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So many similarities between Milan and Bayern this year.
They're both living their worst seasons in last 3 or 4 years domestically. Milan is still fighting to get the so much wanted 4th CLQ place while Bayern is doing the same in Bundesliga, trying to get the 3rd place ( only 3 German teams play in CL) from Stuttgart, and at the same time trying to win the league ( 1st placed Schalke is only 6 pts ahead).
Both teams have shown weaknesses in attack, with Bayern not managing to score on 1/4 of Bundesliga matches ( the worst result for them in last 20 years) , and Milan not scoring on 8 serie A matches ( out of 26). Also,Milan didn't score on 4 CL matches in a row ( including the 90 minutes against Celtic).
Both teams didn't have problems winning their CL groups and both had problems eliminating their opponents in 1/8 finals, with Bayern going through with an away goal while Milan needed overtime.
And also, both teams have shown an improvement lately. Not that Milan and Bayern now play some spectacular football, but at least Milan is winning it's matches, while Bayern is doing the same in last month under Hitzfeld.
Important for Milan is the suspension of Van Bommel on the first match. He would have been Kaka's guard and, imo, he would have stopped Kaka from doing what he did against Celtic. Demichelis will play instead, and Bayern will have the same situation Inter had when they were forced to replace Vieira with Dacourt.
Milan is imo a small favourite, but it has nothing to do with past results and don't let these results fool you. When Milan won the CL in 2002/03 season Bayern had it's worst season in last 10 years and Milan had a fantastic and inform team.
Last year Milan humiliated Bayern again, but i believe you'll agree that Shevchenko and an inform Inzaghi were the main Milan players, while now neather Sheva is in Milan neather Inzaghi is in goalscoring form.
Plus, past results mustn't neceserally mean Milan is the favourite and Valencia-Inter duel has shown why.Inter was "killing" Valencia all the time but now they were the losers.
At the end, i'd like to show you what teams do both Milan and Bayern have to play against in their league before their duel in CL.
Milan
April 1 ------- Away at Roma
April 3/4 -------- Home vs Bayern
April 8 ------- Home vs Empoli , your direct opponents for the 4th place.
April 10/11 ----- Away at Bayern
Bayern
March 30 ------- Home vs Schalke , league leaders and their rivals for Bundesliga tittle.
April 3/4 -------- Away at Milan
April 7 ---------- Away at Hannover ( relatively easy match)
April 10/11 ----- Home vs Milan
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People always call it luck when you've acted more sensibly than they have
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