fgl
Well-known member
:lol:
Was it an ageing Milan side ? Well, considering the same bunch of players !!!
wahahahahahaa ...that pix made my day!!!!
THE FOOTBALL THREAD Vol 2
- Thread starter fgl
- Start date
wahahahahahaa ...that pix made my day!!!!
fgl
Well-known member
WENGER'S VIEW
Arsene Wenger
Wenger: 'We played with authority and maturity'
AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal
Champions League Round 2 Leg 2
San Siro
Tue, Mar 4, 2008, 7.45pm
On his team's performance...
"I have big respect for Milan, but my team deserves a lot of credit - having come here and beaten a team like them. We have given the performance we wanted. We played with organisation and never dropped off. We did not give them time and went forward every time we could. We played with authority, maturity, talent and intelligence."
On growing belief within the team...
"Sometimes as manager, you feel there is something in the team and you know that for them to get a step higher up they have to deliver in a big game like tonight. I hope this will strengthen the belief in the team."
On Arsenal's chances of winning the Champions League...
"The competition is very hard now. It is a cup competition, and you have to take it like that. We will go for it - we are in the quarter-final, so why should we not believe we can do it."
[ Tuesday, March 04, 2008]
Wenger: 'We played with authority and maturity'
AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal
Champions League Round 2 Leg 2
San Siro
Tue, Mar 4, 2008, 7.45pm
On his team's performance...
"I have big respect for Milan, but my team deserves a lot of credit - having come here and beaten a team like them. We have given the performance we wanted. We played with organisation and never dropped off. We did not give them time and went forward every time we could. We played with authority, maturity, talent and intelligence."
On growing belief within the team...
"Sometimes as manager, you feel there is something in the team and you know that for them to get a step higher up they have to deliver in a big game like tonight. I hope this will strengthen the belief in the team."
On Arsenal's chances of winning the Champions League...
"The competition is very hard now. It is a cup competition, and you have to take it like that. We will go for it - we are in the quarter-final, so why should we not believe we can do it."
[ Tuesday, March 04, 2008]
subversion
Moderator
we are football fans, first & foremost 
we should applaud the beautiful game, regardless of the team playing.
we should applaud the beautiful game, regardless of the team playing.
fgl
Well-known member
fgl
Well-known member
In all the excitment - PLASTIC got the 1st post on page 100...
Only 400 more pages to go before Vol III .... :-D
fgl
Well-known member
Milan's old gold has faded badly
Andrew Hush
Following the most impressive display by any team in this year's Champions League, Arsene Wenger's young Gunners are quite rightly being lauded for their magnificent display in the San Siro.
AP
Desolation row: Milan prepare to restart after Fabregas' goal all but ended the tie at San Siro.
Arsenal's total team effort has been identified as the night a team matured, the game in which youthful potential and promise translated into a plaudit-worthy performance.
On the other side, another team also came of age before our eyes. However, there little that was positive about this epiphany. AC Milan were a sad imitation of the side that, less than ten months previously, had been crowned European champions.
Inhibited by age and a lack of overall ability, the Rossoneri had no answer to their superior opponents and, as Arsenal's players danced in celebration on their pitch, they trooped out of the once almost-impenetrable Giuseppe Meazza stadium and into uncertainty.
The build-up to the premier tie of the first knock-out round had focused on youth versus experience. In the young corner was Arsenal's free-flowing game, based on high energy passing and movement while, in the old, was the pragmatic, tactically-based approach of patient Milan.
At the helm of both sides were two highly successful managers that had, in their own way, been able to consistently develop winning teams.
Arsenal's Wenger, with his commitment to youth, pitted his wits against Milan's Carlo Ancelotti, whose own style centred on moulding older players into his system of play.
Could Milan keep up with their younger opponents? The answer following the first leg goalless draw at the Emirates appeared to be yes, as Ancelotti's men left with what they came for. However, there was no panic from Arsenal. Not conceding at home in Europe is often more important than scoring yourself and so it would prove.
Thirteen nights later, Milan simply had no answer to Arsenal, for whom the final score was richly deserved.
That the goals came late was immaterial and only served to prove the point that, no, Milan did not have what it took to keep up with them. Indeed, had the Gunners not been so profligate in front of goal earlier in the game, the tie could have been over much sooner.
AP
Maldini: Footballiing life ends at 40, after 8 European Cup Finals.
The warning signs have been there for some time for Milan. Though they lifted the trophy last season, theirs was a flawed campaign, in which nothing came easy.
Struggles against Celtic and Bayern Munich were overcome before Manchester United took the first leg of the semi-final. Of course, back home, the Rossoneri rolled to a 3-0 win that, at the time, seemed to lay to rest any suggestions that the team was past it. Victory over Liverpool arguably rubber-stamped that theory.
However, Rafael Benitez's side was in control of the final until Pippo Inzaghi struck twice. The warning signs were there and the decay that was evident continued into the new season. Defeat to Celtic in the group stage was a further shot across the bows for a Milan side that, at the same time, was struggling to compete in Serie A, partly due to fixture congestion that resulted from their participation in the World Club Championship.
