UCL SF 1st Leg: Manchester United vs. Milan

What can I say? Three semifinals in a row. It might be a bit early to start this but there will be so much buildup and anticipation to this game, I'm sure the thread will fill up pretty fast. Old Trafford has so many memories... let's add some more. We should be proud to have gotten this far considering the season we're having but may the quest for # 7 continue. Forza Milan.

Honestly I don't expect us to pass Man U. They are a much younger squad and too quick for our squad. If we get Man U to play our game slow we may have a chance but otherwise we are out. As a Milan fan depp in my heart I hope we do knockout Man U but honestly I cant see it.

Manchester are faster and younger, that's true. But like some of us mentioned in the Bayern thread, we are not Roma and our experience will come into play. We will kill the game and they will not find that much space to run at us. We have pacy backs in Janku and Oddo and they will do a lot better then Pannuci and Casseti for example. I don't wanna go too much into depth into it as there is some time and other games untill then but this Milan team in the CL semifinal(Milan always performs best in CL expecially in later stages) will be the toughest test Manchester will face this year and we'll see how they'll cope with our midfield.

We should try to play a couple of slow and boring games. Man U is too young to handle the boredom and our experience. We can handle them. I am sure.

Also, for a young team, it would be to their advantage to play away game first. We have one less problem in that.

Can I continue to be in the pessimistic camp? At Man U, it'll be nice to have a 1-1 draw but I think 1-2 lost is more likely.

Well we will be regarded as underdogs even by our own fans but Manchester's CL campaign hasn't been that impressive anyway apart from the game on Tuesday. Which by the way they did play great but they have to thank Roma's inexperience and choice to play the game the way they did.

Here is a little look on Manchester this season to remember how they've been doin.
So far Manchester has beaten Celtic 3-2 in which Saha scored from a penalty after they were trailing; Benfica 0-1; Kobenhavn 3-0; and Benfica 3-1. They lost from Celtic and Kobenhavn away both results 1-0 in the 4th and 5th matchday. So they were forced to beat Benfica in the last matchday to make it in the round of 16. Not impressive at all.

In the round of 16 they beat Lille 2 times by the score of 1-0....however the first game in France they won by a goal from free-kick while the wall was being set. The ref allowed it and there was a big despute around that goal. Then Lille was forced to go to England and win because of that goal and it was never going to be easy. Larsson score for Manchester in England and killed the tie. Again...not very impressive keeping in mind that the goal in France could have just as easily been dissallowed.

The quarter-final...you all saw what happened. Roma outplayed Manchester in Rome and the English were lucky they didn't concede 3 or 4 in Italy. Roma didn't finish their chances and they played a stupid game in England. Instead of sitting back after they conceded, they rushed to score when they had another 70 minutes to do so. Inexperience costed them and Manchester made a field day out of it. Again...not an impressive outing in Rome but they made up for it in England.

So not that impressive throughout and now because of one great game (or horrible by Roma for that matter) people all of a sudden fear that we won't get through this "great" Manchester team. I am not going to mention domestic form as domestic form expecially for English teams is hardly ever transfered into Europe because of the difference of style that they play on the island. Just look at Liverpool for that matter.....bad in England but seems to have found their way in Europe quite a bit in recent seasons.

My point is that.....knowing that this Milan team with basically the same players has made it to the semis 4 times in the last 5 years knows what it takes to be here. We have the experience (a big proof of that against Bayern) and we have been always solid in the CL. This is exactly why they should be fearing us. We are the team with 2 finals 2 semifinals and 1 quarter final in the last 5 years and not them. Yes they might have momentum after thrashing Roma, but let's be honest here. If Manchester and Roma played again tomorow, the score will NOT be 7-1 and there is a big question if Manchester would even win again. Those 7 goal games happen once in a blue moon and I'm sure Roma learned their lesson as we have in the past with Deportivo and Liverpool.

We can definatly take this Manchester team on just like last time.
Forza Milan....Forever!

We should close this thread right now because nothing will be able to top that post.

Well done.

People are scared of pacey Ronaldo? Even 36 years old cafu has no problems taking the ball from his feets.

Rooney? He just seem to be getting worse as the day passes by.

Let's go back to the previous time when we met them. Man U squad has remained largely unchanged while its the same with ours. I am quite confident of the match with Man U, just like how confident i was yesterday about Milan beating bayern. You guys just need some faith.

