AC Milan vs Tottenham Hotspur: First Leg, Feb 15, 2011

[Nalx]

Welcome to MM Nasescoba 1985

I watched most Spurs and Arsenal league games this season because I love an attacking, free-flowing football. I remember reading in football365 that Arsenal main objective every game is to score one more than they donate. In a way, I can almost say the same thing about Spurs. You guys conceeded quite a lot, but no one can rightly write you off because you have won several times already this season after being behind, and that always fascinates a neutral fan like me.

[BaleWelshGod]

heya guys, new to the thread, been on many Spurs ones, hope for some great debates.

AC lead Serie A by 6 points (36 points from 16 games). They look v top-heavy ie laden with talent up front! Ibra is on fire at the moment. In midfield Pirlo is brilliant on his day. Gattuso is ancient but must be still doing an effective job. KPBoateng is apprently playing well in the hole behind the strikers. He's a competitive fella and will no doubt relish facing us.

Defence is where our best hope lies. Zambrotta(33), Nesta(34) and Ambrosini(33) are all well on but v experienced campaigners. Our wingers will no doubt be told to run at them at every opportunity!

I think if we have ouir full compliment to choose from it will be a v well balanced contest and with game 2 at the Lane I think we can do it. Both defences will have serious questions asked of them. We may need Ledley for this one! Interested in your thoughts.

[Gabriel489]

In Ibra we trust. Honestly, it is too far away to even predict what will happen. It will be interesting if they are playing now. As I really can't see any team stopping the trio of Ibra, Robinho and Boetang. The midfield duo of Ambro and Gattuso are playing as good as any DMs on the world. Then u have Pirlo, who is starting to show his strengths instead of weaknesses game in and game out. Then there is Abbiatti who is playing like Buffon.
Then u have Spurs who are in great spirit and in forms at the moment. VDV, Modric and Bale are playing great, Defoe, And Lennon ain't push over either.

I think it will be a tough game for both teams. Since Spurs struggle against teams who owns possession like Milan, while Milan lacks the speed to play against a quick team.

[GeoTav]

Originally Posted by nasescoba1985

Spurs fan in peace, reading with interest the views of AC milan fans and dont get me wrong you have every rite to feel confident being the much more experienced side in this competition and the fact your playing quiet well in Serie A but i believe many of you are really under estimating us and i feel it will come back to bite you rite in the ***. First off if you actually follow the prem closely you will find spurs have not had our 1st choice defence for 3 months and have gone through the whole champions league group without our proper defence. Our defence is not as bad as you lot think especially now we are getting the likes of Dawson back to full fitness. Inter mite not be as good under Rafa but they are still european champions and although we lost 4-3 at the san siro ( down to 10 men most the game) we absoloutely ripped them to shreads at white hart lane. Spurs could beat anyone at White hart lane and unless you get a convinving win at the san siro you will find it extremely hard to beat us at the lane. To the guy that said " our attack is miles better than theres".... I think you will find thats false. We are the leading scorers in the champions league along with Arsenal so i'm not sure how you work that out. Gareth Bale is hyped up because he is a superb player and for the people who think he's only been good because of a handful of games know nothing.... Bale has been excellent since halfway through last season and he was putting in quality performances against the likes of chelsea and arsenal. I believe our attack will be to quick for your aeging defence hence why i believe spurs will suprise you and go through as winners. COYS!!

Welcome on board, and I think it's better to play against Tottenham than against Manchester, because at least, we don't have to read hateful messages of "fans" of MU who don't know anything about football but Rooney or C.Ronaldo (few years back in the past).

Anyway, I put some sentences in bold:

- I don't think anyone here under-estimates your team, and personnally, I would have prefered playing against MU this season in 1/8 for example instead of Tottenham, because the way Tottenham plays is typically the way to make us struggle (well, based on the last seasons, but it's a bit different with Allegri's Milan).

- Even with the full defence, I don't think Tottenham can have an amazing defence. The fact is that Assou-Ekoto and at least one between Kaboul and Gallas will play, and they are for sure the weak parts of the defence ...

- You destroyed Inter in White Heart Lane, and as a Milan fan, I can only thank your team for this entertaining moment ...

- About your attack, it's true that you're among the best attacks in CL in the group stage, BUT, your team was also in a group with the worst defences of CL (Tottenham, Inter and Twente conceded 11 goals, Werder 12, that's terrible defences in 6 games !!). Benfica (3rd, 12 goals), Bursasport (4th, 16 goals), Panathinaikos (4th, 13 goals), Cluj (4th, 12 goals), Zilina (4th, 19 goals ), Auxerre (4th, 12 goals), Partizan (4th, 13 goals) did worse than Tottenham. All these teams didn't manage to qualify, except Benfica in Europa League.
Among the qualified teams, Tottenham is the worst defence with Roma (11 goals conceded). So actually, Milan will be the first opponent of Tottenham in this CL with a real defence and a tactical game.