Despite the indications that not all in the Milan garden was rosy, however, until Tuesday night they remained almost unbeatable at home in Europe. In keeping with the case of many a crumbling empire, their homeland was the last to fall. As Arsenal stormed Milan's castle in the space of ninety minutes, a group that had long been known as an experienced, wily bunch of veterans became old and past it.
In the official first-team squad that Milan submitted to UEFA for the tie, eighteen of the 28 players named were thirty years or older. Ancelotti selected eight of them in his staring line-up for the second leg. Three other thirty-somethings, Clarence Seedorf, Ronaldo and Dida, missed out through injury.
It was perhaps due to their experience that Milan were able to paper over the cracks for so long against Arsenal. Remarkably, until the statuesque Zeljko Kalac failed to deal with a shot from Cesc Fabregas that was eminently saveable, Milan were just one goal away from progressing.
On the whole, however, there was no question that Arsenal were worthy victors, having instigated a tactical game plan to which Ancelotti and his side had no answer. As Milan chairman Silvio Berlusconi lamented, Wenger's side simply would not give the hosts the ball. When they did, Milan had few ideas as to what to do with it.
AP
Ancelotti: End of the road for his tactics and his tenure.
Alongside the veterans, completing Milan's first XI were its creative heartbeats, Kaká, Andrea Pirlo and Pato, the 18-year-old wunderkind. Though, on this night, they were stifled, the trio's class remains and it is around them that the next great Milan side must be built, for the time has come to overhaul the current group.
The question of who gets to build the new and improved Milan team will be the elephant in the club's boardroom for the months to come.
As he admitted on Tuesday, Ancelotti's job now is to get Milan up to fourth place in Serie A to ensure they play Champions League football next season.
It is a stark reality of the club's modest short-term ambition and will likely be the final act of the current manager.
Having won, among other trophies, two Champions League titles and a league championship since taking charge in 2001, Ancelotti has pulled Milan out of the depths into which the club was plunged by the likes of Alberto Zaccheroni, Cesare Maldini and Fatih Terim.
His current contract lasts until 2010 but the chances that Ancelotti lasts beyond the summer seem increasingly slim.
The whispers of potential successors, a list that is sure to be headlined by Frank Rijkaard and José Mourinho, are set to get louder and louder.
In the aftermath of the defeat, Ancelotti admitted: 'I don't think we could have done anything more tonight'. That resigned statement, above everything else that has taken place in recent weeks, should signify the need for a major self-evaluation on the red and black side of the San Siro.
With a manager out of excuses for a team out of gas, the immediate future looks bleak for the seven-time European champions.
Andrew Hush
Following the most impressive display by any team in this year's Champions League, Arsene Wenger's young Gunners are quite rightly being lauded for their magnificent display in the San Siro.
AP
Desolation row: Milan prepare to restart after Fabregas' goal all but ended the tie at San Siro.
Arsenal's total team effort has been identified as the night a team matured, the game in which youthful potential and promise translated into a plaudit-worthy performance.
On the other side, another team also came of age before our eyes. However, there little that was positive about this epiphany. AC Milan were a sad imitation of the side that, less than ten months previously, had been crowned European champions.
Inhibited by age and a lack of overall ability, the Rossoneri had no answer to their superior opponents and, as Arsenal's players danced in celebration on their pitch, they trooped out of the once almost-impenetrable Giuseppe Meazza stadium and into uncertainty.
The build-up to the premier tie of the first knock-out round had focused on youth versus experience. In the young corner was Arsenal's free-flowing game, based on high energy passing and movement while, in the old, was the pragmatic, tactically-based approach of patient Milan.
At the helm of both sides were two highly successful managers that had, in their own way, been able to consistently develop winning teams.
Arsenal's Wenger, with his commitment to youth, pitted his wits against Milan's Carlo Ancelotti, whose own style centred on moulding older players into his system of play.
Could Milan keep up with their younger opponents? The answer following the first leg goalless draw at the Emirates appeared to be yes, as Ancelotti's men left with what they came for. However, there was no panic from Arsenal. Not conceding at home in Europe is often more important than scoring yourself and so it would prove.
Thirteen nights later, Milan simply had no answer to Arsenal, for whom the final score was richly deserved.
That the goals came late was immaterial and only served to prove the point that, no, Milan did not have what it took to keep up with them. Indeed, had the Gunners not been so profligate in front of goal earlier in the game, the tie could have been over much sooner.
AP
Maldini: Footballiing life ends at 40, after 8 European Cup Finals.
The warning signs have been there for some time for Milan. Though they lifted the trophy last season, theirs was a flawed campaign, in which nothing came easy.
Struggles against Celtic and Bayern Munich were overcome before Manchester United took the first leg of the semi-final. Of course, back home, the Rossoneri rolled to a 3-0 win that, at the time, seemed to lay to rest any suggestions that the team was past it. Victory over Liverpool arguably rubber-stamped that theory.
