Sami Hyypiä emulates Jari Litmanen as Liverpool take coveted ECL crown

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Liverpool central defender Sami Hyypiä became the second Finnish footballer ever to collect a European Champions League winners' medal last night, after the British club staged an astonishing comeback in Istanbul against AC Milan to take the match to 3-3 after extra time and win the coveted ECL trophy on a penalty shoot-out.
      Hyypiä, who moved to Liverpool from Willem II of Holland in 1999 and captained the team in 2001 when they won the treble of UEFA Cup, FA Cup, and English League Cup titles, joins his former team-mate (at Myllykosken Pallo and Liverpool) and Finnish national captain Jari Litmanen, who helped Ajax Amsterdam to ECL glory in 1995.
     
The tall 31-year-old centre half was the only member of both teams on Wednesday night who had been ever-present on the pitch throughout this season's Champions League campaign, and he played the full 120 minutes in Istanbul, partnering Jamie Carragher in the heart of the Liverpool defence.
      It is likely that even Hyypiä would have wished he were somewhere else during the first 45 minutes, however, as the red shirts of Liverpool were humiliated by a rampant Milan team that scored three times without reply.
      But as anyone who stayed to watch the remainder of the game or who has read the countless "Greatest resurrection since Calvary", "IncREDible!", and "Game Over... or NOT!" press clichés, this year's European Champions League final turned into a classic for the ages. In the closing minutes, Hyypiä came into his own, rising repeatedly to head clear and stifle the threat of the Milan strikers.
     
Sami Hyypiä has been as scrupulously private about his life off the field as his colleague Jari Litmanen, but he was nevertheless moved to mug for the TV cameras after the match, mouthing an almost disbelieving "Iskä voitti!" ("Daddy won!") to his one-year-old son Rico, who was hopefully tucked up in bed by this time.
      At 31, this was quite possibly the player's only remaining chance to grasp the top European club award, and the relief after a extraordinary, nail-biting evening was self-evident.
      Hyypiä and the other members of the Liverpool squad, who have returned the club to its glory days of the 1970s and 1980s, have now earned some time off to celebrate the epic win. The defender's services will nevertheless be required again early next month when Finland meet Holland in a crucial World Cup qualifying match in the sold-out Olympic Stadium.
      Finland must win in Helsinki to keep alive any chance of progressing towards the 2006 finals in Germany, and it will require another rock-solid performance from the man from Voikkaa (near Kuusankoski in south-eastern Finland) when the two teams meet on June 8th. Before that, Finland play Denmark in a friendly international in Tampere on June 2nd.
     
Hyypiä has been capped 68 times for Finland, and has scored 4 goals in the Finnish shirt.
      Since his transfer to Liverpool for a bargain £2.6 million, he has played for the Merseyside club more than 300 times, and is widely regarded as an English Premiership icon. His Liverpool contract runs to the end of the 2005/2006 season.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Hyypiä is a Premiership club icon (25.1.2005)
  Sami Hyypiä is not looking to move, despite radical changes in the Liverpool line-up (25.1.2005)

Links:
  Liverpool FC: Sami Hyypiä
  UEFA: Hyypiä interview

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