- Bale has been very good since the coach stopped using him as a LB and started to use him in his proper position (LM/LW), which allowed the guy to develop quite quickly.

- Your last sentence leads me to tell you that you shouldn't under-estimate our defence and midfield under Allegri ... and you should update your informations about our team !!
If there is no injury, we have two fast players (Abate who is 23 and Thiago Silva who is 25), a good, but not outstanding this season, LB (Antonini who is 28 or 29), and an experienced leader (Nesta, our only ageing player in defence nowadays). We also have a well used Zambrotta (Allegri tends to rest him quite often, so when he plays, he can run for 90 minutes).

All my post was to show you that even if we shouldn't be too confident (and we're not), you, as a fan of Tottenham, shouldn't be so sure you will beat easily the "ageing Milan" (which is the kind of statement that can't be done to comment our team nowadays). See you soon !!

PS: Maybe a mod should edit the title of the topic and replace [Opponent] by Tottenham ?

[Elmago99]

Agree with all of GeoTav's stats.

Also, Milan fans are CERTAINLY not under-estimating Tottenham. They are a very good squad this year, and it's nice to see a new team succeed in Champions League. Bale, Lennon, Pavly, Crouch, Defoe, Modric, Vdv, are very dangerous players to name a few.

Having said that, we have one of the strongest attacks in all of Europe (top 3-4) with the likes of Ibrahimovic, Robinho, Pato. I think there will certainly be a few goals....

I don't like to say much more as it's silly to debate what will happen. May the best team win, and if Milan cannot advance in this fixture then we're not where we aim to be.

[Jay Crisp]

LOL Geo(statman)Tav ...yeah I agree with all and Bale is great just think the Messi comparison was ridiculous.Ekotto Kaboul and Gallas are week Dawson is better Bassong on his day is handy ...Modric can go missing I think our biggest problem will be Bale Lennons pace V.D.Vaart at the Lane and Defoe , But as was pointed out Nesta is our only ageing def and I think any team in the world would still want him.Abate is as fast as Bale and real fighter has come on alot under Allegri , Rino is rejuvenated and we'll have Pato back and Flamini , our team isnt the old side that went out to the Gunners not even close ...look forward to the games cant wait .

[IndaUK (Spurs)]

Hi, Spurs fan in peace and although I cannot speak for all Yiddos, I think you'll find we're glad we're playing you next.

Originally Posted by GeoTav

- Even with the full defence, I don't think Tottenham can have an amazing defence. The fact is that Assou-Ekoto and at least one between Kaboul and Gallas will play, and they are for sure the weak parts of the defence ...

Assou-Ekoto (BAE) - he's come a long way in the past few years. For sure he makes mistakes and, as a defender, those mistakes can be costly but we wouldn't swap him for anyone else in the Premier League at the moment. When he links up with Bale, your defence will panic
Kaboul is still learning but he is immense. A real powerful act.
Gallas has too much experience to be a weak link.

I'm not sure any of you realise that almost half of our team has been injured this season. Harry Redknapp likes to mention us playing "bare bones" but this time he tells the truth.

Modric is far from weak. He controls the games he plays in. You might think he doesn't provide much until he misses a game, and then you realise how much he's truly missed.

We have mixed feeling about Gomes. Great shot-stopper but sometimes forgets the rules of the game.

Don't forget Huddlestone, VDV and the rest of the full international players who play for us

The only team we struggle against in England is Man Utd. No one else, definitely not Arsenal as they're a bit crap.

We post here if you want a look. It's one of the few websites where you can post from work. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/Article...Posted&show=20

[GeoTav]

Originally Posted by IndaUK (Spurs)

Hi, Spurs fan in peace and although I cannot speak for all Yiddos, I think you'll find we're glad we're playing you next.

Assou-Ekoto (BAE) - he's come a long way in the past few years. For sure he makes mistakes and, as a defender, those mistakes can be costly but we wouldn't swap him for anyone else in the Premier League at the moment. When he links up with Bale, your defence will panic
Kaboul is still learning but he is immense. A real powerful act.
Gallas has too much experience to be a weak link.

I'm not sure any of you realise that almost half of our team has been injured this season. Harry Redknapp likes to mention us playing "bare bones" but this time he tells the truth.

Modric is far from weak. He controls the games he plays in. You might think he doesn't provide much until he misses a game, and then you realise how much he's truly missed.

We have mixed feeling about Gomes. Great shot-stopper but sometimes forgets the rules of the game.

Don't forget Huddlestone, VDV and the rest of the full international players who play for us

The only team we struggle against in England is Man Utd. No one else, definitely not Arsenal as they're a bit crap.

We post here if you want a look. It's one of the few websites where you can post from work. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/Article...Posted&show=20

So far, the few fans of Tottenham posting here have been respectful and the debate has been good ...

