Semi final - Manchester United vs AC Milan

So it looks like Rio and Vidic will be starting. Excellent

i think it will be Brown + Rio or Vidic.

it would be soo good if at half time its, Milan 0-1 Man Utd.

i wonder what tactics SAF will use today, let Milan pass the ball around in front of you or close them down?

I think he will try and close them down quickly and press the game, as we have the fitter and younger side. I think we will have controlled attacks, were Rooney, Ronaldo and Giggs only really do the attacking.

I think we will play on the counter for the first 60 minutes, then as Milan tire we will attack more.

I never thought I would say this as a united fan, but for one game only, I would be delighted with a Chelsea v Liverpool style goaless bore fest. It wont happen, so I hope we can score as many as Milan do.

VDS

Brown/Oshea-Rio-Vidic-Heinze
Fletcher - Schole-Carrick-
Giggs
Ronaldo
Rooney


I suspect the 3 up front will ROTATE and NOT stick to a regular predicatble position!

The lean and mean scoring machine that is Inzaghi
Pippo Inzaghi may be a figure of fun, but he'll laugh the longest if his goals beat Man Utd.
James RichardsonMay 1, 2007 11:59 PM
Manchester United are arguably the most dangerous opponents in the world of football. Beating them to reach the final will, the Italian media are agreed, need a minor miracle. Still, yesterday's Gazzetta Dello Sport knew how to comfort the fans: "Tomorrow, He's Back!" read the front page headline, across a half-page shot of the centre-forward Filippo "Pippo" Inzaghi. Now who's scared, eh?

The thought of thousands of Milanisti warming their chilled morale with puny Pippo might sound comic; Inzaghi is after all perhaps Milan's least respected player, a man whose extraordinary career has been buried under a deluge of jokes about diving and the famous quip by Sir Alex Ferguson that he was "born offside". But although his spindly frame and perpetual pout have done little to win over fans worldwide, it is worth going back and checking the numbers - over the past decade they show there have been few more effective goalscorers anywhere in football.

In Serie A, 125 goals in 269 appearances. For Italy, 22 in 53. In the Champions League, an Italian-record 40 in only 67 games. Put simply, Inzaghi is one of those things that should not work but do - like bumble bees, say, or the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"I remember the first time Pippo got called up for Italy," a former international once told me. "In training we all stood stunned because his technique was the worst we'd seen, but despite it all he just scores and scores."

"Look, actually he can't play football at all," offers a presumably deeply frustrated Johan Cruyff. "He's just always in the right position."

Not according to most linesmen, who have made Inzaghi a legend for his ability to draw a yellow flag and his moaning about offside decisions afterwards. Still, there is no doubt that positional sense is part of what makes him so special. He plays off the shoulder of the last defender and even though it can be frustrating it is also, as the numbers suggest, frighteningly effective. Ask Petr Cech, left sprawling during the last World Cup after "Super Pippo" sprang the Czech offside trap with practised ease.

But perhaps an even bigger factor in Inzaghi's success is his ravenous appetite for goals. He needs them like few players in the world. He watches and rewatches recordings of his matches compulsively and barely sleeps before games. Aware of the criticism that surrounds him and that he physically does not measure up to other players, he sees himself as permanently on trial.

A rare goal drought during his time at Juventus brought a typically fierce response: "If they're calling me into question, why, that's the end of football." For Inzaghi, scoring is a very, very personal business and any chance, any ball, is seized on greedily.

Recent seasons have only heightened this desire to prove himself. Many thought he was finished after the long sequence of knee, back and ankle injuries that ruled him out of a starting role for almost two seasons. The much-feted arrivals at Milan of Alberto Gilardino last season and Ronaldo midway through this seemed like further nails in his coffin. However, with the Brazilian cup-tied and Gilardino apparently intimidated by club football's biggest stage, the 33-year-old Inzaghi has returned to repeatedly pull off his old trick of being in the right place at the right time. It was his goals which took Milan through their Champions League preliminaries with Red Star Belgrade last summer, and it was his goal (from a slightly offside position, as it happens) which capped the Rossoneri's 2-0 quarter-final win at Bayern Munich. Now comes an even bigger test.

"These are the games you always want to play in," says Inzaghi, who, barring major surprises from the coach, Carlo Ancelotti, will line up as the lone striker. It is the role that suits him best; sharing scoring duties rarely worked well for him, as his stormy relationships with Andriy Shevchenko and Alessandro Del Piero attest. At Juve, Del Piero would often pull up short, waving his arms in exasperation as Inzaghi ran off to mount another one-man assault, oblivious to his team-mate.

Now, however, Inzaghi can have the services of Clarence Seedorf and Kaka all to himself as he strives to prove his critics wrong once more. He has not taken the field since the Bayern game but he says he is fit and "in good shape". He is also pretty buzzed at having his photo back on the front page.

"I'm flattered everyone's counting on me. It's so important to feel that trust, because that really helps me," says Inzaghi. "But I am convinced that to beat Manchester United we will need a great Milan performance, not just from me."

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Pretty scary scoring record, it has to be said.

The linesman is the only person who should be scared of Inzaghi

Sir LRD - what result do you foresee great Knight?

