The Scum V Milan 2nd Leg 02/05/07...Build Up/Match Thread

[thesilverfoxlfc]

AC Milan midfielder Gennaro Gattuso will be available but defender Paolo Maldini (knee) is a major doubt.

Kakhabar Kaladze and Daniele Bonera are the favourites to replace Maldini in defence alongside Alessandro Nesta.

Manchester United duo Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand are fit after recovering from collarbone and groin injuries.

Patrice Evra is suspended but Sir Alex Ferguson says he is "nowhere near making a decision" on whether Vidic or Ferdinand, or both, should play.

Louis Saha could be on the bench, despite his recent hamstring problems, but Gary Neville misses out again.

Heinze, Cristiano Ronaldo and Paul Scholes are all one booking away from a ban that would rule them out of the final, should United progress.

COME ON MILAN!!!!!!!!!!!

[Reece]

FORZA MILAN

[thesilverfoxlfc]

Rio and Vidic look set to play just been on SSN.

Thats a big boost for them

[tomasjj]

A ban on Scholes would be nice... then their midfield would crumble.
He has been immense lately.

[Reece]

And Ronaldo!

[Joe Le Toff]

I hope Scholes or anyone else doesnt get banned and plays in the final.
That way, when we turn the kunts over, theyve got no excuses

[tsb]

Going for a reverse psychology approach for tonight... come on United!










:whatever:

[-V-]

Watching all these smug man *******s on sky sports news talking about their treble and how sure they are of beating us just makes me hate them more now than ever before

I would just love it if they got put out 2nite. But im feeling confident now that we can beat them in the final anyway

[tomasjj]

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Manure.....

[tsb]

The lean and mean scoring machine that is Inzaghi
Pippo Inzaghi may be a figure of fun, but he'll laugh the longest if his goals beat Man Utd.

James Richardson

May 1, 2007 11:59 PM

Manchester United are arguably the most dangerous opponents in the world of football. Beating them to reach the final will, the Italian media are agreed, need a minor miracle. Still, yesterday's Gazzetta Dello Sport knew how to comfort the fans: "Tomorrow, He's Back!" read the front page headline, across a half-page shot of the centre-forward Filippo "Pippo" Inzaghi. Now who's scared, eh?

The thought of thousands of Milanisti warming their chilled morale with puny Pippo might sound comic; Inzaghi is after all perhaps Milan's least respected player, a man whose extraordinary career has been buried under a deluge of jokes about diving and the famous quip by Sir Alex Ferguson that he was "born offside". But although his spindly frame and perpetual pout have done little to win over fans worldwide, it is worth going back and checking the numbers - over the past decade they show there have been few more effective goalscorers anywhere in football.

In Serie A, 125 goals in 269 appearances. For Italy, 22 in 53. In the Champions League, an Italian-record 40 in only 67 games. Put simply, Inzaghi is one of those things that should not work but do - like bumble bees, say, or the peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

"I remember the first time Pippo got called up for Italy," a former international once told me. "In training we all stood stunned because his technique was the worst we'd seen, but despite it all he just scores and scores."

"Look, actually he can't play football at all," offers a presumably deeply frustrated Johan Cruyff. "He's just always in the right position."

Not according to most linesmen, who have made Inzaghi a legend for his ability to draw a yellow flag and his moaning about offside decisions afterwards. Still, there is no doubt that positional sense is part of what makes him so special. He plays off the shoulder of the last defender and even though it can be frustrating it is also, as the numbers suggest, frighteningly effective. Ask Petr Cech, left sprawling during the last World Cup after "Super Pippo" sprang the Czech offside trap with practised ease.

But perhaps an even bigger factor in Inzaghi's success is his ravenous appetite for goals. He needs them like few players in the world. He watches and rewatches recordings of his matches compulsively and barely sleeps before games. Aware of the criticism that surrounds him and that he physically does not measure up to other players, he sees himself as permanently on trial.

A rare goal drought during his time at Juventus brought a typically fierce response: "If they're calling me into question, why, that's the end of football." For Inzaghi, scoring is a very, very personal business and any chance, any ball, is seized on greedily.

Recent seasons have only heightened this desire to prove himself. Many thought he was finished after the long sequence of knee, back and ankle injuries that ruled him out of a starting role for almost two seasons. The much-feted arrivals at Milan of Alberto Gilardino last season and Ronaldo midway through this seemed like further nails in his coffin. However, with the Brazilian cup-tied and Gilardino apparently intimidated by club football's biggest stage, the 33-year-old Inzaghi has returned to repeatedly pull off his old trick of being in the right place at the right time. It was his goals which took Milan through their Champions League preliminaries with Red Star Belgrade last summer, and it was his goal (from a slightly offside position, as it happens) which capped the Rossoneri's 2-0 quarter-final win at Bayern Munich. Now comes an even bigger test.

"These are the games you always want to play in," says Inzaghi, who, barring major surprises from the coach, Carlo Ancelotti, will line up as the lone striker. It is the role that suits him best; sharing scoring duties rarely worked well for him, as his stormy relationships with Andriy Shevchenko and Alessandro Del Piero attest. At Juve, Del Piero would often pull up short, waving his arms in exasperation as Inzaghi ran off to mount another one-man assault, oblivious to his team-mate.

Now, however, Inzaghi can have the services of Clarence Seedorf and Kaka all to himself as he strives to prove his critics wrong once more. He has not taken the field since the Bayern game but he says he is fit and "in good shape". He is also pretty buzzed at having his photo back on the front page.

"I'm flattered everyone's counting on me. It's so important to feel that trust, because that really helps me," says Inzaghi. "But I am convinced that to beat Manchester United we will need a great Milan performance, not just from me."

C'mon Pippo!

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/sport/2007/05/01/the_lean_and_mean_scoring_mach.html

[cobain]

REMEMBER THREE THINGS MATES:

[Shaggy]

Braaap braaap Ferdinand is ruled out and won't play tonight, according to SSN.

[tsb]

Braaap braaap Ferdinand is ruled out and won't play tonight, according to SSN.

Braaap braaap!

Rio got merked by Fergie.

[Craig_H]

I desperately hope Milan win, mainly because they'll probably not take up their full ticket allocation.

[Rhys]

Braaap braaap Ferdinand is ruled out and won't play tonight, according to SSN.

really!!!