AC Milan beat Manchester United
Champions League Semi-Final win secures Athens Final with Liverpool
Goals from Kaka, Seedorf and Gilardino secured AC Milan's semi-final win against Manchester United to reach the UEFA Champions League Final against Liverpool in Athens.
AC Milan completed a comprehensive victory over Manchester United to secure their place in the Champions League Final against Liverpool in Athens, a repeat of the 2005 Final. They have put an end to the Premiership dream of an all English Final, something that was concerning UEFA and the Greek authorities as they had fears over trouble occurring between English supporters. AC Milan have now given themselves an opportunity to avenge their penalty shoot-out defeat against Liverpool when they had held a three goal lead at half-time.
AC Milan had the match won within half an hour and secured the tie with twelve minutes remaining. On a rainy night in the San Siro Stadium Manchester United found themselves a goal behind after eleven minutes when their tormentor from the first leg at Old Trafford, Kaka, scored from the edge of the penalty area.
For United, defender, Nemanja Vidic had returned after injury but Rio Ferdinand was still absent. However, Vidic found Kaka difficult to handle as Milan controlled the early stages of the game. United created problems for themselves by giving the ball away too often and their star players didn’t perform as would have been expected on such an important game. Cristiano Ronaldo, Wayne Rooney and Ryan Giggs were all surprisingly quiet.
United’s problems increased when Clarence Seedorf increased Milan’s lead after thirty minutes. Defensive mistakes presented Seedorf with the opportunity which he gratefully accepted. Through the half, goalkeeper, Edwin Van der Sar was kept busy as United struggled against Milan’s inventive play.
In the second half United, needing to score twice, displayed more attacking ideas but it was Milan who came closest to scoring and eventually added a third after seventy eight minutes, through substitute, Alberto Gilardino, to give his team a 5-3 aggregate win.
Manchester United had been expected to cause AC Milan problems with their pace in attack but it never occurred and they failed to put their opponents under any kind of pressure. United have missed out on their dream of repeating the ‘treble’ they achieved in 1999. They are now left with their battle with Chelsea for the Premiership title and the FA Cup at Wembley.
AC Milan’s early goals gave them the perfect start and they were comfortably in control throughout the game, producing a performance worthy of reaching the Champions League Final and in Kaka who has scored ten goals in twelve matches and is the leading scorer in this season’s competition, they have a player who will be capable of causing Liverpool problems in the Final.
