Kaka celebrates after scoring against Manchester United during their Champions League semi-final second leg football match at the San Siro stadium in Milan yesterday. - Reuters

milan italy (reuters)

AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said his team had given their best-ever performance after they beat Manchester United 3-0 to reach the Champions League final yesterday.

Under driving rain at the San Siro stadium, the six-times European champions outclassed United, overturning their 3-2 first leg deficit for a 5-3 aggregate victory, thanks to first-half strikes by Brazilian playmaker Kaka and Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf, and a second-half goal by substitute Alberto Gilardino.

"The first half was the best performance since when I took charge of Milan, both from a defensive and an offensive point of view," said Ancelotti, who has taken the club to three Champions League finals since taking charge in November 2001.

"We knew we were capable of playing a great match and that's what happened. The way we started, though, was most important.

"It helped us come through a match that was very delicate and difficult."

A coach's dream

Asked to rate Milan's performance against some of the displays the great Milan side of the late '80s and early '90s which he was part of as a player, Ancelotti smiled and said: "I don't know, but it's the dream of every coach to train a team like this."

In the final in Athens on May 23, Milan will face Liverpool in a rerun of the 2005 final, which the Italian side lost on penalties in Istanbul after squandering a 3-0 half-time lead.

Ancelotti denied the past would prey on his players' minds as they prepared for the final.

"I don't think it will weigh on us at all," he said.

"It will certainly be a very different match from the one tonight. Liverpool are very well-organised in defence.

"They won't leave us the space to play like Manchester United did tonight. They also have quality players in attack who can punish you.

"But we're happy to meet them in the final. It's a completely different match from the one two years ago."

A gloomy United coach Alex Ferguson admitted his team had paid the price for a slow start, in which they went 2-0 down inside the first half hour.

"I expected more from my team. We'd done so well to get this far, but tonight we never came out of the blocks," he said.