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Champions League Comment: AC Milan Need To Muscle Up After Marseille Let-Off

Left out-gunned in the centre of the field by the French outfit, the Rossoneri were left clinging to a point come full-time. Goal.com's Robin Bairner argues their problems were at the side's heartbeat...

Nov 26, 2009 1:00:47 PM

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Clarence Seedorf - Milan (Getty Images)

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AC Milan settled their Champions League score with Olympique de Marseille on Wednesday evening, recording a 1-1 draw with the Ligue 1 outfit to effectively send Didier Deschamps’ troops spinning out of the competition at a premature stage.

OM were, of course, the side who denied the Rossoneri the pleasure of lifting the inaugural Champions League crown, with Basile Boli’s goal on the stroke of half-time winning that 1993 encounter for les Phoceens.

But Marseille were not a great deal of distance away from once again causing the Italian giants European Cup heartbreak. How far? Half a width of a post or perhaps the diameter of the crossbar. Make no mistake, the scoreline may read that the game was a level contest, but Marseille were a minimal distance from upsetting Leonardo’s Diavoli.

The gap between success and failure is indeed small, and Milan will understand that acutely after watching visiting striker Brandao fire a simple shot over the top from six yards via the crossbar and OM defender Souleymane Diawara clatter the inside of the post with a powerful downward header late on.

In the lead up to this match, off the back of a fine run in Serie A and two tremendous results against Real Madrid, there had been much posturing the by home players.

“We are just one step away from passing the group stage and Milan absolutely believe they can [win the Champions League],” explained Dutch midfielder Clarence Seedorf, who failed to pick apart a clearly fallible Marseille defence with the regularity he achieved when the Rossoneri won 2-1 in France.

Believing is one thing, but actually having the capability to make it happen is an entirely different prospect.

Marseille could not match Milan technically in the centre of the field, gifted though the likes of Lucho Gonzalez and Fabrice Abriel are. Instead they build their plan of attack around their physical attributes in the middle of the pitch, out-muscling, out-hustling and out-stripping a tired and exposed looking Rossoneri central three.

It was an evening that started brilliantly for the home side. A stray pass in the midfield from OM was picked off down the right, and Marco Borriello exposed the deficiencies of Gabriel Heinze when placed in a one-on-one situation to leave the Argentine defender standing statuesque. He then blasted beneath Steve Mandanda in the visiting goal.

For a few precious minutes it seemed that Leonardo’s men could build on that, but then Marseille’s midfield took over, forcing an error-strewn half from Seedorf, who recovered marginally after the break.

Meanwhile, Massimo Oddo was being roasted by Mamadou Niang down the Milan right. Hopelessly out of his weight category, the Italian was out-done time and again by the Senegalese warrior, whose forceful burst proved the catalyst for the levelling goal. Leonardo had seen enough and quickly replaced his full-back, who wasn’t ostentatiously carrying an injury, in the first half.

Though Ignazio Abate would police Niang far more effectively, Marseille remained a threat until the half-time whistle.

And Milan’s woes seemed to have been sorted at half-time. The previously anonymous Ronaldinho clicked into life, giving a display of touches and flicks that truly befit a side of the highest calibre.

At the same time, Alexandre Pato was proving a real menace on the right side but just couldn’t manoeuvre himself into an effective scoring position against the raw but determined Taye Taiwo. Borriello was causing Heinze and Diawara problems in the meantime, and for 20 minutes everything seemed set fair for a Milan win.

Then the midfield’s legs failed. Andrea Pirlo, who had an off-night even from his specialist subject, deadballs, dropped out of the game almost entirely, throwing in the odd arrowing pass almost to remind fans he was still there. Massimo Ambrosini was also bypassed easily by Edouard Cisse and Benoit Cheyrou on several occasions.

Inevitably there would be scares as the increasingly offensive Marseille grew desperate, and given the pressure the defence was put under, Alessandro Nesta and Thiago Silva did well to prevent a real flow of shots towards Dida’s goal.

Yet this was ‘only’ Marseille – probably a side very slightly above average out of the Champions League’s 32 entrants. And this was in Milan’s San Siro lair.

The technique of the Diavoli midfielders may be arguably unrivalled in the competition, but having been utterly overwhelmed in the centre of the field by the Frenchmen, one can only imagine what an even more powerful midfield quartet might have done to the Rossoneri.

Winning the Champions League is not an entirely unattainable dream for the red and black half of Italy’s fashion capital, but it’s difficult to see them lasting the pace against an up-tempo team from, dare I say it, the Premier League, with Carlo Ancelotti’s Chelsea probably the best placed to pounce on such an inadequacy.

Wednesday evening’s game has certainly given Leonardo much to consider ahead of the fixture against FC Zurich on December 8 – a game that the Rossoneri have to win in order to claim a spot in the last 16.

Marseille, so close to snatching a vital three points from the San Siro, have the not-so-simple task of defeating Real Madrid by three goals to guarantee their place in the knock-out stages.

Robin Bairner, Goal.com

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