Milan Mini-Preview
By: Corey | November 2nd, 2009
Real touched down in Milan today for the game that should decide who tops the Champions League Group C. Right now the group is poised for a run away leader, with Marseille and Zurich canceling each other out as they both compete for the more likely UEFA cup spot, while Milan and Madrid see this clash at the San Siro as the decider, although points cannot be assumed against the other two sides just yet. Milan go in to the game with a strong win against Parma to move up the table, while Real had a similarly rejuvenating win against Getafe at the weekend. Based on current form it seems Milan has the edge, and the psychological advantage after the win at the Bernabeu a fortnight ago.
But the Real Madrid squad had this game circled on their calendars the day the groups were announced, and the circle probably got a little thicker and more violent looking after the loss at the Bernabeu. Surely this is the match of the round, as some of the other big teams all seem to be doing battle with Eastern Europe this week (Manchester United, Barcelona, Inter Milan). Unfortunately the idiots who run Fox Soccer Channel have stuck to their guns when it comes to the EPL bias broadcasting schedule, as Real will not be shown live, but instead Manchester United will be shown against CSKA Moscow. How many people are actually going to watch that is my question?
None the less, we will be glued to our computer screens, or for the fortunate few who can view the game live on a proper television. Here is the shakedown of Group C:
Its not a must win for Real Madrid or AC Milan, but it would make things much more comfortable. Marseille and Zurich in an ideal situation will draw, which leaves even more comfort room for either Milan or Real. But with Real having a home game to Zurich, and Milan a home game to Marseille, the odds must be in their favor to both progress out of the group. Considering the shakedown of some of the other groups though, finishing 1st or 2nd may not be as big a deal in terms of getting an opponent for the next round. Surely Inter and Barcelona will qualify in some order, so there is no avoiding that, while Lyon looks like they will top Liverpool, so second place teams may be more dangerous this year around. Group winners may be the ones that are there for the taking.
AC Milan Team News:
I dont read a lick of Italian, so it was not easy for me to track down the official squad list. But given Leonardo does not vary his selections all that much, I came up with this:
————Dida————-
Oddo—Kaladze–T. Silva—Zambrotta
——-Ambrosini–Pirlo———
Seedorf—————–Ronaldinho
———Pato—Inzaghi———
I base this not off the match against Parma but how Milan lined up in the Bernabeu. Possible alterations include Antonini in for Zambrotta, Gattuso could be preferred in midfield and Inzaghi may be sacrificed for Flamini or gasp Klaas Jan Huntelaar! Ignacio Abate is also an option for a wide player in place of Seedorf, but Clarence had a stunning game against Real at the Bernabeu, so Leonardo will probably use a similar lineup. Milan is a very compact side, and its hard to say just how they will attack, but most likely Pellegrini will use Arbeloa to keep the attacking from being to lop sided on the left.
We know the danger comes from Pirlo, so Pellegrini would be wise to let the wing backs worry about Seedorf and Ronaldinho and let Xabi and Lass press Pirlo when he is on the ball. The trouble is that Pellegrini rarely has his team press the ball, instead letting the other team either give the ball back with a turnover or get a shot off. Against a team like Milan, we need to press the ball more, because has many people have mentioned, we are good with the ball, but crap without it. Limiting the amount of time Milan has on the ball will go a long way to deciding this game. The Italians are also probably expecting us to counter attack, so they will play a high line for an offside trap in order to condense the amount of space we have to work with.
Along with pressing the ball, Pellegrini should look in to exposing the space left behind the Milan rear guard. We saw against Getafe that Higuain is adept at running on to balls to feet, so hopefully we can play some quick balls out of the midfield for our forward to run on to. We will need to keep possession as well, but varying the attack seems to be the issue at the moment. If we have an opportunity for a break, take it, otherwise move the ball through the lines and look for an opening. Against an organized defense that opening will not be as apparent though, despite the loss of Nesta to a facial injury.
Real Madrid Team News:
SQUAD LIST:
Goalkeepers: Casillas, Dudek, Adan.
Defenders: Arbeloa, Pepe, Sergio Ramos, Marcelo, Drenthe, Albiol.
Midfielders: Gago, Kaka, Lass, Xabi Alonso, Van der Vaart, Diarra, Granero.
Forwards: Raul, Benzema, Higuain, Van Nistelrooy.
Drenthe returns to the squad simply because you bring 20 players along on a Champions League match day. Guti and Metzelder have been left behind yet again, and the “castigo” of Guti continues according to Marca and AS. Could it be true that Pellegrini is keeping Guti out of the squad because their was a blow up? If there was, then both player and coach lied about it and I am none the wise for believing it, but to me this is Pellegrini’s way of showing strength within the squad. Now if only he could properly motivate the players to win games against third division sides!
