AC Milan, the Arsenal of Italy

Berlusconi's Milan.

Just like Arsenal, from the English Premier League, a team previously used to always go for the title, but which in recent seasons apparently decided of its own accord to relax its ambitions drastically. Very much like the Gunners, the Rosso-Neri also seemingly said "forget the trophies, we want to get as many points as we can with the cheapest players we can keep at the club". That is, while at the same time pretending to the fans that they still have some chance to make it to the top.

But, really, what can be expected of a team which, when they play a recently newly-promoted team, have to face, and struggle against, the most famous player on the pitch (because he is playing for the other team)?!?!!

Yes, indeed, the best and most well-known player on the field of play between Hellas Verona and AC Milan was playing for Verona!

I'm talking about Luca Toni, of course, who not only showed up but also made significant efforts to show the Milan team who's who, and scored the two Verona goals, both of them headers.

Verona - Milan 2-1.

And, just like its owner, Milan is (already) in trouble.

Highlights:

Italy - UEFA Club Competitions Participants - 2013-2014

Juventus Turin --> Champions League Group Stage
SSC Napoli --> Champions League Group Stage
AC Milan --> Champions League Play-off Round
AC Fiorentina --> Europa League Play-off Round
Udinese Calcio--> Europa League Third Qualifying Round
SS Lazio Roma --> Europa League Group Stage

Cue the Comeback

As well as Milan played three weeks ago, they fell into an even bigger extreme today.

Barcelona outplayed them totally, and Milan looked like a third-division squad playing against the masters of football.

Still, Barcelona could have suffered if Boateng had managed to hit the frame of goal, instead of the post, with his reasonably-good effort in the 38th minute, just seconds before Messi ridiculed the inexperienced Milan defense for the second time in the first half.

But the point is that Barcelona needed only 55 minutes to turn the aggregate completely, from 0-2 to 3-2.

Where was the amazing defense from the Giuseppe Meazza? Should we attribute all that was achieved then to luck?

Very, very pathetic, for an Italian team! Almost as pathetic as the final of Euro 2012.
Enough said.

Stupid, Retarded UEFA Rules!

I must say, it seems to me that UEFA decision makers are getting dumber and dumber. And no, I'm not talking about the decision to have the next Euros comprise of 24 teams.

I'm talking about having the main tie-breaking criterion between teams tied on points in the Champions League be the direct results between the teams in question.

How moronic is that?
How idiotic is it, huh, Mr. Platini?

Let's look at it, group by group.

Group A is, surprisingly, unaffected by this rule.

In Group B, Schalke can even lose, no matter by what scoreline, as long as Arsenal does not win in the other match, and still win the group. So, a team that might get crushed - it will not happen, by I'm just saying - 7-0 by someone as weak as Montpellier could still win that group. Stupid!

In Group C, Malaga has already won the group, courtesy of their better head-to-head record against AC Milan. So, then, both Malaga and Milan have nothing to play for in the last matchday. Very stupid!
Luckily, as far as the struggle between Zenit St. Petersburg and Anderlecht goes, their direct encounters ended 1-0 and 0-1, so that will be decided by goal difference. They will have to show up and play, if they wish to finish third and continue in the Europa League. Thank God (for almost nothing)!

Group D also has a decided winner, Borussia Dortmund, because of their better record against Real Madrid. Not that Borussia was not the best team of the group so far, but if they lose at home to Manchester City, on the last matchday, nobody would then say that they were, pound-for-pound, the best overall team if Real beats Ajax and gets the same number of points. (You gotta play well all your matches to be most appreciated!...)
Man. City, likewise, cannot not win their last match, if they want Europa League play, even if Ajax loses 200-0 in Madrid.
Extremely dumb!

But Group E is the worst.
You know, someone watching Juventus - Chelsea (3-0), and not having been aware of these fucked-up UEFA rules, might have thought that Juventus kept pressing, even at 2-0 and with 10 minutes left, because they knew every goal would count on the last matchday and Chelsea would have played Nordsjaelland (a team that is very likely to lose 6-7--nil). Actually, though, NO!
Thanks to any kind of win over Chelsea, and with a point in Donetsk in two weeks ' time, Juventus can then be assured of progressing over Chelsea, last year 's winner.
Even a 1-0 victory for Juventus would have been enough to secure that advantage.
3-0 was a result that brought Juventus no more benefits than a 1-0 would have.
And another unfortunate result of this obvious lack of intelligence from UEFA officials is the fact that Shakhtar Donetsk is already in the round of 16. Yes, they have secured their place, because of their direct results over Chelsea (2-1 and 2-3, away-goals rule) and now Chelsea can only at best tie Shakhtar on points.
So, Shakhtar has only first place to play for, on the last matchday, and clearly a draw in their direct match would satisfy both Shakhtar (who would win the group) and Juventus (who would go through, leaving Chelsea out).
How much do Chelsea fans hate UEFA for these senseless rules?
So, so retarded!!!

