeira vitória (o Boavista já tinha conseguido não perder...) de um clube português em Anfield Road.
Deixo-vos com a transcrição exasperada, pleno de surpresa e de um pouco de chauvinismo do jornalista do prestigiado diário de centro-esquerda "The Guardian". Vale a pena ler.

Simao provides killer blow as Liverpool surrender their title
Liverpool 0 - 2 Benfica (Agg 0 - 3) Simao 36, Miccoli 89Dominic Fifield at AnfieldThursday March 9, 2006
GuardianIn the end, the European Cup was yielded last night with little more than a whimper. Liverpool's proud defence of the trophy petered out, the holders jettisoned by opponents they would normally have hoped to devour, to leave the Kop offering only wailed defiance and appreciative applause for the Portuguese where once there was vehement belief. All that remains this morning is a numbing sense of what might have been.
That they effectively succumbed here at the hands of a player who might have been one of their own merely added to the deflation engulfing this arena long before the end. So hopeful had Liverpool been that the Portugal winger Simao Sabrosa would move to Merseyside last August that the chief executive Rick Parry had even mischievously suggested the player had been sitting on a plane bound for John Lennon Airport when Benfica suddenly hiked the price and wrecked the proposed £8m deal. In scoring a glorious opening goal here to push this tie away from the hosts, Simao cost Liverpool millions regardless.
There was a late second, scored by the substitute Fabrizio Miccoli, though those present to endure this occasion recognised that it was not the home side's uncharacteristic defensive fragility - the hamstrung Sami Hyypia was anchored on the bench - that cost them their trophy. Instead it was a familiar shortcoming. Liverpool have courted disaster for weeks while their forwards continued to splutter so dejectedly in front of goal. Last night, with profligacy biting yet again, Rafael Benítez's side duly suffered the consequences.
Benfica's coach Ronald Koeman had spoken of exploiting the "mental problems" the quartet of home strikers were enduring, with none having mustered a league goal this year. That continued wastefulness merely prompted exasperation here, on the pitch and in the stands, with the advantage surrendered at the Estadio da Luz in the first leg a fortnight ago weighing ever heavier. The pressure ultimately consumed the champions and, after half an hour of frenzied energy had yielded no reward, they wilted at the other end.
The toils of Peter Crouch, Fernando Morientes and, to a lesser extent, Robbie Fowler and Djibril Cissé are becoming painful to endure. The pair that started here have played over 30 hours of football with only one club goal to show for their effort.
The firepower introduced from the bench arrived late and, in Cissé's case, was limited to the periphery on the wing. The whirlwind whipped up in the opening exchanges by Steven Gerrard, tearing into befuddled opponents, and the clever prompting of Xabi Alonso should have blown Benfica away. Instead, wheezing amid the tumult, the visitors survived intact and bit back.
Quite how it came to that beggars belief. The ferocity of Liverpool's initial assault had the Portuguese panicking, a succession of opportunities squeezed from the fury only to be carelessly squandered. Crouch, the only striker from these parts to have managed a goal since New Year's Eve, was slipped free by Luis García's pass 11 minutes only to see his drilled shot deflected on to the post by Anderson's desperate lunge. If that was unfortunate, the England striker's attempt when sent clear by Gerrard's touch inside Luisao, prodded cagily at the sprawling Moretto, was that of a forward devoid of self-belief.
Not that Crouch was due blame alone. García skied another chance into the Anfield Road stand after exchanging passes with Alonso having earlier spun an overhead kick at Moretto from close-range. That effort was suffocated and Jamie Carragher prodded the rebound wide of a gaping goal. The centre-half meandered forward again before the interval to thump Gerrard's corner against the post, a whistle choking his frustration, though, by then, Liverpool trailed and the Portuguese had sensed they might be untouchable.
Simao had proved that much. When the dawdling Djimi Traoré slipped and Carragher failed to hack sufficiently clear, the busy forward gathered possession and cut across the centre-halves to curl a stunning shot from 22 yards beyond the diving Liverpool goalkeeper José Reina.
The hosts might have been punished earlier, Geovanni having belted against the bar from distance with Simao's follow-up header well claimed, yet the pace and elusive movement of the visitors' attacks always suggested they might prosper on the break.
They did just that with Liverpool hopelessly committed upfield in the final exchanges, Beto crossing for Miccoli to swivel and score.
Gerrard must travel to Paris tomorrow to play his part as last year's victorious captain in Uefa's grandiose unveiling of the new Champions League trophy. "The last thing I want is to be standing next to the trophy knowing someone else will be picking it up in May," he had said in the build-up to this tie. "If that happens I'll be gutted." The Kop will share his gloom.
Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006