RIISE: WE'RE MILAN'S NIGHTMARE

John Arne Riise believes Liverpool are AC Milan's worst nightmare because they hate playing against physical sides.

And the Norwegian full-back believes Liverpool will never allow the Italians the freedom to attack they had in the Champions League semi-final against Manchester United.

Riise prepares for his second final showdown with Milan next Wednesday in Athens convinced Liverpool can repeat their success of 2005.

Riise and his colleagues are increasingly aware that Milan believe them to be inferior to Manchester United, who the Italians eliminated in the semi-finals.

Their coach Carlo Ancelotti claims Liverpool are the poorest of the four semi-finalists and even United chief Sir Alex Ferguson believes Liverpool have no hope of success.

But Riise said: "We don't really care what people say, we deserve to be in the final. And we know Milan don't like playing against teams like us."

He added: "I heard some things earlier that they think they are the more tactical and we are the more physical side. But we can play football too.

"And they know we are strong and physical and we will use that to our advantage. They hate playing against those sort of teams.

"They looked like they struggled against the physical aspect when they played Bayern Munich earlier in the competition, even though they got through. But it is not something they enjoy facing.

"And we will play our own style of football that has been successful for us, we know that some teams hate to play against us because we play a physical compact type of game. We don't listen to other people because we know what we can do."

And Riise made it clear that Liverpool believe they can blunt the Milan style that caused Manchester United so much trouble in their calamitous second-leg mauling in Milan.

He said: "When they played against United their full-backs were almost like strikers or wingers. That is because United made room for them and gave them space.

"The way we play is quite compact and it will be hard work for their full-backs and wingers to get through.

"If they still attack us that way we will find space to hurt them. We have got the next few days to find their weaknesses and exploit them."

And Riise has faith in boss Rafael Benitez to produce the game plan to win Liverpool's second Champions League crown in three seasons.

"When he picks his team, and he knows who he wants to play, he will talk to every player to say what he expects from them and what the opposition player is going to do.

"Our manager is a tactical genius and he knows how to get his players ready."

But Riise accepts that this final must not start the way the Istanbul match did, when Liverpool were 3-0 down at the break. He said: "We cannot afford a three goal head start this time.

"It was called a miracle because of the comeback, but it can't happen again. This time we will approach the game perfectly and hopefully get a good start."

And Riise recalls Benitez's calmness in the face of that dreadful deficit in 2005. He said: "When you are losing 3-0 at half-time in a game like that you expect to get shouted at by the manager. All our heads were down.

"But the manager was very quiet and calm and explained what we were going to do. He wanted us to lift our heads, which we did. He said if we got a goal anything can happen. That is what we did and in the end, everything turned out okay.

"Once Steven Gerrard scored with the header, you could see the change in the faces of the players. We all seemed to get extra energy and the fans were lifted as well. We knew we had a chance. We just had to keep going."