UEFA Champions League – AC Milan is ready to take over Madrid again
Article by Andrew Hill
Week 3 action will have all eyes on Santiago Bernabeu stadium for the clash between the two most successful teams in the history of the competition.
The last time that AC Milan visited Real Madrid, it was a high voltage game that made the fans vibrate with every single one of the 5 goals scored in the match. At the end, the Italians left with a smile on their faces, while the deceived Spanish fans regretted the 3-2 loss. One year has pass since that game -October 21st, 2009- and many changes have come along with it, changes that will spice up even more this coming Tuesday’s match.
Milan will arrive with their heavy artillery going through a great moment, as Brazilian star Ronaldinho seems to have recovered the level of his best days when he defended his former club Barcelona. Another player who is going through a good strike is the Swedish Zlatan Ibrahimovic who has returned to Italy after his one year experience in Spain playing for Barcelona. And it was precisely in the city of Milan where he lived his best years, scoring 57 goals in 88 appearances for Inter between 2006 and 2009. So far this season he has 5 goals in 7 matches, and plenty more can be expected.
Then they have Brazilian striker Alexandre Pato fully recovered from last seasons’ hamstring injury, and he is really excited and hyped as he’s back with the Brazilian national team, where he has scored three goals in three games. And as if it wasn’t good enough, they also have the Brazilian Robinho who has lot of anxiety to score not only his first goal for Milan, but also to his former team Real Madrid.
Real Madrid’s winning ace for this season is Portuguese coach Jose Mourinho, who knows Milan really well after his two years in Italy in charge of Inter. His teams are distinguished for having a strong defense and executing lethal counterattacks. Even though so far this season his team hasn’t found its best level, this doesn’t make them less dangerous, as Milan can grant themselves the privilege of taking their eyes off players like Portuguese Cristiano Ronaldo, Argentinean Gonzalo Higuain, or the FIFA 2010 World Cup revelation German Mesut Ozil. Although their performance as a team has been far from what fans expect, they are still undefeated this season, and a win against one of Europe’s finest teams will definitely serve them as a boost.
After Week 2, Real Madrid is on top of Group G with 6 points, product of their victories against Dutch Ajax 2-0 and French Auxerre 1-0. Milan comes in second place with 4 points, after defeating Auxerre 2-0, and tying with Ajax 1-1. The relevance of this game besides the prominent history of both teams in Europe, and renowned players is that the first place will be in play.
On the other hand, the match between Ajax and Auxerre is crucial for both of them, since whoever is defeated will see how their chances to make it to the knockout round fade away.
About the Author
Andrew Hill has been a prominent writer on regular International Football games, sports news and the sportsbetting industry for many exceptional sports web sites. You may reprint this article in its full content, please note no modifications to it are accepted.
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