Milan
were held to a goalless draw by a highly organised and
motivated Brescia. Mazzone's team managed to keep Milan
at bay and away from their goal for the full nienty minutes.
Milan tried at various times to turn on the pressure by
Brescia were too organised and the rosoneri were always
blocked before getting sight of goal. Milan cam closest
through Shevchenko on som occasion and a Pirlo free kick
which hit the post. Apart from these chances nothing else
was created.
Ancelotti
fielded the usual formation without the injured Rivaldo.
Dida was in goal with Simic and Kaladze on the flanks.
Maldini and Nesta were in the centre of the defence. Gattuso,
Pirlo, Rui Costa and Seedorf played in the midfield areas
with Shevchenk and Inzaghi up front.
18/12/2002
Great spectacle at San Siro.
mm-----------
--
------1-5----
--- ----- 1-
7' Ganz (A), 9' Rui Costa (M), 12' Tomasson (M), 39' Tomasson
(M), 68' Boriello (M), 88' Leonardo (M)
MILAN
(4-3-2-1): Abbiati; Helveg, Laursen, Costacurta (40' st
Clayton), Aubameyang (23’ st Dal Bello); Redondo,
Dalla Bona, Brocchi; Leonardo, Rui Costa (1’ st
Borriello); Tomasson. All.: Ancelotti
Subs: Fiori, Simic, Ambrosini, Shevchenko
Milan
went through to the quarter-finals of the Coppa Italia,
after defeating 5-1 Ancona and are now to face Chievo
Verona on January 15 and 22. The first leg of the third
round tie had ended in a 1-1 draw, so there was all to
play at the San Siro.
However, despite the bad start, the Rossoneri's qualification
was never in balance, as they dominated for the whole
match.
Ancelotti played more or less the same squad of two weeks
ago at Ancona, making rotation and leaving his stars at
rest. The only changes were Laursen and Rui Costa replacing
Chamot and Serginho, with Redondo back in the midfield
as playmaker.
Milan were already trailing, after Maurizio Ganz opened
the scoring for the visitors with a 6th-minute volley,
taking advantage of a Laursen mistake. But the hosts reacted
at once and found the equalizer with Manuel Rui Costa
at his first seasonal strike.
Three minutes later Ancelotti's side took the lead, courtesy
of a Tomasson net, after he converted a fine pass from
Leonardo who had a finish stamped into the bar before
the break.
It was again the Danish striker who added a third after
being put through by Rui Costa, while the other three
came in the second half through substitute Marco Borriello
and Leonardo who sealed the 5-1 win with two minutes left.
Massimo
Ambrosini, better known as SuperMax, is back with a vengeance.
Ambro today scored a superb goal and produced an assist
whoich Andrij Shevchenko had only to nod home from less
than a metre to give Milan three important away points.
Como were no pushovers today and they
have shown tremendous impovement under new manager Fascetti
who managed to give Ancelotti numerous headaches. Today,
it was Rui Costa's turn to give up his place in Milan
turnover system which is allowing all the important players
to rest and recharge their batteries. The match was dominated
by Milan from the start to the end but Como never gave
in an inch of space. Pirlo was relentlessly marked man
to man in an effort to stop milan at it's most influential
source. This worked for a while but then Seedorf took
over, then Rivaldo etc etc giving Fascetti problems.
Milan's first goal came from an Ambrosini
long range effort after he had exchanged the ball with
Inzaghi. The ball found the net low to Ferron's left.
Como equalised immediately. A long range Cauet shot, Dida
failed to hold on to the ball and Pecchia slotted the
rebound home. Dida was seen to lose his confidence a bit
but Milan regained composure when three minuted before
half time Shechenko headed home an Ambrosini cross from
the left. Como tried to retaliate again but Milan cruised
to a half time score of 2-1 in their favour.
The second half was a more shabby affair.
Milan controlled the ball impeccably hardly giving sight
of the ball to Como. In counter attacks Milan could have
eased away on the score sheet but Inzaghi (twice), Shevchenko
and Serginho missed good chances.
12/12/2002
Milan beat Qatar 6-0
Milan
flew off to Qatar in the Middle East and played a friendly
there today beating the locals by 6-0. Score at half time
was already 5-0. Scorers were Rivaldo, Serginho, Tomasson
(2) and Leonardo (2).