In Group F, Bayern leads over Valencia, even though Valencia has a better goal difference. (The two teams are tied on points, yes.) And all Bayern needs to do is match the number of points that Valencia gets on the last day, to win that group.
Also, Lille cannot go to the Europa League, even though they are clearly better than BATE at the present time, even if they win their last match by an astronomical score, and BATE loses theirs by an astronomical score, too, to boot. Why? Well, because stupid UEFA said 1-3 and 2-0 means the team that scored the three goals in that one match will beat the other team, no matter what else happens, if they're tied on points at the end.
Also, retarded!

In Group G, Benfica needs to match Celtic's result, but luckily for the surprising Scottish outfit (who beat Barcelona) Celtic plays Spartak at home while Benfica has to take on Barca away.

Group H contains another team that might be seriously screwed by this deficiency in thinking clearly exhibited by UEFA officials: CFR Cluj.
The Romanians have to go to Old Trafford, needing to beat Manchester United. And, even then, they have to hope that Galatasaray does not defeat Braga in Portugal. (And Braga cannot even finish third anymore. They will be bottom, and might only be playing for pride, if even that.)
Potential scorelines Man. U. - Cluj 0-5 and Braga - Galatasaray 2-3 would allow the Turkish team to qualify. If that happens, wouldn't that be fucked-up, retarded, and unfair to Cluj?
Realistically, all the Transylvanian team can hope for is for them to get a point in Manchester, and for Galatasaray to lose to Braga.
They could score, and score, and score, in England, and still get kicked out. Thanks to some serious incompetence from UEFA!

Italy - UEFA Club Competitions Participants - 2012-2013

Juventus Turin --> Champions League Group Stage
AC Milan --> Champions League Group Stage
Udinese Calcio --> Champions League Play-off Round
SS Lazio Roma --> Europa League Play-off Round
SSC Napoli --> Europa League Group Stage
Internazionale Milano --> Europa League Third Qualifying Round

Juve Finishes Unbeaten

Their last game, at home against Atalanta, meant another victory for Conte's team.

Juventus - Atalanta 3-1
[1-0]  10' Luca Marrone
[2-0]  28' Alessandro Del Piero
[2-1]  83' Stephan Lichtsteiner (o.-g.)
[3-1]  90' Andrea Barzagli (pen.)

Final standings:
1 Juventus  38 23 15 0 68-20 +48  84p
2 Milan  38 24 8 6 74-33 +41  80p
3 Udinese  38 18 10 10 52-35 +17  64p
4 Lazio  38 18 8 12 56-47 +9  62p
5 Napoli  38 16 13 9 66-46 +20  61p

Juventus finishes the league with 0 losses!
Amazing.
How many people would have bet on them to achieve this, before the season started?

After this title win, Juventus now has 28 official titles. (2 were stripped away from them after Calciopoli.)

And I have to talk about that bad aspect of Juventus' title celebration, even though the positives of this season are perhaps more deserving of being analyzed.
I understand the Juventus officials want to put three stars on their equipment for next year. That symbolizes 3 x 10 titles won, and would mean that Juventus still does not want to accept the 2006 Calciopoli penalty as legitimate.

That is the wrong way to go, seriously.

The offense has been proven, it probably goes even deeper than what the evidence showed, and the new, hard-working Juventus people might be better off not peeling off old scars that took so long to heal.

Focus on the present, and on the good side of winning this title, I would dare to say, instead of trying to bring up an argument that you can't win!

Anyway, though, leaving that aside, Juve could win the Italian Cup, too. They're playing Napoli, in the final, next Sunday.

Juve Takes Advantage

Juventus became the Italian champion for season 2011-2012 today.

The team from Turin won, 2-0, away, at Cagliari, and was able to celebrate the title win after this second-to-last match because Milan lost and the difference in the standings between the two teams is now 4 points with one match left.

Juventus showed good form against Cagliari, scoring through Vucinic (in minute 6) and Borriello (74), and making their fans forget about the two points dropped against Lecce a week ago.

