Gilardino and Seedorf bring down Shakhtar!
A double from both Gilardino and Seedorf saw Milan win 4-1 at the San Siro against Shakhtar Dontesk to take hold of the lead in Group D.After receiving heavy amounts of criticism, following their home defeat to Empoli on the weekend, Milan were in need of a win. Coach Carlo Ancelotti was under intense pressure ahead of this Champions League tie and the injuries and suspensions where not helping him either.
Dida was serving his one-match ban, after being reduced from two games to one following his diving incident against Celtic, and it was the ever worrisome Kalac that was going to take place of the Brazilian.
The back line had further injuries to worry about as Bonera, Kaladze and Serginho were all returning from injury while Jankulovski will have to be out for sometime following a bad knee injury against Empoli.
Kaká also returned from injury and questions over his fitness had been raised before the game had started. However, all these factors never seemed to worry the rossoneri.
Tonight it was the Milan team that won the Champions League last season; they controlled the game from the start to finish and never stopped attacking. Though, eyebrows do need to be raised over the sloppy defending at times.
Milan were off the mark when Gilardino, who started ahead of the misfiring Pippo Inzaghi, brought his team ahead after six minutes. Gilardino has been under some unnecessary criticism by the rossoneri fans but once again he was inspiring Milan to the few wins so far this season. So much so that the fans started to chant his name around the stadium....finally!
Seven minutes later the boy from Brescia found the back of the net again after a slick cross from Clarence Seedorf, to score his 4th Champio
ns League goal of his career and to double the rossoneri's lead.
ns League goal of his career and to double the rossoneri's lead. The second half saw Milan being put under a bit of pressure from the Ukrainians and with some sloppy defending by Massimo Oddo, Cristiano Lucarelli volleyed home a great goal from the rebound of Kalac's save.
But that was all it was to be for the ex-Livorno man's team as Milan pushed further and they found the back of the net with a fantastic Clarence Seedorf volley after a host of missed chances by the UEFA European Player of the Year; Kaká.
The dutch-man again found the back of the net moments later, from a corner that saw him volley over an even better ball than his first.
From Gilardino's spot-on finishing, Kaka's classic runs at the defence and Seedorf's brilliance; Milan thrashed Shakhtar and deserved so too. Credit must go to Alessandro Nesta for his sublime tackling; he was like a wall in defense today expect for that one miss-hap with Oddo while Kalac also deserves credit with some great saves.
Well Done Milan!!
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Comments
Certainly, they had a lot of space to do their magic and boy did they use it. Against the more organised sides of Serie A they seem to struggle. Nonetheless, with the potential they have, they must break out of their slump soon.
Or is it to be a topsy-turvy season?
I hope they dont turn up at all at the Olympico this weekend cos the gaames at San Siro which is where I am heading!