Milan crashes Juventus

Match Report by ILIAS

 

 

Milan showed no mercy and crushed Juventus 3-0 in Turin tonight, thanks to Alessandro Nesta's header and two goals by Brazilian star Ronaldinho.

 

1st half analysis

First thing that knocked me off my chair wasn’t a chance but a rather hard tackle of Ronaldinho on Salihamidzic. The first chance came from the feet of Diego, who made the run from the flank, entered the box and attempted to curl the ball into the net, but his diagonal shot went wide.

While Juventus were the ones having ball possession, at least until 25’, Milan decided to come a little forward. At 29’ and in a moment that doesn’t smelled as a goal, Milan won a corner, Poulsen and Melo both failed to clear the ball in the near post, which landed nicely to Nesta who was completely unmarked in the far post… 0-1!

Poulsen lost his nerve moments later and tackled Pirlo while the Italian midfielder was on a break, thus he got booked. At 39’ and after a corner, the ball went loose in Milan’s area with almost 10 players chasing it… It was Chiellini who got it first and took the shot from close range, but the ball went straight to Dida. Milan were really lucky with that. Last good effort at the 1st half came from the feet of Thiago Silva, who launched a shot from long distance but Manninger was alerted and turned the ball wide.

2nd half analysis

Juventus started the 2nd half in fury. Just about a minute after the kick off of the 2nd half, Amauri headed the ball from the penalty box, but Chiellini failed to reach it and missed a great chance for the Bianconerri to bring the match level.

At ’54 the Juve fans sang the name of Alessandro Del Piero as if they wanted him to enter the game. Their cheer became a reality 6 minutes later on, when “Il Capitano” replaced Salihamidzic, with coach Ciro Ferrara trying to give a more attacking formation to his team.

Still, things didn’t change dramatically. In fact, Milan gained possession again and created a few dangerous situations in Juventus’s defense. The second goal for Milan came from a corner again at 71’. Pirlo crossed it nicely in the area, Rolandinho got the header in the near post, the ball deflected just a bit on De Ceglie’s foot and landed into Manninger’s posts for the second time.

 

Milan showed no mercy and scored another goal with Ronaldinho again. At 86’ Bechkam made the cross from the right, Flamini flicked it on and Ronaldinho scored an easy goal as he was completely unmarked. Del Piero nearly scored a consolation goal but his free kick shot went just inches wide at injury time.

I’m afraid this might have been Ciro Ferrarra’s last match at Juventus…

Man of the Match: Ronaldinho

JUVENTUS: Manninger, Grygera, Cannavaro, Chiellini, Grosso, Salihamidzic (60’ Del Piero), Felipe Melo, Poulsen (63’ De Ceglie), Marchisio, Diego, Amauri

AC MILAN: Dida, Abate, Nesta, Silva, Antonini, Gattuso (65’ Flamini), Ambrosini, Pirlo, Beckham, Ronaldinho, Borriello (86’ Huntelaar)