Liverpool deserved to win, like we did - Wenger

He said: "Like us, Liverpool dominated but things went against them at the wrong moment and this becomes a mental blow.

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"Milan did the minimum to get the maximum.

"Liverpool deserved to be ahead at half-time and should have won."

Meanwhile, Pippo Inzaghi, who scored the goals which won a seventh European Cup for Milan, dismissed Liverpool's claims that he had got lucky with the crucial opener just before half-time.

The free-kick struck by Andrea Pirlo appeared to strike Inzaghi on the upper arm and deflect past Reina, prompting Dirk Kuyt, who scored Liverpool's late consolation, to say: "They were really lucky that it just touched off Inzaghi in the area".

Yet Inzaghi insisted it was a move the team had practised in training.

"It was obviously something we've done with the coach, and every now and then we manage to do it," he said.

Kuyt, whose late goal momentarily conjured up the possibility of an Istanbul-style comeback, said: "We never stopped believing in ourselves and tried to the very end. You need a little bit of luck and Milan got it."

Brazilian star Kaka insisted he was never worried by the thought of Istanbul revisited. "Absolutely not," he said.

"We knew that if we had played that Istanbul match a thousand times it would not have happened again. So, after Kuyt's goal, we knew it would not be the same."