Milan Column

Hi all,

The purpose of this thread is to gather articles written by columnists and exclusive interviews with players (or anyone that has an opinion on Milan) in the globe about Milan. Although we hear Milan news in outlets such as goal.com, acmilan.com, or soccernet.com from time to time, we do not have an existing thread regarding what people around the world thinks of the Milan team.

Much credit needs to go to Tony29, who brings up the 'night show' that invites famous coaches, refs etc. to talk about serie A each week (see Milan vs. Parma thread). I think it will be a great idea to talk and discuss what others think about Milan, and to what extent their opinions are justified.

This is not a place for general news (we can save it for individual threads), but for the more analytical. I'll kick off with Rae's (a columnist at soccernet.com) comments on Milan's victory in Champion League:

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Rae's Say: Ordinary Milan still worthy winners

Having spent the last week or so in Athens presenting many of ESPN's pre-match programmes and then commentating on the Champions League final itself, chances to put thoughts down on paper have been extremely limited.


Empics
The Milan side celebrate their success in Athens.

As for the Greek experience as a whole, I'll confess to missing the souvlaki and gyros, but not the omnipresent cigarette smoke. It's just not conducive to a commentator's obligation to occasionally hit the high notes!

Let's move on to the match itself, shall we?

Firstly I see no contradiction in proclaiming AC Milan worthy European club champions, while simultaneously acknowledging that they were downright ordinary in the Athens final.

Milan played the most eye-catching football of any side in the knockout stages. While it's disappointing that they reverted to a more defensive style on Wednesday night, that is not in itself, a reason to dismiss the rossoneri as fortunate Champions League winners.

What was fortuitous of course, was Pippo Inzaghi's opening goal, a crushing blow from the Liverpool point of view, coming so close to half-time. I find it hard to believe there was anything intentional or rehearsed about Inzaghi's actions. Logically then, if we take the view that the 33-year-old predator knew nothing about the deflection, then we're hardly in a position to call it deliberate handball. Besides, can we even say beyond a shadow of doubt that the ball even struck Inzaghi on the arm?

Had referee German Herbert Fandel chalked it off, we would now be discussing the most controversial disallowed goal in recent Champions League final memory.

Liverpool will rightly view their Greek odyssey as an opportunity lost. The Premiership side didn't wipe the floor with Milan in the first half, but they were in discernible control.

Rafa Benitez, normally a manager this commentator is reluctant to criticise, was too slow in reacting to the changes in circumstances as displayed by the massive electronic scoreboard at the Spiros Louis Olympic Stadium.

I expected to see Harry Kewell at the very start of the second half in place of a tentative Bolo Zenden who never looked likely to skin Massimo Oddo. The switch came a few minutes too late.

Similarly, Peter Crouch ought to have been brought on with at least 30 minutes to go.

The general feeling is that Benitez got his starting line-up spot on. I'm not totally convinced. While I liked his commitment to attacking width - Jermaine Pennant excelled in the first forty five minutes - I would rather have seen a more potent, pacy threat on the left. That would have meant Kewell from the beginning.

Benitez is naturally cautious and wanted to avoid getting steamrolled in the first half a la Istanbul. However back then, he didn't have a defensive midfield specialist with the prowess of Javier Mascherano.

I feel he could have been bold enough to start Xabi Alonso on the bench, let Steven Gerrard play slightly in front of Mascherano in the centre of midfield and most importantly field Crouch from the outset. Awkward he might look at times but to listen to the Milan players ahead of the final, his height and nuisance value was on their minds. As Liverpool's top scorer in the Champions League this season, he deserved more than a quarter of an hour.

Milan were decidedly lacking in ambition. However in Pippo Inzaghi they have a throwback to an earlier era. An awkward runner who scarcely resembles a contemporary, well-balanced athlete, Inzaghi neverthless possesses the striking instincts of Gerd Muller.

In the 1974 European Cup final replay, Bayern Munich's Muller (Inzaghi's role model incidentally) scored twice against goalkeeper Miguel Reina of Atletico Madrid.

Sadly for the Reina family, Miguel's son Pepe saw his own dreams of European glory cruelly shattered by the modern-day 'bomber.'

Real Madrid are still correctly regarded as European Cup royalty, but the recent history of the continent's premier club competition belongs not to the merengues, but to the rossoneri.

This was Milan's 8th European Cup or Champions League final since 1989 and their 5th victory during that time frame. No one else comes even close to matching that record in the last couple of decades.

We can now watch with interest to see if wholesale changes are made to the current Milan squad over the next few months, as they try to close in on Real Madrid's haul of nine.

Barcelona players Ronaldinho, Samuel Eto'o, Gianluca Zambrotta have all been linked with a summer move to the San Siro.

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I personally like Rae because he is one of the more objective columnists. Of course, most of what he says indicate that he is quite pro-Milan, but at the same time he backs up his points with evidence.

To be continued... J