G-force drives rival powers

The look on Gennaro Gattuso's face at half-time of the 2005 UEFA Champions League final said it all according to Steven Gerrard. Surely at 3-0 down there was no way back for Liverpool FC? "I think you could see in the Milan faces they thought the game was over and to be honest, as a Liverpool player, I thought the game was over too," Gerrard said.

'Pride'
The Liverpool captain's headed goal shortly after the restart proved otherwise, sparking the breathtaking assault on Milan that turned the most sensational final in the competition's 50-year history on its head. Once again Gerrard had been the catalyst for Liverpool's success. As the two teams prepare to square off again, that meeting is fresh in the mind. "I don't think the fact we're playing against Liverpool is extra motivation for us," Gattuso, 29, told uefa.com. "You don't need extra motivation to play in a Champions League final. However, this is more than a final for us. At stake there is more than just a cup. This is about pride."

Same hunger
Whether Gattuso can stamp his authority on the game in Athens will go a long way to determining if Milan can restore that pride. To do so, Gattuso will have to get the better of Gerrard, whose appetite for success is undiminished. "It was a fantastic night but that's in the past and I want to experience it again," said the Liverpool captain. "I'm just as hungry this time round as I was the first time." Both sides will take their lead from the midfield pair. The two No8s are the heart, the lungs and the legs of their teams, and whoever comes out on top is likely to lift the trophy. The Milan midfielder was ruthless in his bossing of Cristiano Ronaldo in the second leg of the semi-final. The Italian's dominance over the Manchester United FC winger nullified the Premiership champions' greatest threat and provided the basis for Milan's victory. The task now is to repeat the feat on Gerrard.

Mind games
Both Gerrard and Gattuso have played down the significance of their personal duel as the mind games and psychological one-upmanship reach a crescendo. Gerrard may have suggested Gattuso's bark was worse than his bite in his autobiography, but both have been largely successful in avoiding media traps in the build-up to Athens. "Once the game starts you forget about all that and it's just about making sure you do your job properly as an individual," Gerrard said. "I'm not preparing to play against Gattuso, I'm preparing to play against AC Milan.

'Fantastic player'
"He's a fantastic player with a lot of experience ... but I'm not going into this game worried about Gattuso, I'm worried about Milan. I'm worried about how Steven Gerrard's going to play. That's my main focus, to get myself right. If I can get myself right we'll see if Gattuso can stop me. We want to make history, we want to be heroes and come home winners. That's the plan. We won't fear them. We're a good team ourselves and we're confident we can do the job."

'Motivation'
Milan too have their eyes on history. "A second success [after 2003] would put us at the same level of the greatest Milan sides of the past," Gattuso said. "Two years ago we never thought we'd have the chance to play another final against Liverpool so soon. Now we can take back what we lost that night. I will not call it revenge but we can finally cancel out that incredible night."

This is an abridged version of an article that appears in this week's edition of the uefa.com Magazine. To read it in full, click here.