UCL SF 1st Leg: Manchester United vs. Milan

Nadir, it's good to have you back. I don't agree with everything you said (or should I say at least based on the way I've perceived it), but it's nice to see some intelligent posters return.

As for this thread, many of the posts in it are disgusting, and quite frankly reek of a loser mentality. We controlled and dominated the game for about 60 minutes, at times even toying Man U. We lost two of our most important players (and captains) through injury during the game (a rare occurance in football) against argubly the best team in Europe, which not only has a massive negative effect on the pitch, but also with what we can do with subsitutes. This was also against a team that has won all of it's home matches in CL this year. We didn't play fantastic, because we lost our control of the game, but we certainly weren't second best out there last night. We have 2 away goals, and need to win against a team we have shown we a more than capable of beating, yet here the mood is one of already being out of the tournament.

Quite frankly I want nothing more to do with this thread, and I pray that no one from the club sees it. I feel embarassed as a Milanista by the pathetic attitude shown here.

Originally Posted by OCmilano

I watched the game and I honestly thought we played well with what we have.. But we lost steam 10 min. into the second half.. I hope we play hard @ the San Siro and pull off a win and proceed to Athens. Can someone just tell me the scorelines that will get us through please...

1-0, 2-0, 2-1, 3-1, 4-1, 4-2.....3-2 means extra time, any draws or lose then we go out.

What can I say? 3-2 isn't such a bad score at Old Trafford, specially considering this is one of the worse Milan seasons in years, and ManU are having an amazing season. It hurt that we again let a good lead, but its not even near as bad as say Istanbul or La Coruña.

The moment that turned the game around was Gattuso injury he was having an amazing game and he was shutting down United's midfield perfectly. It wasn't Brocchi's fault either, he did good but he just wasn't as great as Gattuso (and he lost the ball at the 91st). I just gotta ask: who made the pass to Kaka for the second goal? Set pieces continue to be a huge problem for us, almost each time they had one, it was danger zone.

I too fell for the imediate trap of blaming both Gila and Dida just after the game. Later with a colder head I saw the game again.

Alright, Dida's mistakes did have a direct impact on the result. Sucks big time, cause out of those 2 mistakes he did he had a fantastic game and at the same time if you remember clearly both the first goal and the third goal happened after we lost the ball in the midfield (Ambro lost it, and it lead to the corner kick, and then Brocchi), and that my friends has been a problem for us all year long. We lose the ball too easily on the midfield, and a team like United will make you pay that. My problem with Dida had always been corner kicks, but I'm starting to get worried about the way he defends his small angle in fast plays (Barcelona, Munich and yesterday).

Gila, oh Gila. At first for me he was like playing with 10 players. But watching closely, his movements and all, his first half (the second was awful, but that was bearly his fault) was a pure heart in that half (and the commentator on ESPN said around the 41st minute said "what I game he has had even if he hasn't touch the ball, he has been defending, he has kept Heinze in his zone(I don't agree with that part, though, but he could have been right)"). I read comments in here and xtratime saying he looked like he didn't care, and at first I agree with it, but after watching again, he was ran from defense-offense, he created spaces pretty well, he even gave 2 or 3 good passes that lead up to a good chance for us. I also critized him for not asking for the ball, then there was a play where he was asking Maldini for the ball (and Maldini could have made a perfect pass to him just like the one he did for Pippo vs Bayern) and Maldini passed it to Kaka. In reality, good chances in the whole game he had like 1 at most, which makes it really hard to judge him as a striker (and there was like 5 times that the midfielders could have made a deep pass to him, but I don't know if it's lack of faith in him, they prefered the complicated play).

And call me crazy, but I believe his game suits Kaka much better than any other striker: with the exception of the pk's vs AEK and Bayern and the goal vs Anderlecht away, Gila was our striker in the rest of Kaka's goals (and I include the pk vs Anderlecht, cause the pk was done on Gila).

Since we need a goal on Wednesday, I will surely start Supperpippo, but I'm convinced that for games that scoring is important but we also need a lot of tactical game, I would put Gila. But trust me, if Pippo receives the service Gila got yesterday...he won't save us either.

That being said, we have still got really good chances. Considering we usually get too overconfident with results, probably a loss is better than a 2-2 tie which would have had us playing a laid back game, and I lost my faith on "laid back Milan" about 3-4 years ago.

Originally Posted by rt9

We produce great football, score goals, put ourselves in supposed positions of advantage and then throw it all away because we are unable to close games out. This game should have been sealed at 2-1. How many times have we thrown away leads? HOw many times have we conceded on set pieces? How many times have we conceded in the final minutes?

You know we do win a couple of crucial matches during the final mins too so i don't see how the team could be blamed for it...things like this happened all the time, you are lucky sometimes and unlucky on others. Man U is certainly riding on their luck in their home games, maybe they put a curse on their ground but fear not cos the second leg is in SS where the great Milan always turn up.

I just forgot, I really liked Oddo's job yesterday, he played really strong defense, and he wasn't too bad in the attacking part. He basically didn't let C. Ronaldo fool him.


Also I believe our Ronaldo would have scored 2 goals....but that wouldn't have changed the end result (as in Kaka wouldn't have scored his 2 goals, and we would have still conceeded the 3 goals we conceded, Kaka plays more the midfielder role when Ronaldo is in, while with Gila, Kaka plays more advance, that's why I believe that, I could be wrong).

Originally Posted by Tony29.

Inzaghi is uncomparable to anyone else.
I'm convinced we would have seen even less of Pippo but i can't say he wouldn't have scored.