AC Milan, on the other hand, began by conceding the first goal to Inter in the 14th minute. (That was the first of four they would concede! Pathetic, isn't it?! That was, essentially, the difference between the two title contenders: How they fared against inter: Juventus, 6 points; Milan, 0. And there goes the title.)
Although Ibrahimovic brought Milan level before the interval, and even put them ahead in minute 46, that was all Milan could muster. Inter got two penalties, and the lead again, by the 79th minute. And then, close to the end, Maicon made sure Milan was down for the count (and out of the title race).

So, Juventus finally succeeds in winning a Scudetto after the Calciopoli scandal.

Was it deserved? Probably so.
And the unbeaten run sure is very impressive.

Highlights from Cagliari - Juventus 0-2:


Highlights from Inter - Milan 4-2:

Juve Not So Infallible

Gianluigi Buffon caused Juventus to drop two points, at home, today, against Lecce.

A simple pass back was fumbled by the experienced Juventus goalkeeper, and Bertolacci was agile enough to counter Buffon's moves, ending up with the possession of the ball, alone, with the empty net in front of him. This was in the 85th minute.

Up until then, Juventus had taken the lead, through Vucinic, in the 9th minute, and they were apparently playing calmly, waiting for the final whistle.
You can't always play like that, though. Sometimes, you have to look for extra insurance or you risk getting punished.

And Lecce did it again, just like they did it at Lazio, a few matchdays ago.

Milan won, 2-0 at home against Atalanta, and are now just one point behind Juventus. But they have to play Inter next.

Highlights from Juventus - Lecce 1-1:

Ювентус - Лече 1:1 by FootballKing2192

Highlights from Milan - Atalanta 2-0:

Mil 2-0 Atl tvgoals.net by tvgoals1

Milan From Bad to Worse

Not per se. Drawing against Bologna is not worse than losing against Fiorentina. But being three points behind Juventus is worse than being just one point behind.

What's going on with Milan?
A month ago, they couldn't stop winning. Now, they can't stop dropping points.

After Ramirez's goal, in the first half (in minute 27), Milan should have had an equalizer late in the second half, when Ibrahimovic was wrongly judged to have been offside.
So, Milan had a goal disallowed erroneously. Would that have turned the game around? (Maybe...)

The same player, though, Ibrahimovic, finally found the back of the net almost at the death, when he tapped in a ball that completely wrong-footed the Bologna goalkeeper.

And Milan also did have a header go just slightly past the goal post, in the very last seconds of the game.

But the fact was they dropped two more points, and Juventus seems to be unstoppable at the moment.

Milan is on 68 points now, while Juventus managed to reach 71, by crushing AS Roma, 4-0, at the Juventus stadium.
The Scudetto race is not over yet, but it seems more and more like it would be won by The Old Lady (Juventus).

See highlights from Milan - Bologna 1-1 here.

Highlights from Juventus - Roma 4-0:

Juventus 4 - 0 AS Roma footyroom.com by Futbol2101

What a Huge Fuck-Up by AC Milan!

This was very unexpected.

A couple of matchdays ago, Juventus blew Fiorentina away, 5-0, in Firenze.
Who would have thought Fiorentina would come to the Giuseppe Meazza and beat Juventus' rival, AC Milan, away from home, only two weeks later?

Milan led at half-time, thanks to Ibrahimovic's penalty (in minute 31).
But, in the second half, Jovetic (47) and Amauri (89) showed great composure to put away two fine goals as the Milan defense was crumbling down around them.

A stunned Milan stadium thus witnessed an AC breakdown not often seen in recent seasons, and the Milan fans had yet another unpleasant surprise to deal with, 3 1/2 hours later, when it became clear that Juventus would beat Palermo and reached top spot in the Serie A again. (The final score in Palermo was 0-2.)

Highlights:

AC Milan 1 - 2 Fiorentina All Goals & Highlights by Anatolly7

Milan Scores But Fails

Barcelona is through to the Champions League semifinals after defeating AC Milan 3-1 at the Camp Nou.

The two goals that were enough to make Nocerino's equalizer (from minute 32) insignificant came from, who else but, Messi. Two penalties were awarded to Barca in the first half, one in minute 11 and the second in minute 41, both of which were coolly converted by the CL top goalscorer this season.

Iniesta's goal, eight minutes into the second half, simply made sure that Barcelona would not have a very nervy finish in this game.

Indeed, Milan could not muster anything else in the remaining portion of the game.

And, I gotta say, if I had to assign blame for Milan's exit, I would place it all on the shoulders of Nesta. I mean, really, what the hell was he thinking grabbing the shirt of a Barcelona player in his own penalty box and not letting go for so long? How idiotic!
That sort of thing is not even done in Italy anymore! (Imbecille!)

