Maldini reveals his most painful defeat at Milan
"I lost a World Cup final and a European Cup at the last second; two of the worst disappointments I had. In my career I lost three Champions League finals - all were very painful - the one in Istanbul maybe more because I thought that for me it was my last one - finishing it with a goal and maybe being able to win it would have been great. Then fate gave me the chance to do it two years later. The word Liverpool makes me think of the first final: we were 3-0 up; I scored after 40 seconds and we dominated for 110 minutes out of 120, but we couldn't win. This also makes me think about how strange football is. After the Istanbul final there was a league game that nobody wanted to play and a vacation in which few people slept well. The strength of the group was shown in reaching another final just two years later.
"In Athens we had everything to lose and to have lost against Liverpool again would have been really difficult to accept. After a year, I was able to review the Istanbul game and realised how well we had played and how we dominated Liverpool for 90% of the match.
"Milan have always been a team of ups and downs, we went to Serie B but we touched the top that the other teams never touched. I prefer this mentality here, where you can really fall hard, reach the bottom for then soar as high as possible."
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