By Myles Palmer
Arsenal couldn’t beat them, I kept thinking.
Watching AC Milan v Inter last week, I kept thinking, “Arsenal couldn’t beat either of these. The defences are too good.”
Far from being a 0-0 bore-draw, as some suggested, the first leg was a taut affair with plenty of tension.
I thought Milan looked meaner, more powerful, more formidable.
Then Inter’s Crespo flicked Recoba through but he bottled the chance by shooting too early.
After that I didn’t fancy Inter to score.
It was a good game, not like a Serie A derby, not a scuffle for local pride.
It was more exciting than that.
We were watching a well-balanced contest between two energetic forces. If there was a goal,it would be a hard-earned goal.
I enjoy that kind of tension : If there IS a goal, it will be decisive, and that is why both teams are concentrating like this.
Milan’s teamwork seemed to contain more shape, more rehearsal, more dynamism.
But Inter have their virtues too.
I like Emre, the Turk.
Emre is a compact dynamo, a warrior with skill, a bit like Dalglish, or Edgar Davids.
Emre is a brave ball-holder, an Archie Gemmill, willing to be kicked rather than rushed into making a pass.
A fierce presser when he doesn’t have the ball and a perceptive dribbler-passer when he has it.
I love that type,an endangered species these days.
Seedorf v Emre, Round Two, will be a good duel.
Di Biagio versus Rui Costa will also be interesting.
Coach Hector Cuper is one of the few tactical masters of club football, in the same league as Hitzfeld.
Inter have something they lacked before: a high degree of organisation welded to a fierce work ethic.
They have a great offside trap and a great keeper.
Sadly, striker Crespo has gone off the boil.
Cordoba is a ferociously agile runt and Materazzi has been turned into Pellegrino, an effective big stopper.
When a team has such formidably tenacious players as Javier Zanetti, Cordoba, Emre and Kallon, they are hard to beat.
With Toldo in goal, they are very hard to beat.
Lets face it, Valencia needed Toldo. With Toldo they would have won two European Cups.
Having said all that, I prefer Milan’s players.
RUI COSTA is one of the few dribbling midfield providers who is effective.
He rarely loses the ball and can make killer passes on the run, as we saw when he supplied Batistuta for years at Fiorentina.
Other players who make killer passes, like Bergkamp or Steven Gerrard, tend to be more static at the moment of delivery.
SEEDORF can win any game.
INZAGHI is a mean fox in the box, too often offside, but always a threat.
SERGINHO, the flying Brazilian, is a very exciting left wingback whose season has been wrecked by injury. He will be on the bench again.
RIVALDO is having a miserable time since his wife went back to Brazil and took the kids, denying him access
SHEVCHENKO HAS BEEN DESTROYED BY INZAGHI.
He needs to be partnered by a Rebrov-David Speedie type to give him early service, not a greedy goal-hanger who expects a pass every time.
Put through by Rui Costa, big Andrei was on the edge of the area, one on one versus Toldo…… and he bottled it, tried to pass to Inzaghi, who was offside anyway.
Very sad to see a phenomenal player, scorer of the finest goal of themillennium so far (against Juventus last year), in such bad shape.
Two years ago Shevchenko would have blasted that chance, or even chipped Toldo, so audacious was he.
TUESDAY NIGHT’S second leg in the San Siro, the stadium they share, will be tense in a similar way.
Because Italian defenders are pros.
They are serious about stopping goals, stopping opponents.
As I said, the first leg was goalless, but it was NOT boring.
The drama sustained itself right up to the final whistle.
Few 0-0 draws do that.
Milan have kept three clean sheets against Inter ythis season.
So one goal should win the semi for them.
Inter did not score an “away” goal last week, so a 1-1 draw will put Milan through on “away” goals.
Are we ready for an all-Italian European Cup Final?
They say Ronaldo has only a 10% chance of facing Juventus on Wednesday night.
His stunner last week was one of the season’s best goals.
Ronaldo played a one-two with Morientes and rode a trip and showed us, yet again, that his shot selection is just UNBELIEVABLE.
He faked Buffon to go right and unbalanced him and placed a sidefoot shot between keeper and post.
The way Ronaldo did that was absolutely uncanny. He has surreal levels of skill and awareness.
But he took a heavy kick on the knee from Iuliano and went off at half time.
MAKELELE is out with a torn thigh, so there is not much good news for Del Bosque, a benign Buddha among coaches.
JUVE, even without Ferrara, are in good shape.
Trezeguet got a fine opportunist goal in last week’s 2-1 defeat at the Bernabeu.
With Davids and Tacchinardi back, and Nedved talking big, maybe the royals of Madrid are heading for a big disappointment.
Can RAUL play, three weeks after an appendix operation?
May 12th 2003.