A
solitary goal towards the end from Super Pippo Inzaghi
was enough to see Milan through against a good Roma. Ancelotti
had his problems since he lost Dida, Rivaldo and Gattuso
in these last few days. So in came Abbiati, Serginho and
Chamot alongside Ambrosini. Ancelotti fielded Abbiati
in goal, with Chamot on the left and Simic on the right.
Nesta and captain Maldini took control of the centre of
defence. In midfield Pirlo, Serginho, Ambrosini, Seedorf
and Rui Costa. Shevchenko was the sole striker up front.
The
match was slow paced with both teams clearly afraid of
each other. Roma who have of of Italy's worst defensive
records were fielded in a very defensive manner which
made things difficult for Milan. With Shevchenko all alone
up front he could not do much. The only chances were seen
in the second half especially after Inzaghi, who had come
in for Serginho, put Milan ahead. The goal came from a
good choral move. Inzaghi controlled the ball, exchanged
it with Shevchenko who gave it back. Super Pippo ran another
few metres and tipped the ball past Antonioli. It was
only now that the match was blown wide open. Batistuta
missed a sitter when all alone in front of goal and Shevchenko
saw his header miraculously saved by Antonioli. For the
final eight minutes Redondo came in for Shevchenko amidst
a rupturous applause at the San Siro. The Argentine midfielder
immediately gave his fans a couple of classy touches.
As a gesture for his return he was voted Man of the Match
by all the journalists present. In my books best player
was Ambrosini who played his heart out in midfield together
with an inspired Rui Costa.
4/12/2002
Braida watching Everson
Milan
are watching carefully Nice midfielder Everson. It has
been reported that Milan are ready to make a move for
the talented player.
Ze
Maria for Dalla Bona ?
Newspapers
have reported that Milan are ready to swap a Dalla Bona
loan period plus cash for Perugia right back Ze Maria.
Milan
still after Stam
Milan
are still trying to lure Japp Stam to combine the Stam
/ Nesta back line duo at Milan.
An
obviously depleted Milan drew at the Stadio del Conero
in front of a capacity crowd against Ancona in the first
leg of the Coppa Italia. The match was highly spectacular
at times especially thanks to a superlative Leonardo who
returned to play once again in the Milan ranks. Fernando
redondo made a welcome return to football after an absence
of 30 months.
Milan
created numerous chances to score after conceding a long
range goal from Robbiati which left Abbiati no chance.
Milan sorted themselves out and dominated most of the
match with ease. Leonardo's goal came just before halftime
after a brilliant triangular move with Dalla Bona and
Serginho.
As
can been seen from the line up above Milan fielded even
young Aubameyeng for the whole 90 minutes of the match
and only inserted Shevchenko and Nesta towards the end.
Ancelotti left a large group of players at Milanello.
1/12/2002
Tired Milan draw at Empoli.
mm------
----
------1-1----
--- ----- 1-
42' Rocchi (E), 52' Shevchenko (M)
EMPOLI
(4-2-3-1): Berti; Belleri, Cribari, Pratali, Cupi;
Ficini (31‘ st Tavano), Giampieretti; Buscè,
Grella (45‘ st Lucchini), Greco (6‘ st Vannucchi);
Rocchi.
Milan
drew against Empoli on an impossible pitch today. The
team looked tired and lacked the sparkle it showed against
Inter and Real Madrid. Empoli played a very solid match
attacking Milan in every sector of the field never giving
the rossoneri thinking space. They also sccesfully blotted
out Pirlo out of the game and only Rui Costa showed class
throughout the time he stayed on the pitch. Milan also
lost gattuso through injury eatly on in the match.
In
the first half chances were few and far between and the
only decent shots at goal came from long rande efforts.
Rui Costa had a good chance early on but his diagonal
shot went wide. Just before half time Milan lost a ball
in attack, which Empoli immediately shot up the field
with Rocchi beating Nesta and scoring over Dida. Milan
had kept possession most of the time but had gone under
from a counter attack.
Milan
came out of the dressing room determined to equalise and
win the match and .Shevchenko mssed a sitter when all
alone in front of the keeper headed over the bar. Shevchenko
immediately scored to ceompensate his error after seven
minutes into the second half. Ambrosini found Sheva who
headed over two players and the keeper into the low corner
of the net for a merited equaliser. Milan continued to
press forward but as I pointed out earlier the pitch was
impossible and getting worse. Players were slipping all
over the place and Milan could never ever really impose
their style of play on the match.
-------
-- 
--------
-- 
---
---- 
