AEK vs. Milan, Tuesday 21st November

The next round of the CL is fast approaching and we are away to probably the weakest side in the group.

Will our 'bad luck' continue? Will we take the post hitting curse with us to Athens? Will AEK sense a victory? Now is the best chance they'll ever have of grabbing 3 points off of us.

A good result is vital in our attempts to boost confidence and gain the 1 point we need to assure qualification.

Lets hope memories of 1994 will spark our players into life and push them on to give a good performance.

not expectin' much... just a draw... which is enough to gurantee us a spot into the knock-out stage...

We defeated Barca 4-0 in this stadium in '94 . It is one of the few reasons why I respect Cappello. I hope Ancelotti, Tassoti, Costacurta and Maldini will gain some inspiration after visitng the stadium after 12 years. Hopefully we will return to Athens in May next year to rewrite history.

We have 2 more games in the CL including this. I hope to see the following line-up
Dida,
Janku, Simic, Bonera, Antonelli
Cafu, Brocchi, Ambrosini, Gourcuff
Oliviera, De Gennaro
Subs: Fiori, Maldini, Guerci, Seedorf, Inzaghi, Aubameyang, Borreillo.
Others can sit on the bench where they deserve to be. Kaka needs to be rested.

Boriello - Oliveira

Jankulovski - Gourcuff - Guerci - Brocchi

Antonelli - Maldini - Bonera - Simic

Dida

Originally Posted by acdc81

Boriello - Oliveira

Jankulovski - Gourcuff - Guerci - Brocchi

Antonelli - Maldini - Bonera - Simic

Dida

whos antonelli ...

Originally Posted by Dr Milano

whos antonelli ...

youth team player (apparently left back) who was included in the first squad several times.

but his chances of getting minutes in the first team under ancelotti are somewhere near zero.

Lets not go overboard and play the complete youth team, we still need a point. We don't want to play Lille in the last match needing any kind of result. I would hope a semi-strong line up would be enough to see out most of this match and then i would use Guerci, Di Gennaro & Lunati/Abangeymang (i really should learn to spell his name) as subs. I would start with Antonelli though.

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

Lets not go overboard and play the complete youth team, we still need a point. We don't want to play Lille in the last match needing any kind of result. I would hope a semi-strong line up would be enough to see out most of this match and then i would use Guerci, Di Gennaro & Lunati/Abangeymang (i really should learn to spell his name) as subs. I would start with Antonelli though.

i don't know if you refer to tony or me but i think in both cases it's what we want to see, not what we expect. none of it will actually happen. carlo will play his standard team as usual. he is quite stubborn when it comes to this, sometimes i wish he would be more courageous and not only play it safe.

i think we already did qualify for the knock out stage. if we lose both games and lille and aek win both we still lie in second place on the same points as aek. they would have to win higer than 3:0 against us to win the direct encounter. i can't imagine that this will happen, no matter if we use 2-3 youngsters or not.

We need 1 point for automatic qualification. Relying on other results and assuming we won't be beaten by specific scorelines is both dangerous and slightly arrogant in assumption considering our current form.

We would also want to finish first in the group to help our chances of progression in the second round.

Guys don`t forget we need to FIRST place in order to avoid the likes of Lyon,Chelsea,Arsenal,Man UTD...... iT WOULD BE GREAT TO WIN THIS GAME SO WE COULD HAVE THE FIRST PLACE RESERVED.
Maybe we could rest Kaka and Sedorf and give Gorky and Guerci a chance...
Oliveira must play..his starting to find himself lately

Kastriot has a point.. To win this game we have got 1st spot, and second we could get a bit of confidence.
But I also feel that it is time to give Kaka a rest.

Originally Posted by kastriot

Guys don`t forget we need to FIRST place in order to avoid the likes of Lyon,Chelsea,Arsenal,Man UTD......

Did you even read what i put in the post before you? I said exactly the same thing.

Avoid those or not, if we continue playing like this, we're out in the next round, we might even get humiliated... yeah, that's my pessimist side again, my optimist one sees Maldini lifting the Cup, but hey that side went to bed early today...

Anyway, for what it's worth here's my take : 0-1

When our players know that their bottoms are on fire, they always come on the top. That is why we are so focussed during the knock out stages. I still feel that our chances of winning the UCL are as good as the best team. Whatever happens we have to take one step at a time and not say that we will get knocked in quarters or semis. This is a fragile situation for us and I am sure Carlo will take care of us.

Carlo should not let Kaka and Seedorf play as they are already tired of playing 90/game for the last two games in the span of 6 days. Both, Guerci and Antonelli have good chances of coming on as subs as Maldini and Seedorf will wear out by 60 minutes.

My line up:

Bonera-Simic-Maldini-Janku
Pirlo-Brocchi-Seedorf
Gorky
Oliviera-Gila

For this game and all the games I want Oliviera to play. He is very close to braking the deadlock and it might be the next game. Carlo knows it and I am sure he will listen to me.

Gourcuff must be positive for this game as he has payed very well against AEK at San Siro.