Episode #1: Lazio vs. Milan (10-07-2007): A chance to redeem

That was a scintillating performance and a fluent attacking display and a great result no one imagined at the olympico. We have finally played to our full strength and registered an extremely important victory to regain confidence and improve our position in the standings. Most importantly Gila has finally came out from his long drought and scored twice one of which was a fantastic goal orchestrated by Seedord and Ambro. It comes as a reward to his decent efforts throughout the match which were culminated in a rightfully earned penalty and another 100% legal penalty disallowed by the stupid referee and his assistant. Carlos Christmas tree worked perfectly with the sensational Kaka and the hard working Seedorf supporting lone forward Gila. However, tactically speaking, this formation doesn't pay dividends unless we are playing an attacking minded team who share winning ambitions and play an open match and that is why we are very successful with that formation in Europe unlike the domestic campaigns where we are mostly against very tight teams who don't leave spaces behind. With the sole exception of Lazio's approach, we struggled completely in all our league games to create chances let aside scoring. I have to say we were playing against 12 players today the normal starting 11 in addition to the match referee who denied us two clear penalties on both sides of the interval. Of course the inspiration and pace of Kaka in the attacking midfield was the main reason we were always very sharp on the break. Apart from the defensive error that resulted in Mauri's goal when a mistimed Bonera challenge earlier left our central defence exposed when the cross came in we were never under pressure and our defensive setup was at its very best. Anyway this victory comes in a perfect timing and with the international break ahead Carlo can benefit in getting the side over the troubled start. We need to keep going till January and remain on the heels of title challengers and by then we expect a massive reinforcement.

looks like they have a new guy on eurosport.com to write match comments...

13' PENALTY TO MILAN! Gila bursts through and nudges the ball past Muslera.... there's contact and the ref points to the spot!
NO! The linesman claims Gila was offside when Pirlo clipped the ball through and the ref changes his mind! NO PENALTY AFTER ALL! Cue plenty of Milan protests...

What a cracking opening 25 minutes to the game! Two goals, one clear penalty not given and plenty of action at both ends!

Gila is hacked down on his way through on goal! But the ref makes another mistake by deciding to book the Milan man for simulation instead of awarding a free kick! Gila can't do anything right at the moment!

GOAL! GILA SCORES! GILA SCORES! GILA SCORES! The Milan striker runs onto Kaka's ball through and hits a first time effort under the body of Muslera to make it 4-1!

GOAL! GILA GRABS A SECOND WITH A SPECTACULAR STRIKE! What a volley from the Milan striker! Seedorf clips the ball through to Ambrosini, who heads back to the onrushing Gila... bang! Into the roof of the net and it's a rout in Rome!

so cool

No doubt the performance of the season for us. This was a superb game, not just from a Milan perspective but also the quality of football (from both sides as well).

The first half was excellent, we looked much sharper and quicker than previous matches, and highly aggressive. We controlled the whole 45 minutes barring the 5 to 10 or so minutes after our goal, where Lazio did some great work on the left and deservedly got a goal. We controlled the game and it was clear to see the confidence slowly growing as the half went on (especially after the Kaka penalty). Rightly so, we went in at half time 2-1 up. There were some debatable points, mostly to do with the referee.

The second half we were even better. Not only did we dominate, we played superb football with pace, incisive passing, movement, technique, everything. We clearly wanted to put the previous problems behind us and I feel we did do that very well.

Players...

Dida - Very solid, couldn't do anything on Lazio's goal
Oddo - Very good, provided width well
Nesta - The guy never seems to do any wrong
Bonera - Very good, though I felt he overcommitted during the Lazio goal and lost out
Favalli - Not great but solid and what's expected of him
Rino - Very good game, moved up and down the field well
Ambro - One of those who can claim MOM. Defensively a rock, going forward a threat and passing that Pirlo would be proud of
Pirlo - Excellent, so composed, played vital roles in many goals and passing was superb
Seedorf - Excellent, was everywhere and did a great service to the side
Kaka - Another who could claim MOM, goals, assists and a nightmare for Lazio.
Gila - Argubly his best performance in a Milan shirt. I had a very good feeling of him prior to this game as clearly his performances have improved of late. Today he exploded and not only put in an outstanding performance, but even grabbed 2 goals. Like Ambro and Kaka, could claim MOM.

I've said a lot about my thoughts recently on our problems, and today I saw a very different side. Movement, was a huge influence, as players moved all over the field and constantly worked to get into positions the side could benefit from.

Pace/Tempo was another improvement today. The game was played at a fast pace, but we controlled the tempo of the game for almost all 90 minutes. We made very quick moves when attacking, but we also slowed down the pace when we needed.