As I've stated before, if the whole team comes to the party and gives 100% the whole 90min, then we can beat anyone on the night.

However lets not get carried away and right off Manu, lets give them the respect they deserve.

They did knock out Roma, the same team that has beaten us in every match this season except for 1.

With ten men they scored an important away goal against Roma in Rome. How quickly we forget that we let Bayern score 2 away goals in our own backyard.
IMHO Manu are a much better team than Bayern.

Have a look at the this season stats on BBC site:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/foot...ts/default.stm

They've scored 108 goals in 50 games in all competitions this season, thats average of just over 2 goals a game. They've also only conceeded 40, which is an average of 0.8

They've had 18 different scorers this season in all comps, meaning the whole team is contributing.

They appear to have no problems in the scoring department and their defence is pretty solid too.

We are coming up against a team who has skill,speed,strength and who knows how to score.

Make no mistake, these two matches will be the hardest matches we play this season imho. Milan will have to play like never before to get through this, in both matches. The 2-legs will be harder than the final imho.

I'm backing Milan all the way, however I am giving Manu the respect they deserve. I just hope that the team do as well.

Seeing Man Utd butchering Roma was impressive, and when I saw Totti's face I even couldn't help myself but smile. Thinking that could happen to us now made the smile fade away again.

I was impressed we could beat Bayern in their own Arena, but honestly when I was pessimistic about them after the 2-2 at home, I am a lot more pessimistic about Man Utd...

If by any other miracle we make it past this turn, then Sheva will be waiting in the final, and I am utterly convinced we will be beaten by his goals, a thought that hurt more than Istanbul, and I thought that Istanbul was the pinnacle of pain. I don't want to suffer anymore, so let it end here.

Originally Posted by Pireloke

Seeing Man Utd butchering Roma was impressive, and when I saw Totti's face I even couldn't help myself but smile. Thinking that could happen to us now made the smile fade away again.

I was impressed we could beat Bayern in their own Arena, but honestly when I was pessimistic about them after the 2-2 at home, I am a lot more pessimistic about Man Utd...

If by any other miracle we make it past this turn, then Sheva will be waiting in the final, and I am utterly convinced we will be beaten by his goals, a thought that hurt more than Istanbul, and I thought that Istanbul was the pinnacle of pain. I don't want to suffer anymore, so let it end here.

why do I have the feeling that you spend 23/7 of your life wondering what could possibly go wrong and the rest 1/7 what could make things even worse?!

Lighten up man, show some belief and respect for your team by opening a cold beer and seeing it's bottom for the win yesterday

No one is saying that ManU will be easy but at this level who is after all ... and bayern is not such a bad team as you might think, it's just that we made them look bad ... very much like an inexperienced and "headless" Roma made ManU look much better than they really are, this last one is only in our advantage though

all i have to say is: FORZAAAAA MILAN

If you can get the game on Tv i recommend switching to Spurs - Sevilla, Spurs needed 4 to come back and just got 2 in a minute so the last 20 minutes should be all out attack

No one is saying that ManU will be easy but at this level who is after all ... and bayern is not such a bad team as you might think, it's just that we made them look bad ... very much like an inexperienced and "headless" Roma made ManU look much better than they really are, this last one is only in our advantage though

true, the way some people are talking here its like they think Utd get 7 goals every week

The reality is simple, Roma played straight into Utds hands and gave Utds attackers room to run at them, Milan already showed a few years ago that the deep 4-5-1 can negate this. Its the same tactics that Arsenal played vs Utd twice this season and both games Arsenal won because for all their flair havent the experience yet to know when to attack and defend. if Milan get the first goal in the tie they will be in control of the tie and 90% certain to go through.

Chelsea and Liverpool are different propositions entirely though. Neither of those sides mind boring their fans to tears if it measn securing the result, Utds players simply do not know how to play for a draw because its not in the nature of the club. If Milan do make the final i agree with Pireloke, it will most likely be Chelsea who have far more tactical nous than Utd do if a lot less flair.

I also made a prediction that Sheva will be the one to score the winner in the CL final a month or 2 ago and whoever makes the final i will be praying that doesnt come true now

am i alowed to post the rooney ronaldo picture, where ronaldo is on his knees?
it could be considered offensive, but it is quite funny...

if you wanna see it, just type "rooney ronaldo" in google image search.