UEFA Champions League: Tottenham Hotspur conquer AC Milan at San Siro
Harry Redknapp’s Tottenham Hotspur traveled to the San Siro on Tuesday, February 15th, to take on the Serie-A leaders AC Milan in the 1st leg of the UEFA Champions League round-of-16 clash. The tie ended 1-0 in favour of Tottenham.
The Spurs' midfield was missing the likes of the sensational http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Luka-Modric-c22857 was confined to the bench after recovering from his appendicitis operation. Milan, on the other hand didn’t have any serious injury concerns. Zlatan
Ibrahimovic was given an attacking combination with Robinho in the starting XI, while http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alexandre-Pato-c4901 started the game on the bench.
The visitors showed their dominance right from the 1st minute as the shout for hand ball against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Peter-Crouch-c29741 posed
plenty of problems for the home side. The constant pressure from the visitors continued as Milan’s goalkeeper http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Christian-Abbiati-c9046 complained about a serious head injury that saw him being replaced by Marco Amelia, who is on loan from Genoa.
The first half was dominated by Tottenham as the home side seemed to be paying enough amount of respect to the visitors. The closing stages of the 1st half forced Amelia into making an excellent save from Rafael van der Vaart on the 41st
minute mark. Milan finally were able to make a threatening move right at the end of the first half but there was no one to greet http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Robinho-c31382’s cross on the far side.
The home side came out with a much more aggressive intent and the continuous chanting from the home fans gave Milan the extra energy they required. All the decency from the first half was left behind as the teams started feeling the heat. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mathieu-Flamini-c24685
committed a dangerous foul on http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Vedran-Corluka-c35947 in the 56th minute and received a yellow card.
The game entered into a dirty mode, as is expected when playing Milan at home, but Spurs kept a cool head on their shoulders and never really got provoked. Milan, in their attempt for a goal, pressed too hard for their own liking as first, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Mario-Yepes-c24052, and
than the naughty http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Gennaro-Gattuso-c14525 got booked.
The home side’s resilience finally broke when http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aaron-Lennon-c3062 provided Crouch with an open goal opportunity after making a terrific run on the counter. The tall lanky forward netted the most important away goal in the 80th minute.
Tottenham were able to keep their lead till the very end and escaped from a possible heart attack when Ibrahimovic’s spectacular goal was disallowed for a foul in the box.
The match came to a close on this note. Spurs were best on the night and never really looked out of shape at any stage.
Now, Milan are left with an uphill task of scoring a minimum of 2 goals when they travel to White Hart Lane for the return fixture on Wednesday, the 9th of March, 2011.
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