UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE MATCHDAY 7

BAYERN MUNICH V/S AC MILAN

Two European giants. 10 European Trophies between them. What more does one need? When these two teams meet tonight, irrespective of what happens we’ll have a winner. FOOTBALL will surely win. Milan are looking for their 7^th UCL win, whereas Munich are looking for their 5^th title. Milan are going to be looking to make amends for last year’s heartbreak. Both teams won their last respective cups on penalties. Milan beating Juventus while Munich beat Valencia.

Both teams have their worries though. Milan hasn’t really been themselves after losing to Liverpool in Istanbul. Mediocre performances in the Seria A and they barely managed to squeeze themselves into the knockout stages of this year’s competition after qualifying on the last day. But then even Liverpool and Porto won the competition after barely managing to go through to the knockout stages.

Team News

For Munich, captain Oliver Kahn will be missing. Just as he began to get back into the form he used to be in the injury has seriously dented Munich’s hopes.

But then do stats and form mean anything once the game starts? Liverpool showed that last year, beating Juventus, Chelsea and then Milan themselves. Other than that Bayern have their strongest possible team!!

AC Milan have worries in the back. With Cafu and Maldini unavailable Milan could be exploited at the back. Sheva’s return would mean bad news for Munich as he is the leading goal scorer.    

Will it be Milan magic or Bavarian bravado?

Whatever it is, this match is going to be a real cracker.

How can Milan beat Munich?

       -     Firstly, attack them from the start. If Munich are allowed to play their game they can be devastating.  

-         With a weakened defense, the midfield must hold out Munich’s attacks.

-         Gilardinio and Sheva must be at their best if they can get anything out of Lucio and Ismael.

-         Clever little balls will me more effective than over the top balls as Lucio is a brilliant header of the ball.

How can Munich beat Milan?

-         Expose the absence of Cafu and Maldini. Stam will be playing on the right where he is least effective.

-         Get Ballack n Demichelis involved. Both are in stunning form and could quite be the difference.

-         Deisler and Ze Roberto must run at Stam and Serginho who don’t look to confident. Stam particularly doesn’t look to confident at the wingback role and Roberto will look to expose that.

-         Bastian Schweistiger (the hidden weapon). Bring him on if nothing’s happening and the young German will make things happen and could give Serginho/Stam a real run around.

Milan (Predicted XI)

Dida

Stam

Kaladze

Serginho

Guttuso

Pirlo

Seedorf

Kaka

Shevchenko

Gilardinho

Munich (Predicted XI)

Rensing

Sagnol

Lucio

Ismael

Lizarazu

Diesler

Ballack

Demichelis

Ze Roberto

Makaay

Pizzaro

Players to watch:

Milan: Nesta, Kaka, Gilardinio

Munich: Deisler, Ballack, Lucio and Schweinstiger(maybe from the bench)