UCL SF 1st Leg: Manchester United vs. Milan

Originally Posted by Hasan Rossonero

I am very confident that we will beat Man U. Our team is hitting form, and even our defence looks like it knows what it's doing.

Forza Milan!

Well you never let us down with your previous prediction for the Bayern game, nice one i can relax now.

Originally Posted by Jim_UK

i think most teams can beat anyone, anywhere on their day.

To hwmook and anyone else who follows his line of thought. You are mistaken if you think i'm saying Ferdinand is overall a better defender than Maldini. I tried to make this clear but obviously i failed. My point, which i will try to get across for a third time ( ) is that in this season Maldini isn't as consistent and lacks the pace of previous seasons because of injuries. So on that basis and given that Ferdinand is having a reasonably good season, you'd have to say that they are on a similar level. We're not comparing the Maldini of old or the Maldini all Milan fans see in their hearts, just what has been shown this season.

Again i shall go back to my car analogy. If i had a prestige car that only works properly/well 50% of the time and someone else had an average family car that works well 90% of the time, you'd say in terms of effectiveness that both cars were on a similar level, wouldn't you?

....and this is exactly my point!!! Wes Brown will and can never attain to the heights of Paolo and Billy....but you can be sure that some young punk striker isn't going to smoke him the way Oba Martins ripped past Maldini a few seasons ago.

I'm just being real and giving our opponents their due respect

Last time milan won was in Manchester in 2003. Maldini lifted the cup that his dad also lifted 40 years before that in the same Manchester stadium..

This year the final will be in Athens.. and guess what, the last CL final that was played in Athens was 1994, Milan x Barcelona. We were HEAVY underdogs against Romario/Stoichkov and co, especially that Baresi was out injured and we didnt have our Van Basten. The odds for the game were not on who wins, but on the difference of goals that Barca will win. That game ended 4-0 to Milan. Maldini was there as a youngster and won his 3rd CL.

13 years later, and we're 2 games away from another CL final in Athens, possibly Maldini's last chance to win a cup in his career (as a player ).. We italian fans love superstition and statistics..If milan reach this final it will be his 8th CL final!!!!! and if he manages to win it, it'll be his 5th CL title!!!! Im not sure but i dont think any player has ever played 8 finals and won 5 (if u exclude the 1950's when there was no ref, no offsides!)..

forza milan, bring back the cup with big ears back home

Hitman, you took a couple of titles away from us man. We have won 6 so far and if we win this one it will be the 7th unless u want to exclude the 60's as well.

He is talking about Maldini, not Milan

Guys this is something I wrote for my column (www.livesoccertv.com/blog) ...ENJOY:

Spare a thought for Milan
Milan have more than what it takes to reach Athens, says Hasan Saiyid

Gennaro Gattuso, speaking to the press after a 2-0 Milan win over Bayern Munich, could not help but aggrandize his club’s progress into the Champions League semi-final as a triumph for Italian football.

“After yesterday’s 7-1 people were making fun of us,” said Gattuso.

“We are sorry for Roma, but I think Italian football has real value and we are World Champions.”

Roma’s grisly fate at the hands of Manchester United once again urged commentators all over Europe to sound the death knell for Italian football and Gattuso to leap to its defence with typical candour. That was Tuesday, mind you, and since Bayern had two away goals under their belt, you could forgive pundits for tentatively penciling in a semi-final between United and the German club.

Milan, however, had not read the script. In the space of four minutes, Italy’s flag-bearers scored twice through Clarence Seedorf and Filippo Inzaghi, the former also providing a sumptuous back-heel through ball for the latter to slot home.


The tie was as good as over after that as Milan suffocated a floundering Bayern side, which looked as pedestrian as it did pathetic. Regardless of the ease with which they swept Bayern aside, the Rossoneri’s fourth semi-final in five seasons is no mean feat–it is an achievement that no other side in Europe has been able to match.

