Al Sadd 1 Milan 2
AC Milan found themselves in Qatar to play a 'lucrative friendly'. Money is all that's been on the minds of the management, with Berlusconi stating that he wants to reduce the wage bills of the club to 90m euros. Juve spend 115m euros and Inter 120m euros. That should tell you in what direction this club is heading. However lets keep that topic for another day, and lets focus on this friendly between one of the biggest clubs in the world and a club in the middle of nowhere.
Ancelloti put out a traditional English formation. 4-4-2. Jankulovski has been playing further up the field and was now in the wings with Beckham handling the right side of the formation. 27 minutes into the game, and a high quality pass from Emerson found Shevchenko who unselfishly laid the ball to Pato who finished in a typical poacher style. Some usual horrendous defending resulted in the home side equalising, as a lopped ball into the box left all the defenders for dead, and Gholam placed it past Abbiati. Just a minute later, a piece of great skill and understanding resulted in Antonini scoring one of his rare goals. He combined fantastically with Jankulovski on this occasion It was a goal of supreme quality, Barcelona style. Ancelloti was bold enough to make quite a few changes. Vuidez, Darmian and Mattioni came on, along with Pirlo, Dida, Inzaghi, Senderos and Zambrotta. Speaking of Senderos, he produced a fantastic near goal-line clearance after Dida made a mess of an easy save. Inzaghi also scored, but it was ruled out for offside. Pato had that chance, but Inzaghi simply had to put his foot in there. Sometimes this Italian baffles me. Al Sadd continued to try their luck from long range but Dida seemed up to the task. It ended with a morale boosting win for Milan
Yes, this was a morale boosting win for AC Milan, but nothing more. Maybe this game was necessary, maybe it wasn't. But what id did show is that Milan's squad is not as thin as Ancelloti wants the world to believe. He simple lacks the boldness that Ferguson or Guardiola have, to play the youngsters in case of injury to the main team players. Instead throughout the season, he has been playing the Favalli's, the Ambrosini's and the Seedorf's when there are better replacements in this very squad. I sincerely hope to see more of Antonini, Cardaccio, Vuidez, Mattioni, Darmian and possibly Albertazzi in the first team in the near future. And mind you, Ancelloti, not just for friendlies.
Video Highlights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNu1e8J2xkg&eurl
Goalscorers -
Al Sadd -Gholam (37')
AC Milan - Pato (28'), Antonini (38')
Ancelloti put out a traditional English formation. 4-4-2. Jankulovski has been playing further up the field and was now in the wings with Beckham handling the right side of the formation. 27 minutes into the game, and a high quality pass from Emerson found Shevchenko who unselfishly laid the ball to Pato who finished in a typical poacher style. Some usual horrendous defending resulted in the home side equalising, as a lopped ball into the box left all the defenders for dead, and Gholam placed it past Abbiati. Just a minute later, a piece of great skill and understanding resulted in Antonini scoring one of his rare goals. He combined fantastically with Jankulovski on this occasion It was a goal of supreme quality, Barcelona style. Ancelloti was bold enough to make quite a few changes. Vuidez, Darmian and Mattioni came on, along with Pirlo, Dida, Inzaghi, Senderos and Zambrotta. Speaking of Senderos, he produced a fantastic near goal-line clearance after Dida made a mess of an easy save. Inzaghi also scored, but it was ruled out for offside. Pato had that chance, but Inzaghi simply had to put his foot in there. Sometimes this Italian baffles me. Al Sadd continued to try their luck from long range but Dida seemed up to the task. It ended with a morale boosting win for Milan
Yes, this was a morale boosting win for AC Milan, but nothing more. Maybe this game was necessary, maybe it wasn't. But what id did show is that Milan's squad is not as thin as Ancelloti wants the world to believe. He simple lacks the boldness that Ferguson or Guardiola have, to play the youngsters in case of injury to the main team players. Instead throughout the season, he has been playing the Favalli's, the Ambrosini's and the Seedorf's when there are better replacements in this very squad. I sincerely hope to see more of Antonini, Cardaccio, Vuidez, Mattioni, Darmian and possibly Albertazzi in the first team in the near future. And mind you, Ancelloti, not just for friendlies.
Video Highlights - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XNu1e8J2xkg&eurl
Goalscorers -
Al Sadd -Gholam (37')
AC Milan - Pato (28'), Antonini (38')
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