MILAN VS MANCHESTER UNITED, San Siro - Milan

First Leg Man U VS Milan 3:2.
Milan only needs to win 1-0 or 2-1 to go to the final, but the word only seems to undermine Man United capacity to pull a surprise in Milan tonight.
Milan will miss the service of Paolo Maldini for the second leg.
Genaro Gatusso will be joining the team in the mid field along with Seedorf, Ambrossini, Kaka. and Pirlo. Super Pippo will likely play as the lone striker, while the back four consists of Oddo, Khaladze, and Jankulovski.
The brilliance of the managers is much needed tonight to concoct the correct formula of a winning team. Ancelloti has described reaching to Final in Athens as Utopian Dream.
quote"
Back in the autumn, Milan were languishing at the wrong end of Serie A. A league points deduction and a shortened pre-season had affected form and confidence; Athens looked a long way off. Now, though, the resurgent Rossoneri stand third in the table and one match away from booking their third final in five years. "At the start of the season I said that getting to Athens was a Utopian dream," said Ancelotti. "But now this dream is becoming a reality. This side showed great unity through the tough times. That has brought them this far and now we're confident because we're playing well and we're close to our objective."
unquote"
Milan has indeed shown great unity through tough times.They started the Serie A campaign with 8 points deduction over the Calciopoli Scandal, but have shown great Champion mentality to reach the Semifinal (they are the only Italian Club left amongst the EPL Clubs). Their home form in Serie A read 12:2:3 28:14. The 3 losts have been to Palermo, Inter and Roma.

Manchester United needed to defend their 1st leg advantage, but position isn't safe yet for the Red Devil. Ironically, both teams have the same nicknames of being the Red Devil. Which shall be the true Red Devil in this competition shall be proven tonight......or should I say the lesser of the 2 evils? ha..ha..puns very much intended, guys...
Man U shares the same away record in EPL of 12:2:3 36:15. The 3 lost was to Arsenal, Westham and Portsmouth.
Vidic and Ferdinand might join the team for this game but Evra is suspended. Heinze might resume his post at the left back, with Wes Brown/ O'Shea on the right flank should Vidic and Ferdinand both play. Center-field would have Fletcher, Giggs, Scholes, Ronaldo, and Carrick.
Leaving Striker Rooney solo. It is almost similar with Milan.

I was much impressed with Man U bounce back over the weekend from a deficit of 2 goals in the first half against Everton, and winning it back by scoring 4 goals in the second half to end the game 2-4 at Goodison Park. This is sort of Mentality that Man U has shown that make them a true fighter. Man U can hold out Milan and forced them to a draw 1-1 or 2-2.

Should Man U strikes the goal first, that will force Milan to launch attack and opens up their defense. If this scenario happens then, there will be lots of goals to watch and this would be a great game to watch. Fearing the worst would be if Milan scored first and they would clam up to hold to that 1 goal then this would be the other scenario. Hope the first would turn into reality, for the sake of the people who actually stayed up for the game in Asia. : )

Football Round Ups

English Premier League:

FT	Chelsea	2 - 2	Bolton W.
FT	Everton	2 - 4	Manchester U.
FT	Blackburn R.	4 - 1	Charlton Athletic
FT	Manchester C.	0 - 2	Aston Villa
FT	Middlesbrough	2 - 3	Tottenham H.
FT	Portsmouth	2 - 1	Liverpool
FT	Sheffield U.	1 - 0	Watford
FT	Wigan Athletic	0 - 3	West Ham U.

ITALIAN SERIE A

FT	Torino	0 - 1	AC Milan
FT	Fiorentina	1 - 0	Chievo

FT	AS Roma	0 - 0	Lazio
FT	Ascoli	2 - 3	Reggina
FT	Livorno	1 - 2	Palermo
FT	Messina	0 - 0	Atalanta
FT	Parma	2 - 1	Cagliari
FT	Siena	0 - 2	Sampdoria
FT	Udinese	0 - 1	Catania
FT	Inter Milan	3 - 1	Empoli

SPANISH LA LIGA

FT	Atletico Madrid	0 - 0	Real Betis
FT	Valencia	2 - 0	Recreativo Huelva

FT	Celta de Vigo	0 - 3	Mallorca
FT	Getafe	1 - 0	Real Sociedad
FT	Gimnastic	0 - 3	Villarreal
FT	Osasuna	2 - 2	Zaragoza
FT	Racing Santander	0 - 0	Deportivo La Coruna
FT	Sevilla	3 - 1	Espanyol
FT	Barcelona	1 - 0	Levante
FT	Athletic Bilbao	1 - 4	Real Madrid

GERMAN BUNDESLIGA

FT

Bochum

2 - 1

Schalke

FT	Alemannia Aachen	0 - 4	Hertha BSC
FT	Bayern Munich	1 - 2	Hamburger SV
FT	Borussia Dortmund	2 - 0	Eintracht Frankfurt
FT	Mainz	1 - 2	Hannover
FT	Monchengladbach	0 - 1	Stuttgart
FT	Nurnberg	1 - 1	Wolfsburg

FT	Arminia Bielefeld	3 - 2	Werder Bremen
FT	Energie Cottbus	2 - 1	Bayer Leverkusen

It has been a thrilling week, Serie A title has been decided to be Inter's. Man United drift further to top the league with 5 points cushion from Chelsea. Title chase is getting hotter in La-liga as the 3 contenders (Barca, Sevilla & Madrid) obtain the full 3 points last weekend.
In Bundesliga the title race is even hotter as only Stuttgart obtain a full 3 points, whilst Schalke, Bremen and Muenchen failed to pull thru on the weekend.