But that remarkable achievement barely registered as people chose to focus instead on the three Premiership giants in the semi-finals and that 7-1 win, which has already started to achieve distinct mythic status. Indeed, many are already beaming at the prospect of Manchester United playing one of Liverpool or Chelsea; the overriding feeling is that United’s Cristiano Ronaldo, Ryan Giggs and Wayne Rooney will have too much for a doddering Milan defence. So on to Athens it is for United, then?

Not quite. Spare a thought for Milan. Spare a thought for calcio.

The six times European champions are not here to just make up the numbers, nor will they, in all likelihood, implode like Roma. After an inauspicious start to the season, Milan have sprung into life and now lie just a point behind the last Champions League spot. Fourth place would normally be the minimum objective for Milan, but after Calciopoli’s eight point penalty, it was not exactly a foregone conclusion.

In late December things looked very bleak as Carlo Ancelotti’s men were languishing in the bottom half of the table. However, since then, the Rossoneri have lost just once, drawn twice, and won all their other games to motor into fifth place. Couple that purple patch of form with incomparable experience in the competition, and United could be in for more than a leisurely stroll over the two legs.

Even player for player, Milan compare to their United counterparts handsomely. Cristiano Ronaldo may be playing the football of his life, but Milan have their very own weapon in Kaka. For Rio Ferdinand read Alessandro Nesta, and for Wayne Rooney meet, er, Filippo Inzaghi.

The last comparison may have elicited boisterous laughter on your part but humour me for a few moments. Inzaghi may not have the skill of Rooney outside the penalty area, nor his grit, but he remains a deadly striker and the fifth all-time leading scorer in the Champions League. The game against Bayern illustrated the point: despite being out for weeks and having played only a handful of games all season, Inzaghi took his chance–even if it was suspiciously offside–with characteristic aplomb.

Indeed, with the departure of Andriy Shevchenko, Ronaldo’s ineligibility for the Champions League and Gilardino’s inexperience on this stage, Milan will look to Inzaghi to do the job during both legs. Ancelotti will also be reveling in the fact that the speedy Serginho has returned from injury to give the Rossoneri considerable speed on the flank. The Brazilian may not have the vision of Giggs, but he can be devastatingly incisive.

There are other factors too. Milan have to achieve only fourth place domestically to count their season as satisfactory. United, however, are three points ahead of Chelsea at the summit of the Premiership and will have to wage a two-front war, assuming, of course, that the FA Cup is not a top priority.

So the English celebrations may have just started, and the police in Athens may be preparing for an all English final, but don’t be surprised if Milan crash the party.

nice one, Hasan, thanks for posting it here
Although, you didn't answer the one question bothering the minds of most ManU fans - "How manu goals above 3 will ManU score vs Milan?"

Great article Hasan! Thanks, man.

Well done Hasan!!

Terrific article.

Thanks guys. Glad you enjoyed it!

Someone has to talk up our chances. The press has barely mentioned us.

Thanks Hasan, a nice read

Wow, some people were using their little grey cells these days. Using them a lot, it seems.
This must be the best topic on MM since I joined.
Nice work my Hercul Poirots a.k.a Drucurl, Stezagud, Zlatanov and Hasan.

You’ve said everything. All that is left for me is to give my prediction :
ManU-Milan 1:1 with Giggs scoring in last minute
Milan-ManU 2:3 with Inzaghi scoring twice for 2:0 and bloody Roy Keane, Dwight York and Andy Cole scoring for Manchester.

Wait, none of them plays for Manchester anymore

Yes, yes, yes , this tie reminds me of the most painful moment of my life as a Juve fan.
Again a semifinal, year 1999, again Carlo Ancelotti, again Pippo Inzaghi, again an Italian team that was the best team in Europe for the past 5 years but was pretty bad domestically in the particular season, again Alex "the most iritating face in the football world" Ferguson and again Manchester United fighting on all 3 fronts and maybe winning everywhere.

fortunately Milan is no Juve, we are better, and we will win

Im scared without Dida we have kalac, oh god pleast not kalac