A well rounded group should pan out much the same way it did against Getafe. I would suspect Benzema is to drop to the bench since Raul was “benched”, but really was rested for this match. Say what you will, but in Champions League games the captain provides much needed experience on the field, and he can always chip in with a goal or two. Higuain may prefer to have Benzema as his partner though, as he commented that he is on a similar wave length as the French striker. Albiol will stay in central defense as well despite his red card against Getafe, which is under appeal from the Real management. The only question is, who will be playing left back?
———–Casillas————
Ramos—Pepe—Albiol—Arbeloa
—Granero–Xabi Alonso–Lass—
——Higuain——-Kaka——
————Ruud————-
That is my ideal lineup for this match. I do not think Pellegrini will play anything close to that, but I can see this getting us a result. As for what Pellegrini will most likely use, this is what I am predicting:
———–Casillas————
Ramos—Pepe—Albiol—Arbeloa
——-Xabi Alonso–Lass——-
Higuain——Kaka——Marcelo
————-Raul————
I would much prefer we use the pace of Higuain along with the steady hold up play of Ruud. Being a little light on match practice though, he probably wont start. Raul, if he does not drop deep every time he wants the ball, could work in a similar manner to Ruud, but he will drop deep a lot and that kills our attack. We have no one to make runs, stretch the defensive line or even just be a decoy. If we push Higuain further forward it might work, but he is not a point man either, as he drops deep and wide often as well. Benzema also drops deep, so you see the problem here. Ruud is the answer to that particular issue. Negredo would have been too.
Game is at 2:45 pm eastern time, the usual Champions League affair. If you find a good stream for the match leave it in the comments for others to use. My class on Tuesday was cancelled, so I will be able to watch the match live, but as you can see by the rather abrupt preview, I have yet another test on Tuesday night. Microeconomics this time, but this will be the last one until finals roll around, so I will have more time to blog.
I am expecting a win simply because we need it. Pellegrini needs it, the team needs it and the the CL group needs it. Should be a cracker, and I will be here during the match posting my impressions. See you then. HALA MADRID!
Category: Team News
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Real – Milan
Overall 1st half was great…second half poor
1st 45 mins was the best I have seen Real play this season – this does not mean that they played like the best team in the world…far from it – They still looked far from polished – However the foundation was there and we can build on it
Benz and Higuain has to start and with CR 96 returning we can only get better –
But it might take another 2 months for this team to reach it’s full potential – enough time to make a serious run in the Champs League once the knockouts start in February.
But let’s see how we progress – I think Pelligrini has to stick with this starting 11 and get them to gel even more
Hala Madrid
Posted from
United States
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Agreed with muhammad, we are pretty poor in the 2nd half although there is a few good chances i think we are psychologically scared with Milan’s fast counter.
Posted from
Malaysia -
yerr James well said, Lass is awesome and he can afford the odd loose pass because of the amount of running he does. I wouldn’t use Diarra wit Alonso unless there is a 3 man midfield, just don’t think there is enough running there. I’m not sure though with Higuain, Kaka, Ronaldo and Benzema all working, they just seem to direct and i can imajine all 4 of them within 10 feet on the edge of the area, but you lot seem convinced.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
oh yh no question Arbeloa left back rest of the season, done.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Well I think it won’t be ideal with the four of them because we have two forwards who like to play through the middle, kaka who likes to play in the middle behind them and only ronaldo as the wide player. However, I think with the talent assailable, it will be enough.
I don’t think we’ve been suffering from ‘Cristianodependency’ or whatever that stupid name is, but it’s suffering from no natural wide players. When Cristiano got injured, it became painfully obvious. It’s not that we don’t have the talent to succeed without him, it’s just that three or four guys are playing right through each other. There is no one who is spreading the defensive line the way Ronaldo did. Marcelo played well as a LW and considering he’s only 20 years old, I think if he’s developed the right way he can become very useful for us. We also have a very, very good winger in Pablo Sarabia. I would love to see him get some opportunities to at least train with the first team. Since we’re really lacking players who can play wide, I think it’s a perfect chance for him.
I agree, I hope Arbeloa is now our LB, at least for the tough opponents. I’m hoping that Pellegrini saw some potential in Opare because he did call him up for training a week back. Opare could develop well training with Sergio Ramos.
P.S. Why is Garay always injured!?
Posted from
Belgium -
dunno James, but seeing as Albiol is banend for Atletico we could do with him back. Or have Ramos as CB as he is awesome there.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Ramos is very good as CB. I doubt he’ll put in Metzelder in for Atletico after his Alcornon performance. It will probably be, Arbeloa, Ramos, Pepe, Marcelo/Drenthe depending on the line up in the front.