That killed Milan's challenge when the Italian team was doing quite well, and it was a very unprofessional way to destroy some hard work from Allegri's squad.

See highlights here.

Milan Stumbles

Catania did not let AC Milan leave with all three points from Sicily.

The team from the southernmost place in Italy that claims the honour of having a Serie A team managed to tie the score at 1-1 early in the second half, and kept it as such till the end.
Robinho scored expertly, in the 34th minute, after Zlatan Ibrahimovic held off two Catania defenders and tricked a third.
But, in the 57th minute, some bad defending by Milan allowed Nicolas Spolli the opportunity to score from 1-2 meters, following a corner kick.

Milan had some chances to win it, afterwards, including one where the ball was cleared off the line, but they only got the draw.
They could watch Juventus pull to within two points of them, unless Napoli has something to prove at the Juventus stadium on Sunday.

Highlights:

So Far, So Good... Or Is It?

Well, Milan did not screw up the encounter against Barcelona, at the San Siro.

0-0, after the first leg, is not bad, considering Barcelona is still in top shape.
And who knows what could happen at the Nou Camp? If it's 2-2, like in the group stage, Milan would be advancing...

And Allegri's team played really well defensively today, closing down Barcelona.
The Catalan team still had the better chances, but not as many as they usually get.

To boost Barcelona's hopes, too, though, they have not lost at home this season, so there's also that, in addition to the Barca power and prestige.

Thus, it should be a very interesting return leg, with all still to play for.

Juventus Wins the Derby D'Italia

Inter Milan stumbled to another defeat.

Juventus maintained themselves in the race for the Scudetto by winning at home, 2-0 against Ranieri's team.

After a first half that was very close, Juventus dominated the second half.
Martin Caceres opened the scoring, with a close header, on a corner kick. This was in minute 57.
14 minutes later, Del Piero scored with great finesse, sending Julio Cesar, the Inter goalkeeper, the wrong way.

Towards the end, The Old Lady could have easily made it 3-0.

Juventus remains four points behind Milan.
And Inter remains in eighth.

As an interesting factoid, Claudio Ranieri said after the match that Buffon, the Juventus goalkeeper, was the difference between the two teams. Personally, I think that better composure in front of the opposing goal was the difference. Juventus had that for most of the second half.

Highlights:

[www.online-soccer.ru] Juventus 2-0 Inter Milan... by all-goals

CL yes, Coppa Italia no

AC Milan is out of the Coppa Italia.
And they were ousted by their bitter rivals, Juventus Turin.

(Hmm, out of the Coppa Italia, but still in the Champions League...)

Although Juventus opened the scoring, through Del Piero (in minute 28), Milan came back in the second half, with two excellent goals, courtesy of Djamel Mesbah (50) and Maxi Lopez (81).
Because Juventus had won in Milan, 2-1, at the beginning of February, the game went to extra time.

But the game was in Turin, and probably that counted for something because Juve scored the decisive goal, that was enough to take them through, in the first half of extra time.
Vucinic was its author, with a spectacularly powerful shot, from way out, in the 96th minute.

Juventus then hung on, for the next 24 minutes, to eliminate Milan out of the Coppa Italia.
They will face the winner of Napoli - Siena, in the CI final. (Siena leads, 2-1 on aggregate, after the first leg.)

Highlights:

[www.online-soccer.ru] Juventus 2-2 AC Milan ALL... by all-goals

Finally...

It's a big day for Juventus.

Finally, they get a win.

And what a win, too! 5-0, way from home, in Firenze.

Everything went perfect for Juve. 2 goals in the first half, 3 in the second half, and Fiorentina had absolutely no response on the pitch.
Five different goalscorers: Vucinic, Vidal, Marchisio, Pirlo and Padoin.

At long last, there's one team over which Juventus did the double this season.

Highlights:

[www.online-soccer.ru] Fiorentina 0-5 Juventus... by all-goals

But Milan also won, so Juventus does not gain any ground as far as points totals are concerned. (It's more of a moral victory.)

More Draws Than Wins

Juventus drew again. 0-0 at Genoa.

The Turin team now has 13 wins and 14 draws, in Serie A 2011-2012!

Oh, man, is this ever getting ridiculous for them and their fans!

Of course, Genoa is not exactly the team that does not perform too well at home, but when is Juve going to win again?
Maybe the actual question is are they ever going to win again this season?