Our commitment to attacking moves was always important too. Too often when attacking this year we've ended up with Ambro, Rino and Pirlo all staying deep and keeping the ball at the halfway line. Today, every attack we made ALWAYS had one of these three bursting forward to support, which is incredibly important.

Our confidence for me has been a key factor this season and I felt this match was a major turning point for the side. We started out looking to get results without completely looking sure of ourselves. I felt we really worked hard and thankfully, that paid off. However, in the second half it was clear to see the side really grew in confidence and our play and moves was much more natural and free flowing. This kind of result is everything we could have dreamed of right now.

Let's take advantage of the break now to get ourselves prepared for what will be a long road forward this season.

FORZA MILAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

DISASTREOUS REFEREEING

I'm watching La Domenica Sportiva. Collina and few others are guests. Ancelotti and Dellio Rossi also gave their thoughts on tonights match and on their team situation.

I'll write the post after they finish talking about Milan

P.S : By disastreous refereeing i don't mean that the ref was favouring Milan. I mean the opposite

I was only able to watch the first half but after coming back to my computer - Whoah 5 - 1 I'll have to catch up later though.

I;m Just happy that Gila has scored!! More to come now from him.....

Originally Posted by peters

yeah, great game. Still, I always knew milan can perform... the sad thing is, they often just dont want to run as much as they could/should. This game was good for them but now they must keep the momentum - even against smaller teams!

Good game for gila, i dont know if i wanna see his divings (it will piss me off for sure) but i hope he can impose himself like that further on. I want strong performances and determination from him. And if he scores the only goal or two goals in a future match ill be off his back. Man, im off his back already

Yup, like hittman mentioned, i will only say "milan is back" after we win 4th game in a row.

I just overjoy but seeing Gila plays good and scores make me believe of a good run for us in future. We have strength, not like last season. The worst problem is the inability to score of Gila. That make we use proven-not-good pair Gila-Pippo, wait for Ronie in vain, remember even R.Oliveira and Boriello. The rest of our team lost a bit confidence each time we have chance but not score, so the Mids look tired, the Defs and Dida feel uneasy can not concentrate. Lets see how they were when Gila score, feel like a big budden has been thrown away, a trure refreshing.

We actually need some addition but we cannot do anything now. The return of Captain, Ronie and Pato joining are better than any addition. However, we need at least a new player in Winter Mercato, a good one, if we want both Serie A and CL.

Forza Milan!!!

Imagine how many goals there could have been if the ref was a bit better.

Originally Posted by Tony29.

DISASTREOUS REFEREEING

Damn, you scared me for a minute as I'm scrolling and run into such big letters. I have to ask you, as a Juventino, what did you think about Mutu's comments yesterday?

Originally Posted by peters

i will only say "milan is back" after we win 4th game in a row.

True, but at least it's a start.

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

Pirlo wasn't good enough today and lost the ball a few times and had alot of inaccurate passes.

he also had a lot of accurate passes. should have had at least 3 assists if not for dodgy finishing at times and poor offsides calls. he still had an assist and te chip that made the play to seedorf for the cross that mauri mishandled and led to the penalty. he also had some nice plays defensively to boot. i thought everyone in the midfield (really just about everyone period) played very well

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

Another bad thing today was after the 5th goal we did what we alwaaaays do, sit back and wait for them to attack and we nearly conceded twice.

you're kidding, right? a four goal with 10 minutes to go and we should still attack full throttle? that would be pretty classless. sitting back with a one-goal lead, i agree that has been a problem in the past, but sitting back with a 4-goal advantage is smart (conserve energy, though we do have an international break so that is not as important, and less risk for injury) and classy.

Originally Posted by Tony29.

DISASTREOUS REFEREEING

I'm watching La Domenica Sportiva. Collina and few others are guests. Ancelotti and Dellio Rossi also gave their thoughts on tonights match and on their team situation.

I'll write the post after they finish talking about Milan

P.S : By disastreous refereeing i don't mean that the ref was favouring Milan. I mean the opposite

agreed, some of the offside calls, plus the kaka handball should have led to an even bigger advantage for us. please keep us updated on what they say. i don't watch domenica sportiva.

finaly i will sleep like a baby. no let's attack the first spot

FORZA MILAN FORZA MILAN

Originally Posted by pece4ever

finaly i will sleep like a baby. FORZA MILAN FORZA MILAN

Finally, I can enjoy a good meal after the hell from last week.

We are back! Great performance. We could have had 7 or 8. Gila and Kaka were amazing!

Gilardino was prolific at Parma as a lone striker. I think Oliveira also played as the lone striker for Real Betis. Ancelotti has to stop playing with two out and out strikers at least until Ronaldo returns. He plays deeper so should be easier for Gilardino or Inzaghi to play alongside.