Posted from
Belgium -
Interesting this new role of Lass, I can only think it’s as Pellegrini’s instructed. From the few games I saw of Liverpool last year Alonso played deep with space to pick out long passes with Mascerano mopping up. Lass however has been given a different role, which leaves him rushing back and commiting fouls from behind. Diarrá has seemed quite slow this season and think will be resigned a lot to the bench.
This article suggests we should be more patient with Alonso who has improved the last couple of matches
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2009/nov/04/steven-gerrard-xabi-alonso-liverpoolPosted from
United States -
Hi guys, Milan fan here. Very interesting game last night, Real did better with the ball, especially in the first half. Milan countered quite dangerously, mostly through Pato. In the end we should be happier with the draw because we’re first on head-to-head…we’ll see how the last two rounds play out.
The ref made some disputable calls and some clear mistakes. I don’t want to get into a ‘who got hurt by the ref more’ sort of discussion, in fact I hate those. So while leaving the penalty and the disallowed goal out of this, I’d like to ask you one thing. Since some of you seem to like Arbeloa’s performance as LB…is it just me or should he have gotten about 5 yellow cards last night for constantly chopping down Pato without the ball, American football style? In a few instances, Milan would take the ball in midfield and next thing you see is Pato being pulled down before the ball is even sent his way.
Posted from
United States -
Im not going to argue about the penalty because there is no point. You are all just as biased in Real’s favour as i am in Milan’s so i don’t think we’ll agree on it haha. All im going to ask is what was Pepe’s arm doing in the air? If it was by his side, fair enough, but it didn’t need to be so far away from his body in the air. Think about it, if it had happened in Milans defensive box, what would you think? penalty? Just for the record, if that had been the case, i wouldn’t have been happy at all with the decision, but deep, deep down, i think that i would realise that it’s probs the right call
Posted from
Australia -
Jovan: Arbeloa was roughing up Pato, but after the first few fouls, Pato was flopping all over the place. If the first few fouls did not get the ref’s attention, then going down anytime there was contact was not going to help either. Arbeloa is not a dirty player, so I do not think he was trying to hurt Pato, but he played him the right way.
Pepe’s arm was in the air because when a person is in motion, his arms extend from his body to maintain balance on the slide. I dont know about you, but I can play football with my arms at my side at all times, or even with my hands behind my back. No one has that kind of balance, and in the slide tackle, its impossible to not slide with control of your body if your arms not providing you balance.
When the ball plays the hand, which would have been the case with the Pepe call, then its not a penalty/foul. On replay, it looks to me like the ball hit his armpit. That is part of his body, not his arm. Ill put it to you this way. If Pepe’s arm was at his side, the the ball would have hit his bicep and been a clear penalty. It was not, and his armpit, theres a difference. That was what happened Antonio, which is why many people were upset with the call. In real time it was a difficult call, but in the modern game ref’s feel it necessary to call handballs even if they are not 100% positive. Replay technology or the extra ref behind the goal line should be used in my opinion.
The other thing I will say is that the English commentators on the match (British) both agreed it was not a penalty, and that it was a “debatable” and “phantom” penalty. Very rarely do announcers openly criticize the decisions of the referee.
Posted from
United States -
Yer was REALLY happy because we havn’t had a good performance at left back yet, as Drenthe and Marcelo are SHIT, was a very nice site to see lolz
He wasn’t even looking at the ball so i don’t think he moved his arm towards the ball, it just hit it, and like corey said when sliding theres not much you can do to move your arm away from a ball like 5 yards away. Like i also don’t think that foul Lass did on Ronaldinho was a foul, Ronaldinho hit the ball round him than ran into him, how could Lass move out the way.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
Same old Real! RM is a tier 2 European team without Cristiano Ronaldo! What a shame he had to get injured!
Posted from
United States -
237 posts
not bad at all
Raj what game did you watchPosted from
United States -
So spanish papers are taking turn in dissing us today the only one that’s saying anything positive is marca ,
Dumb ass barcelona rag el mundo says that we have been helped by milan , WHAT!?Posted from
United States -
Andres i dunno man, i don’t much about spanish papers, but everyone seems to hate them so i wouldn’t worry.
i’m sure this will cheer everyone up, apart from me…
http://www.goal.com/en/news/12/spain/2009/11/04/1604074/real-madrid-star-cristiano-ronaldo-could-return-for-atleticoPosted from
United Kingdom -
Tier 2 european team eh???Why don’t you go and spend your time on your teams blog rather than ours…Trolls all over the place…
Yes Andres read that news from El Mundo…they say we have been helped coz of the friendship between Perez and Galliani…But then what else could you expect from a Barca rag.Posted from
India -
Zizou haha I bet that deep down you’re happy that he might play this week end
Prathz yea I know but even for a barca rag that claim was unbelievable
Speaking of barca it looks like they won’t take the 3 pts today kazan are defending like maniacs and almost scored just now , the game is at the 74th minPosted from
United States -
Wow the barca game is getting interesting rubin kazan just wasted a golden chance the best one of the game
Posted from
United States -
Some great ongoing discussions here that will keep on.