AC Milan is probably the new Serie A champion, because I cannot see Juventus recuperating these four points based on how the entire season has gone.

See the uninteresting highlights here.

Not Enough, Sorry!

What a first half at the Emirates stadium in London!

The way Arsenal pressed forward, and was scoring goal after goal due to Milan's lethargy, made everybody, not just Gunners fans, to believe that Arsenal could, and maybe even would, be able to turn this tie their way.

In just minute 7, Koscielny was left totally unmarked by the Milan defense, and he put it in with a quick header.

19 minutes later, a bad clearance put the ball right at the feet of Tomas Rosicky, whose medium-powered shot was just good enough to beat Abbiati, on the goalkeeper's left-hand side.

And, then, in minute 41, Oxlade-Chamberlain was taken down in the penalty box by Mesbah, and the penalty kick was converted, one minute later, by van Persie.

The fans were going crazy.

But that was it, though.

Arsenal had one big chance to make it 4-0, at the middle of the second half, but both Gervinho and van Persie were foiled by Abbiati, who was probably Milan's man of the match, to say the least.

Milan had a good chance to score, too, in the last 10 minutes, but they have to be reasonably happy with the result, in the end.
After all, they succeeded in defending very effectively a one-goal advantage, away from home, for a little more than 45 minutes.

Arsenal definitely tried their best, but unfortunately for them Milan woke up in the second half of the game.

And thus Milan became the first quarter-final contender of this year 's Champions League.

See highlights here.
Highlights:

Arsenal v AC Milan by pilkook

Juventus, Not Again?!

Juventus messed up yet another two points at home. Out of their 12 (!) draws, 5 came at home, including the latest mishap, against Chievo Verona.
And Juve has not beaten Chievo this season. (If they were to go head-to-head, as a matter of fact, based on the results in the league, Chievo would eliminate the Turin team on away goals.)

After going up one goal early in the first half, through De Ceglie (minute 18), Juventus saw that advantage cancelled by a late goal from Boukary Drame, in minute 76.
Juventus tried to get the winner, but they just still do not seem to have enough strength to keep getting good results. I would have said "to keep winning", but the draw in Milan last week, although not a win, was still a performance worthy of praises.

But this draw, however, was not.
Chievo is not really the team to create serious problems to title contenders.

Most important, though, looking at AC Milan 's impressive win in Palermo, it has become clear that Milan should win the title, unless something really weird happens and they start doing much worse.
And there's only so much not losing to the big rivals can do for Juventus.

Highlights from Juventus - Chievo 1-1:


Highlights from Palermo - Milan 0-4:

Palermo 0-4 AC Milan by goalsarena2012-2

Now I'm really curious to see if Juventus, seeing as how they really need this, will be able to match Udinese's result in Bologna (- winning 3-1, away from home). I bet that's what Juve fans are saying to themselves: If Udinese could do it, so can we!...
That match, by the way, is coming up on Wednesday.

The Italian Derby Undecided

AC Milan was fantastic in the first half of this encounter. They should have had three or four goals, as they rolled all over Juventus.
One perfectly valid goal, scored by Muntari, which should have made it 2-0, was wrongly overlooked by the referees. (The linesman on the side where Juventus defended was probably the most guilty of not making sure the goal counted, which it should have, as the ball headed by the Ghanaian player crossed the line by a good distance before being pushed out again by Buffon.)
This is yet another proof - and I'm sure everybody has lost count - that referees are just not good enough to make these decisions without the help of replays or goal-line technology.

In any case, after Antonio Nocerino's goal, a quarter of an hour into the game, Juventus started to play better.
And they improved significantly after half-time.

Maybe one of the big incentives was also that they did not want to have their first defeat this season come at the hands of their biggest rivals.

Alessandro Matri, one of the greatest Italian attacking prospects, had a perfectly good goal disallowed, too, due to offside, in the second half.
After this second error, my opinion is that the linesman on that side very likely did not intend to deprive Milan of a deserved advantage, in the first half, or else he probably would have helped Juventus in the second half. (But he didn't.) No, that guy either needs glasses, or he should be relegated to officiate some smaller matches, where his screw-ups do not matter that much.

But the 27-years old Juventus forward was not to be denied, as he scored with an impressive volley, to make it 1-1, in minute 83.

No team could then deliver the knockout blow.
And Juventus is still unbeaten in matches against Milan this season. (And there's one more to go, in the Coppa Italia semifinal, return leg.)

Juventus remains second, but they could take over first spot if they win their game in hand.

Highlights:

Milan - Juventus 1:1 HD Highlights by FootballKing1992