Lyon VS Milan

Originally Posted by ilgenio

Tiago booked for a shirt tug on Kaka and will be suspended for the return leg

I read the foul was on Sheva (soccernet.com's commentary).
They say "in the heat of the moment".

What a mistake! Tiago will miss the match in Milan!

It's over.

0-0 at fulltime, which means the return leg at San Siro is a MUST WIN game for us, since a score draw is enough to send Lyon through to the semis

Originally Posted by ukrainian_CA

I read the foul was on Sheva (soccernet.com's commentary).
They say "in the heat of the moment".

What a mistake! Tiago will miss the match in Milan!

It's a foul on Kaka. Tiago will miss the return leg but Juninho Pernambucano will be there

Originally Posted by ilgenio

It's a foul on Kaka. Tiago will miss the return leg but Juninho Pernambucano will be there

still, that's better than them both being there.

Kaladze was aerially very strong today, but he made a few careless mistakes in passing that could potentially have killed us.

Originally Posted by Xudong

Kaladze was aerially very strong today, but he made a few careless mistakes in passing that could potentially have killed us.

Actually I think Kaladze was the strongest defender for Milan today. Nesta's passing was very bad today and he looked a bit shaky...

I was disappointed by our 2nd half, but 0-0 isn't too bad even though Shevchenko had a couple of chances he normally scores on.

Forza Milan!

All in all, I am not mad at Milan...this was a tight game, played by two obviously well matched teams.

I think the San Siro may serve as our 13th man, the fans our 12th man, combining to overwhelm Lyon...plus, Sheva and company will create more chances, but will score at home I think.

We must be careful not to concede too many fouls just in front of the box, which could mean us playing deeper in defense, sort of forcing them to come at us, which I am sure they will try to do. This though, may play into our hands, and result in us counter-attacking, something we can be deadly at.

I was dismayed to see how we started to wilt in the latter stages, in light of my condfidence in our claim in being a second half team, which suggests that Lyon may be a more fit side at this point in the season...something else to worry me.

Despite these misgivings, the 0-0 tie was a good result, one that we can take confidence from for the second leg, and this time, Sheva will convert those chances.

I believe.

HOLY shiiiiiit guys they totally outplayed us. The first 25 minutes was all us and Sheva had 2 cut clear chances to score but the goalie saved amazingly. Then after that, it was alllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllll Lyon with the possession. They didnt cause any threat except that fluke of a free kick, it was supposed to be a cross but it bounced and was going into the goal, but dida performed an amazing one-handed save to push it out..

our defence was unbelievably good today.. very very very solid.. gattuso played an amazing first half, he disappeared in the 2nd.. Seedorf was invisibile throughout the game, he didnt do his good stuff, IMO this is because he played a full game vs Fiorentina, the same goes with Kaka and Pirlo. Kaladze played well but made 2 VERY bad mistakes which could have easily cost us the game.

I love Gila guys, but im sorry, this guy is too young and should not be played in big games like these when we have players like Pippo with the form he's in.. He is too inexperienced and only touched the ball once on his time on the pitch and he gave it away.. he really pissed me off.. its not like pippo did anything, but he got called offside 3 times and you can see him working alot and getting involved in the play.. Gila should start in games in Serie A now, not games like these!

a 0-0 is a good result given how the game was flowing, but in general, it is a realy bad result because if they score 1 goal, we must win the game because any score draw will eliminate us.. the way they played also worries me alot, we were totally outplayed and they had all the possession, but thank god their shooting is absolutely terrible! they had 20+ shots, only 5 on target, and none of which was as dangerous as any of Sheva's 4 shots on goal.

and btw, Cris is not good enough for Milan from the performance he put in today, but Diarra impressed me alot. Im very worried about the next game, i really really hope that Carlo does rest all the players for the next game.

Man of the match: Diarra - Coupet - Sheva

They didn't outplay us, they got a high number of shots because they couldn't break down our defence, forcing them to shoot from distance. This game reminded me of our games against PSV last season. There's something about these "smaller" sides, they really give their all against us. The home leg is a must-win, and it's going to be difficult, but I hope we can do it.

Pirlo was poor tonight as was gilardino, inzaghi should start now in the 2nd leg, my man of the match tonight was Gattuso he was everywhere on the pitch i also give credit to Nesta, Serginho and Dida who looked his old self. Gutted that Shevchenko did not put away one of his 3 chances as that would of been the perfect score 0-1: we now have to win Lyon in our own backyard. It will be very tough be am hopeful that we can do that.

I would hardly call Lyon a 'Smaller' side. This is a bit of a wake up call to all those people who said we'd waltz past them. The two teams are very evenly balanced, both made mistakes in delivering final balls, both gave the ball away alot ... we had the chances but didn't take them.

We need to start the next game exactly the same but this time make sure we take 1 or 2 of the chances.

It'll be tough, very tough, but i think we can do it.

We where brilliant in the 1st 30 minutes than nothing. Although Lyon had more shots on goal, our chances where much more clear and Sheva missed 2 'easy' chances for him.
Our defence made some mistakes when launching an attack. but on the whole Nesta and Kaladze did well.
If we will not pass, I will blame today 1st half for not finishing the great chances we had. Today's 0-0 is a tricky result

Forgot to mention Gattuso. What a fighter! He is indispensable to us, great match from him.

For Lyon I actually think Wiltord had a good game, and also Diarra.

I think most of us agree that we don't want Cris

Malouda might be worth keeping an eye on, he's had a very good season so far.

Hard side to beat for sure.
But I think we did the right thing by taking the fight home.
Don't worry too much about their possession play their stikers aren't exactly top draw.