About Assou-Ekoto, what I said in the previous post (before the long one) joins what you say, the guy isn't a very good defender, but he often goes forward, which could be a problem for us if we don't have the possession, but if we manage to keep the ball in our feet, Assou-Ekoto will be fore sure a player who will be in trouble.

About Gallas, this guy is finished, and it's a French poster who says that !!
He is experienced for sure, but he lost it, he will be beaten physically by Ibrahimovic, and he won't be able to stop Pato or Robinho IMO. If I was Redknapp, against Milan, I would put him on the bench, but as a Milan fan, I just hope Gallas will play.

About Modric, I mentionned him and VdV as weak physically, mainly because they are both injury prone (at least, they were in the last seasons). If they are fully fit in February, then they'll be serious threats for our team. And let's be honest, when we knew VdV was to be a Real Madrid's reject, a lot of people on this forum, including myself, wanted our club to try to get him as we still lack this kind of player in our current team (would have been perfect behind our two strikers, allowing us to play Boateng in our midfield).

About Gomes, IMO, he's the perfect clone of Dida !! Physically looking like him, and also playing the same way: able to do the best saves and the worst mistakes in the same game, like Dida !!

[Jay Crisp]

Originally Posted by IndaUK (Spurs)

Hi, Spurs fan in peace and although I cannot speak for all Yiddos, I think you'll find we're glad we're playing you next.



Assou-Ekoto (BAE) - he's come a long way in the past few years. For sure he makes mistakes and, as a defender, those mistakes can be costly but we wouldn't swap him for anyone else in the Premier League at the moment. When he links up with Bale, your defence will panic
Kaboul is still learning but he is immense. A real powerful act.
Gallas has too much experience to be a weak link.

I'm not sure any of you realise that almost half of our team has been injured this season. Harry Redknapp likes to mention us playing "bare bones" but this time he tells the truth.

Modric is far from weak. He controls the games he plays in. You might think he doesn't provide much until he misses a game, and then you realise how much he's truly missed.

We have mixed feeling about Gomes. Great shot-stopper but sometimes forgets the rules of the game.

Don't forget Huddlestone, VDV and the rest of the full international players who play for us

The only team we struggle against in England is Man Utd. No one else, definitely not Arsenal as they're a bit crap.

We post here if you want a look. It's one of the few websites where you can post from work. http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/606/Article...Posted&show=20

Wassup Bruv...Gomes reminds of Dida a bit can do something then make you curse him and spill your tea on your lap.

Gallas has experience but is slow and makes bad decisions lately he is nowhere near the player he was.
Ekotto can and does most times link well with Bale , but will have his hands full with Pato or Robinho....Modric does go missing from time to time not saying he will and isnt strong physically but a threat.V.D.Vaart is a great great player..Huddlestone is an International but not a regular so isnt vastly experienced at this level...I think Defoe is great and Bale and as I said Modric and V.DVaart , Pavlyucenko a real threat aswell...

Nobody is underestamiting Spurs here , we are just playing as a team and quite well and I believe yer defence is weak as is and with Dawson and King is better but not invincible.Jenas is another that on his day can be a real dangerous player.I see alot of Spurs here the Prem is on morning noon night and the early hours...lol and who knows what will happen.I just hate this misconception that Milan are old all old it will be a fact that ye will only see 3 players over 30 and our keeper but doesnt really apply to them...hope for great games and a Grande Milan...VICTORY!! ofcorse.

[kastriot]

The thread name is updated.

So many thing can and will change until than, I remember most of us being happy that we drew Man UTD in December because they were very poor at that moment and we were fling, but come February Manchester came to their usual best and actually kicked our ass.

What I think is that Tottenham is having a great moment, but I think they have peaked a little to early.My personal view is that this is the best they can get,don`t know If i`m being biased though.
But Bale,WDW and Modric would walk in our first eleven without any problem, so thats smth to think about,weather we should underestimate them or not.They are absolutely world beaters and they have proved it.

[Jay Crisp]

You know what , every single one of these Tottenham fans have been cool fair and respectful unlike another clubs...

[Tony75]

We are well capable of beating Spurs over the 2 games, and I only think they'll beat us if we are missing players or off-form.

I think we'll try to dominate possession and use our superior 1v1 players to win the tie - Robinho, Ibra, Pato, as well as Boateng, Pirlo, Seedorf, R80, and possibly Cassano.

Sure they have some good players and have found the right system for them, but I think our system works better for us to succeed than their's does for them in this moment.

[fLame]

I think the outcome of the game will absolutely depend on the teams' form come February.
We will have to wait and see what's the situation with injuries and form before the game.

If both teams were in perfect form, Milan would have a slight edge imho.

[Xudong]

we definitely need to buy some pacy defender (FB) in January. But I am still confident.

[Xudong]

Originally Posted by Jay Crisp

You know what , every single one of these Tottenham fans have been cool fair and respectful unlike another clubs...

so far so good. as long as they don't pull a Galatasaray or Fenerbahce, I am happy.