Journal of European Soccer

AC Milan is considered one of the great names in European Soccer. This club has won a lot of trophies in many competitions. Despite the fact that it lost 2 -3 to Manchester United at San Siro, many of its fans believe that the team will still go through to the next stage of European Champions League. However, as we know, Manchester United beat them 4 - 0 at Old Trafford in the second leg last Wednesday. Losing a match to a big team like Manchester United is quite acceptable, but losing 4 - 0 is a humiliation. So, how could that happen? In my opinion, there are two factors that cause Milan to suffer from such a big defeat.

First of all, they had to play the match with some of their key players out injured. Simply to say, they did not play with their best formation. At the back, Alessandro Nesta could not play due to injury and up front, the same thing happened to Alexandre Pato. With this unfavorable condition, It was very difficult to win the match against a team like Manchester United.

Next, They have no a creative playmaker that can orchestrate their play and open up United's defense. In that game, it was obvious that Milan lost the presence of Kaka in midfiled. Andrea Pirlo was too slow and was lack of vision toward the game, while Claerence Seedorf is too old to play in a high-speed and competitive match. In short, there was nobody in Milan's midfield that could take the role of their former star, Kaka.

In conclusion, with some players out injured and without a key player in midfield, it was understandable that Milan had to suffer from such a big defeat. I hope they can learn something from the match for the team's betterment so that in the future, they will never lose a game with such a big score line.

The drawing for the first knockout round of the UEFA Champions League has decided that two Italian teams will meet two English teams. Those teams are Chelsea vs Inter Milan and Manchester United vs AC Milan. It is interesting to see the games because all four teams have a long tradition and great reputation in the UEFA Champions League. They are all considered giants in their respective countries. It is quite difficult to say which teams are going to win, but I think the English teams will be able to overcome their Italian oppositions. There are at least two reasons why I come up with that opinion.

First, The statistics in the last two years prove it. Let's look back at the game between Inter Milan vs Liverpool in 2007 - 2008 at the first knockout round. At that time, Liverpool won the games 2 - 0 at Anfield and 1 - 0 at Giusseppe Meazza stadium. Another example is the games in the same round between Arsenal vs AC Milan. Arsenal were held 0 - 0 at the Emirates but they beat AC Milan 2 - 0 at Giusseppe Meazza. Last year's Champions League result also told us the same story when Manchester United won 2 - 0 on aggregate over Inter Milan.

Next, English teams rely very much on stamina, speed and power. In other words, they are very physical teams. They always keep running and pass the ball quickly. In contrast, Italian teams tend to play a bit slower in building up an attack and focus more on accurate passing. So, when English teams speed up the tempo, Italian teams just cannot keep up with the pace of the game. It may keep them under pressure in the entire game. Consequently, it is more likely that English teams create more chances to score goals and win the game.

In brief, I believe that the English teams will be able to overcome their Italian oppositions in the first knockout round of the UEFA Champions League. However, anything can still happen since the games haven't been played and the result is always unpredictable. So, everything still remains to be seen.

(picture of uefa champions league logo: http://en.wikipedia.org/)