- on the Lass/Alonso midfield. Both players (in my opinion) are playing well defined roles. Before the season began, I, like many in this forum, assumed that Lass would play the deep defending role and Alonso would play further up, distributing. Not as far up as Guti, but from the center circle, where he wouldn’t stray from, assuming the role of holding mid. Pellegrini clearly has a different idea, one that once tuned, I’m very excited to watch.
Others have pointed out the difference between Lass’s method of defending and, say, Yaya Toure’s. Toure, or Senna even, plays positional defending, cutting off channels, anticipating the next play and then shutting it down. Lass is much more similar to Gattuso. He attacks the player with the ball, gets in their grills, bullies the ball. Xabi, on the other hand, is much better at the former, and in concert Lass can harry the man with the ball while Alonso moves in stealth to shut down passing options. (This is getting long, but please bear with me).
Another reason why this method is smart is the players’ passing abilities. Xabi is much better suited to smartly place a long pass, and to quickly read field and pick out a channel. This is an important quality for a team that aspires to control possession, though is clearly better suited to counter attack. Changing the direction of play in a flash creates a counter-attacking movement while most of our players are still on the attacking half of the pitch.
Lass, on the other hand, is much better at holding the ball (a talent that some of you -Andres!- hate, but I think is extremely valuable) and to make quick passes and then move towards space. Offensively, he’s a poor man’s Xavi. Pelligrini signaled that he’d be given attacking/play-making responsibilities by assigning him the number 10, so no one should be surprised. If you don’t like the decision, so be it. But you should probably get used to it!
Sorry for the long comment, I’d be interested in hearing everyone’s thoughts!
Posted from
United States -
yer right Andres can’t wait, and Puyol was hard in that game, all the other players, even some of the Rubin were wearing gloves, warming stuff underneath, scarves wereas Puyol out there in short sleves!
When we don’t play Kaka then i think we can play a 4-3-3 with both Diarra’s, but as we played out best football against Milan in the 1st half, we should stick with Lass and Alonso, i don’t mind him dribbling with the ball, but i don’t think he should be making forward runs down the wing like he did against Milan.
Posted from
United Kingdom -
COrey, completely spot on in your explanation about sliding tackles, I guess people who’ve actually played the game can understand all the range of motions involved in a tackle
And NO, it wasn’t a penalty, the problem was that the ref had a bad angle, and the play happened really fast…
Posted from
United States -
I think we should keep the same team for the derbi…
Nah!!, wishfult thinking on my part, I think the lineup will go like this:
Iker
Arbeloa – ramos – pepe – drenthe
lass – xabi – marcelokaka – raul – higuain/ruud
Posted from
United States -
About the game, 1st half specially early, Madrid was very good. Lass-Alonso-Kaka controlled the middle with Benzema moving everywhere and helping. Pirlo was in a bad day, Milan mildfield and attack line had too much distance between them. Madrid didn’t manage to make good chances though cause whenever we reached the box, we either had some poor shot or the final pass just wasn’t good enough. There’s generally a mentality from Pellegrini for much freedom up front and that sometimes has negative effects.
Second half, Madrid slowly lost control in the mildfield, players started getting tired and they kind of settled with the draw. At that time (~60′) Pellegrini should have refreshed the mildfield, we got such quality it’s just a shame not to use them (Gago-Diarra-Granero-Vaart). But, as usual, he didn’t do any early subs so Milan became more dangerous. The subs came late, Raul and Ruud came in and immediately we got back in the game and created a couple of chances.
About the ref, in the Pato goal he propably thought there was some kind of push/pull, he was very far from the play. The replays showed it propably was a clear goal. About the penalty-handball, it was the right call specially from the angle the ref was there was no way he wouldn’t give it. Just an unlucky moment for Pepe. The ref generally was mediocre at best. He wanted to let the game going but he allowed too much of the pushing/pulling and that clearly advantaged Milan who were much more physical than Madrid.
About the group, things have gotten very complicated. Madrid might actually win the next game (Zurich home), reach 10 points and stil not qualify for the 16! To put it simply, if Milan wins Marseille, Madrid finishes propably 2nd and if Milan doesn’t win, Madrid has a chance to get the 1st place with a good result in France.
Posted from
United States -
game was already played madrid 1.1 millan the score.madrid is my team 4 life we r winning the chamption’s league hala madrid
Posted from
United States
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