However, Rafael Benitez's side was in control of the final until Pippo Inzaghi struck twice. The warning signs were there and the decay that was evident continued into the new season. Defeat to Celtic in the group stage was a further shot across the bows for a Milan side that, at the same time, was struggling to compete in Serie A, partly due to fixture congestion that resulted from their participation in the World Club Championship.
Despite the indications that not all in the Milan garden was rosy, however, until Tuesday night they remained almost unbeatable at home in Europe. In keeping with the case of many a crumbling empire, their homeland was the last to fall. As Arsenal stormed Milan's castle in the space of ninety minutes, a group that had long been known as an experienced, wily bunch of veterans became old and past it.
In the official first-team squad that Milan submitted to UEFA for the tie, eighteen of the 28 players named were thirty years or older. Ancelotti selected eight of them in his staring line-up for the second leg. Three other thirty-somethings, Clarence Seedorf, Ronaldo and Dida, missed out through injury.
It was perhaps due to their experience that Milan were able to paper over the cracks for so long against Arsenal. Remarkably, until the statuesque Zeljko Kalac failed to deal with a shot from Cesc Fabregas that was eminently saveable, Milan were just one goal away from progressing.
On the whole, however, there was no question that Arsenal were worthy victors, having instigated a tactical game plan to which Ancelotti and his side had no answer. As Milan chairman Silvio Berlusconi lamented, Wenger's side simply would not give the hosts the ball. When they did, Milan had few ideas as to what to do with it.
AP
Ancelotti: End of the road for his tactics and his tenure.
Alongside the veterans, completing Milan's first XI were its creative heartbeats, Kaká, Andrea Pirlo and Pato, the 18-year-old wunderkind. Though, on this night, they were stifled, the trio's class remains and it is around them that the next great Milan side must be built, for the time has come to overhaul the current group.
The question of who gets to build the new and improved Milan team will be the elephant in the club's boardroom for the months to come.
As he admitted on Tuesday, Ancelotti's job now is to get Milan up to fourth place in Serie A to ensure they play Champions League football next season.
It is a stark reality of the club's modest short-term ambition and will likely be the final act of the current manager.
Having won, among other trophies, two Champions League titles and a league championship since taking charge in 2001, Ancelotti has pulled Milan out of the depths into which the club was plunged by the likes of Alberto Zaccheroni, Cesare Maldini and Fatih Terim.
His current contract lasts until 2010 but the chances that Ancelotti lasts beyond the summer seem increasingly slim.
The whispers of potential successors, a list that is sure to be headlined by Frank Rijkaard and José Mourinho, are set to get louder and louder.
In the aftermath of the defeat, Ancelotti admitted: 'I don't think we could have done anything more tonight'. That resigned statement, above everything else that has taken place in recent weeks, should signify the need for a major self-evaluation on the red and black side of the San Siro.
With a manager out of excuses for a team out of gas, the immediate future looks bleak for the seven-time European champions.
fgl
Well-known member
he was..
butl later he went to the Millan stadium loo and crapped out a fergie to relieve the pain in his arse :mrgreen:
fgl
Well-known member
YouTube - AC MILAN VS ARSENAL
highlites of the milan game
highlites of the milan game
fgl
Well-known member
Fabregas - That goal was the best moment of my career
AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal
Champions League Round 2 Leg 2
San Siro
Tue, Mar 4, 2008, 7.45pm
By Richard Clarke
Cesc Fabregas ranks his goal at Milan on Tuesday as one of the best moments of his career so far.
The 20-year-old, who is fast approaching 200 games for Arsenal, let fly from distance with five minutes left to give the visitors a vital lead in the Champions League Knockout Round second leg at the San Siro.
Although Emmanuel Adebayor added another at the death, it was that fabulous Fabregas goal - and the celebration that followed - which stick in the memory.
"It was one of the best moments of my career and I went straight to the boss because without him I would never have had the chance to play in a game like this," he said.
"Maybe I have not been at my best since my injury, but now I feel great once again. This performance has been very important for my confidence. After I had started the season so well and then had an injury, I was not playing the way I used to and I was a bit upset. I needed a performance like this.
"When you look back on your career, these are the nights you are going to remember.
"We have to be very proud of what we have done. We went over to our fans, and you could also see some of the Milan fans clapping. You could see they like this kind of football and that we played well.
"The Milan players all said: 'well done, we hope you win it now'. In Italy, they have a lot of respect."
But respect is not enough, Arsenal need to display the trophies their consistency deserves. Fabregas feel they are 'on order'.
"We only have a small squad and have had lots of injuries," he said. "However, now we have important players coming back, like Robin [van Persie] and maybe next week Tomas [Rosicky] and Kolo Toure. So it is all positive.
"Other teams now know if they let us play, we can be very dangerous. They close us down and defend, we have to try not to make mistakes and just play our own football.
"The spirit of the team is amazing, and we have to keep going. Now, though, we just have to be focussed on Sunday's game - we have to go to Wigan and win there."
GrimRiffer
New member
The CL draw is on 14 March!
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