Alex Ferguson has all but written off Liverpool's Champions League chances. The Manchester United manager is backing AC Milan all the way to win the final in Athens on May 23rd.
"I'd bet for sure that Milan will win the Champions League. I'm absolutely certain of it," Ferguson said.
Ferguson plans to toast their victory with a bottle of wine given to him by opposite number Carlo Ancelotti after Milan knocked United out at the semi-final stage last week.
"I said to Carlo at the end of our semi-final that there is no way he can now not win this competition," Ferguson added.
"Carlo gave me a magnificent bottle of wine. But I immediately told him I would only drink his wine once I see him lifting the Champions Cup."
Ferguson admits he was in awe of Milan's performance in the semi-final second leg at the San Siro, which his side lost 3-0. But he believes United's off-colour display was partially the result of their Premiership exertions the previous weekend.
"Milan's second-leg victory over us was stupendous, fantastic and extraordinary," Ferguson said. "I know we paid a high price for the Premiership fightback which we needed at Everton to turn a 2-0 scoreline into a 4-2 victory.
"Last week, Milan were fresher and better prepared tactically and physically. I'm still trying to analyse the factors involved. But the truth remains we faced one of the best performances in the history of AC Milan."
The previous "bonding session" abroad undertaken by Rafael Benitez and his squad may have degenerated into drunken chaos in a Portuguese karaoke bar and Craig Bellamy subsequently threatening John Arne Riise with a golf club. But the Liverpool manager intends to repeat the exercise before the Champions League final in an attempt to inspire a performance on the pitch similar to what followed on that occasion.
The controversy that surrounded February's trip to the Algarve detracted from the Merseysiders' win in their knockout-phase tie in Barcelona, for which they had been preparing in Portugal, but Bellamy and Riise, whose dispute had begun when the Norwegian refused to sing on stage in the karaoke bar and culminated in the Welshman threatening his team-mate with a nine-iron back at the team hotel, both scored at Camp Nou and players and management alike suggested that the training camp had in fact been beneficial.
With that in mind Benitez hopes to reinvigorate his squad on a five-day break in Spain after Sunday's final Premiership fixture against Charlton at Anfield.
"I know people will mention that again but it's not an issue," said the Spaniard. "We are thinking only about doing the right things to prepare the players for the final."