I am going for thrilling 1-3 i think we will turm them over - and comprehensively.
I never predict games - but am condifent! The old swagger is back!
Lets whip and thrash Milan like dogs says i...!

3-1 is pushing it.

A 1-1 draw will do me.

Nutters, I love your optimism. I think it will be 1-1 or we will lose 2-1 and go out on away goals, I would be surprised if we won at the San siro.

3-1 would be some result. But I wouldn't be surprised given your record in Italy over the last ten years.

0-0 would be my guess.

Well i tried to LESS optimistic v Roma - we beat them by 7! Then i was beeing less optimistic v Milan we beat them by 3 after going down to 1-2 - actually i KNEW we would win that game as i did during the Everton 0-2.

Once you see these guys live - you see how good they REALLy are.
Head and shoulders above the likes of L'pool and Chelsea.

So i remain steadfast....we will conceed 1 and the gloves will be off...and we will TROUNCE them!

Cesc wrote:3-1 would be some result. But I wouldn't be surprised given your record in Italy over the last ten years.

0-0 would be my guess.

I think there will be at least 2 goals, I think we will probably concede a goal, but I also think we will get a goal. But we will see, 0-0 is very unlikely

0-0 is HIGHLY unlikely!

Just for info it has been raining heavily all day, not sure what that could do to the surface, but anticipate it being more difficult for the defenders. Neither team has a good defence (or keeper) at the moment so I anticipate some goals. Maybe the surface will suit the English style of play more.

Should suit Man Utd's play then. Its always pissing down in Manchester!

Not so good to return from injuries though.

United to go through 1-1

110% wrote:Just for info it has been raining heavily all day, not sure what that could do to the surface, but anticipate it being more difficult for the defenders. Neither team has a good defence (or keeper) at the moment so I anticipate some goals. Maybe the surface will suit the English style of play more.

The great enigma that is 110%, at first I thought you were French, then an Arsenal fan, then Liverpool then non of the above. You live in Milan, but you're not a seri a zealot like the other Seri a fans on the board, so I am guessing you're not Italian either.

You would think we would be used to the rain, as a Manchester club, but I dont think it will make much of a difference to the game. Unless there is torrential rain, in which case it may disrupt Milans slick passing which is good for us.

Luis wrote:United to go through 1-1

Thanks Luis, congratulations for yesterday! To be honest its better when everyone writes us off, as we normally win when that happens. Everyone seems to think we will get to the final, which is starting to make me think we wont.

The build up is hell Rez, so many thoughts rush through your head, but once the final whistle goes and you realise you're through it's all worth it

Tweedle wrote:

Pirlo wrote:

Tweedle wrote:Getting excited now. This should be a proper game of football. These nights are what the CL is all about

I'm off work today. Got a university day so will be down the pub from 5pm with a prime-location seat

Watching it in a great pub for football as well, it'll be well and truly rammed with both Milan and Utd fans (its in the Italian area of London).

Which bar you going to?

I drove up to London for the first leg in Bar Italia, fantastic atmosphere,

Don't quite know what i'm doing tonight, depends on what the rest of the Milanisti group are doing, but i'm getting very excited!

Its near Exmouth Market. I don't want to tell you in case you hunt me down and kill me
:

Al's Bar?

I was there the other night.

Can anybody tell me who is out for the two sides, and who is in danger of being banned for the final?

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:Can anybody tell me who is out for the two sides, and who is in danger of being banned for the final?

Gary Neville the only absentee for Manchester United tonight .. Vidic and Rio are back, Evra is suspended.

Ronaldo , Scholes & Heinze .. 1 yellow from missing the final

Maldini for Milan .. but he will be absent tonight, according to Ancelloti and he himself has said this.

Ahhhh Ronaldo and Scholes might miss the final??? That would SUCK for all the neutrals!!!!

Oleguerisntthatbad wrote:Ahhhh Ronaldo and Scholes might miss the final??? That would SUCK for all the neutrals!!!!

Scholes is the one the fans are worried about if Manchester United reach Athens .. to miss 2 European Cup finals due to suspension is a tragedy.

I hope he, Ronaldo and Heinze conduct themselves in a professional manner, remember its a European Cup tie and don't 'jump' into the tackles and be cautious .. hopefully if the side goes through all 3 will be available.

Don't really care if Heinze is banned to be honest

Think Ron will be fine, but you just know Scholes will do one of his trademark terrible tackles, I really hope the ref is lenient because he'd be a great miss should Utd progress, for the team and for the viewers.

waft the hapless youth wrote:Think Ron will be fine, but you just know Scholes will do one of his trademark terrible tackles, I really hope the ref is lenient because he'd be a great miss should Utd progress, for the team and for the viewers.

Is he better off being suspended for the final or being sent off in it?

Although watching some of his comical attempts at tackling is fun for the viewers it's not what we want to see in the final

Anyway carrick seems to play better when he is not there so could be a plus.

I do not know what you can say, it really is open and both teams are equal on their potential to go through. Here's to a good match and a Milan win.

Bad news for united, according to sky Ferdinand will not play as he hasnt recovered from injury. Vidic is set to start though.

Gutted about Ferdinand as we need him more than ever tonight, as he is usually brilliant against footballing sides and he would do a good job containing Kaka.

Advantage Milan