If Pippo was playing Kaka wouldn't have missed his chance shooting over the bar. No, Kaka would have kicked the bar, the ball would have bounced to O'shea's back, then it would have bounced to Brown who would have tried to clear it but he would have missed it, then Heinze would have tried to shoot the ball out of the box but he would have shot it directly to Pippo's ass and watch how the ball goes into the net !

That's why Pippo's unique and i deliberately kept him out of the list

I like this, Inzaghi is just a very unique player. You can be sure everybody miss the ball and thought it would go out and he would suddenly appear and tap the ball into the goal. He is just such a player. I hope Gila can rub some of that magic off Inzaghi.

Originally Posted by mly

I just forgot, I really liked Oddo's job yesterday, he played really strong defense, and he wasn't too bad in the attacking part. He basically didn't let C. Ronaldo fool him.

But he let C.Ronaldo did his stepovers and CR did wrong footed him a few times but other players covered up that. And Gatusso didn't so he really pale in comparison, maybe Rino is just too good, Rino shut down ronaldinho and CR so well....Rino is definitely the best DM i have ever seen.

Yeah man.. whats the point of whining about how crap this player and that player is..
we've obviously got to work with what we got.. i do tend to agree that Gilardino was a lil invisible in that match but every player has his and her off days.. we were playing with a single striker on the night and we should have known his strength and weakness but as a whole i think it was more of a tactical error than the player playing too badly as the supply of balls to gila not played to his strengths..

Anyway we got another leg to go at the san-siro and we still can go through if Milan play to their best of ability..

Our main problem last night was that we only played football for 60 minutes, but a football match lasts for 90 minutes ++.

I'm not sure if we started to only defend from that moment because Ancelotti wanted us to or if the players were too exhausted to run for more than 60 minutes. Whatever the reason, it was alarming. If it was a tactical move, then it's something we can change until next match. If it has to do with our players' fitness level, then there's not much we can do about it in a week...

Originally Posted by mly

I just forgot, I really liked Oddo's job yesterday, he played really strong defense, and he wasn't too bad in the attacking part. He basically didn't let C. Ronaldo fool him.

I was also impressed with Oddo's performance. He was consistent and strong.
I thought Gilardino threw himself about well, off the ball, he did nothing wrong.

As for the game in general, I would have been content with a 1-0 loss at Old Trafford. But a 3-2 loss is so much better with two away goals!

Btw How is Gatusso?

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

Nadir, it's good to have you back. I don't agree with everything you said (or should I say at least based on the way I've perceived it), but it's nice to see some intelligent posters return.

As for this thread, many of the posts in it are disgusting, and quite frankly reek of a loser mentality. We controlled and dominated the game for about 60 minutes, at times even toying Man U. We lost two of our most important players (and captains) through injury during the game (a rare occurance in football) against argubly the best team in Europe, which not only has a massive negative effect on the pitch, but also with what we can do with subsitutes. This was also against a team that has won all of it's home matches in CL this year. We didn't play fantastic, because we lost our control of the game, but we certainly weren't second best out there last night. We have 2 away goals, and need to win against a team we have shown we a more than capable of beating, yet here the mood is one of already being out of the tournament.

Quite frankly I want nothing more to do with this thread, and I pray that no one from the club sees it. I feel embarassed as a Milanista by the pathetic attitude shown here.

thanks. why do you think i don't come here anymore. There're just too many bandwagon jumpers who require instant gratification from the team without really having any clue about Milan, Serie A, or the game in general. Disagreeing like an adult is acceptable - being aggressively critical towards our players (or even rivals) is just childish. And a large portion of the members here belong to the second category. If they are indeed kids, eventually they will grow up - so there is hope. if not -

Here are my matchs ratings

Dida 1
Jank (why was he defending the middle of the pitch?) 3
Maldini 6
Bonera (a disaster waiting to happen) -1
Nesta 6.5
Oddo 3 (Not CL class)
Gattuso 6.5
Ambro 4
Seedorf 5.5
Pirlo 4
Brocchi 2
Gilardino (man, I root for this kid, but. . .) -10
Kaka first half 10, second half 5

Bring in Kalac, Cafu and Pippo for the 2nd leg

Do a Google News search on Dida (both English and Italian) and you'll see what I'm so upset about. Gazzetta.it voted him the worst player of the game last night, and there's Carlo's standard "defense"/Monday morning quarterback of his performance. Then search other Milanisti and you'll find nothing.

I swear to God, this is becoming a witch hunt.

Originally Posted by BMWTaylor

Do a Google News search on Dida (both English and Italian) and you'll see what I'm so upset about. Gazzetta.it voted him the worst player of the game last night, and there's Carlo's standard "defense"/Monday morning quarterback of his performance. Then search other Milanisti and you'll find nothing.

I swear to God, this is becoming a witch hunt.

Why are you so in love with dida he desvered his 4.5 in Gazzetta... I just dont know how you can lose the form he had of 2-3 years ago he was the best in the world

Originally Posted by eltomas2

we lost but those that say that C. Ronaldo is the best player in the world are thinking twice after seeing MILAN'S KAKA...I love it when kaka steps on the accelerator and all of a sudden everyone around him seems to turn into little kids trying to catch up to him, hehe, we lost but ManU was not that much superior to Milan, the fact that we lost will give us an extra-motivation at the San Siro

Kaka did pretty much alot last night, he could have finished the game in second half, too bad.

good luck in san siro and i predict a milan win.