Champions League

Liverpool goes Athens. FT score Liverpool VS Chelsea 1-0.
The Reds won penalty shootout 4-1, thanks to brilliant keeping of Jose Pepe Reyna.
Great mentality shown by Liverpool. Could history repeat itself and give us another thrilling episode of Milan VS Liverpool again for the final in Athens. They had done it once in Istanbul in the Champions League final of 2004/05, and there's a good chance this could occur again.
I am reviewing the Milan VS Man U game on a separate post.

CHAMPIONS LEAGUE SEMIFINAL

CHELSEA VS LIVERPOOL - Stamford Bridge, London

A very intriguing match to predict, this one. Yesterday, I wrote a bit on the four managers of the semifinalists. I wish to dwell further into the blues manager, Jose Mourinho a.k.a the special one.
Mourinho is probably one of the most controversial manager of the modern football. Whatever speeches or commentaries he made would surely shrouds with controversies. I.e this morning edition of the mirrors:
quote"

Bitter Jose slurs Rafa’s Kop record

Jose Mourinho last night taunted managerial rival Rafa Benitez: if I had your record, I would have been sacked by now. The Chelsea boss reopened hostilities with Liverpool ahead of tonight's Champions League semi-final with a bitter blast against Benitez. In an amazing whinge, Mourinho blasted the Kop gaffer's failure to win the Premiership title since he took over at Anfield three years ago. (John Cross, Mirror)

Unquote"

Last Sunday was the remarks on conspiracy on Chelsea, as his team was robbed over the penalty over the handball that Carr made in the box.
Last year was the comment on voyeuristic Wenger having only the ability of watching and fantasizing about the premiership title.
He does lots of pre-games Psych war, which off course exactly what the media is looking for. Sensation and Controversies, SELL. Truth, who's buying? : )
I am not saying he's a bad manager, in fact he's an excellent manager. He knows exactly how to handle his players (that include boss Kenyon & Roman...tee hee). he knows what tactics to apply on the field and he's a great motivator (apart from Roman's money off course).
One of his most used tactics is to tire the opponent out and spank them as their tired legs failed them. Chelsea has a team filled with players who are prime in stamina and moreover, they have more than enough to talented players to make the opponents run the extra mile during the game, implementing the accurate long passes throughout the games, using techniques and speed of his strikers to drain the stamina out of his opponent, last step was to punish them at any blunders they make. Solid defence, formidable midfield and lethal strikers is what Chelsea had reincarnated into since he took over from Ranieri. Goals are coming from every line and there's so much variant to the formation that he could use. Chelsea's target in every match was to win and not concede. The play style is anything but flamboyant. "Wham Bam, thank you fans" is another way to put it. BUT they do deliver results and that's what matters.

Previous meetings in of the 2 Clubs :
2004/2005 Champions League
Chelsea VS Liverpool 1:0
Liverpool VS Chelsea 0:0 ( Liverpool had gone to lift the trophy against Milan in the final)

2005/2006 Champions League
Chelsea VS Liverpool 0:0
Liverpool VS Chelsea 0:0 (Group qualifying round)

The question in this match is not "who can outscore each other but rather who can defend better?"
Based on the above analysis, we should then look into their record this seasons in the Champions League:

Chelsea 6-3-1 16:8 Liverpool 7-1-2 17:7

HOME : 4-1-0 8:2 AWAY: 3-1-1 8:4
AWAY : 2-2-1 8:6 HOME: 4-0-1 9:3

CHELSEA HOME FIXTURES : Liverpool Away Fixtures:
BREMEN 2:0 W Eindhoven 0:0 D
BARCA 1:0 W Bordeoux 0:1 W
LEVSKY 2:0 W Galatasaray 3:2 L
PORTO 2:1 W Barca 1:2 W
VALENCIA 1:1 D Eindhoven 0:3 W

Chelsea will be without Essien (sanction). Carvalho & Ballack doubtful . Robenn long absentee
Liverpool - clean bills of health.

I had watched the game where Liverpool slayed PSV 3-0 on their turf. They are simply good. They had beaten Chelsea before, and they have Benitez as manager. Despite what Mourinho says in the paper, I am sure he wouldn't undermine Benitez capability of analyzing Chelsea's strength and weakness.

Very tough call, but decided that I am opposing the goalless draw that often appear in the past and go for a 2-1 win for Chelsea. If Barca can snug in 1 goal, and Galatasaray can put 3 at the back of their net, then Chelsea has the capabilities to do the same.

Cheers