Part 1 AC Milan versus Tottenham – Detailed Analysis
Two words: Bad Losers.
That is how AC Milan acted in the aftermath of their one goal loss to Tottenham Hotspur in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League tie at San Siro. The match began with Milan in a very narrow 4-3-3 formation whereas Tottenham adopted the 4-4-1-1 formation
that has suited them so well throughout the 2010/2011club football season.
Harry Redknapp kept http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Luka-Modric-c22857 on the bench whereas Allegri started Ibrahimovic and Robinho as Milan’s two front men.
Milan gave the trequartista responsibilities to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Clarence-Seedorf-c9275. In the first half of the match, Tottenham totally dominated the play as Rafael Van Der Vaart was in impressive form. The Dutchman used the full width of the field more often than not as he
spread the ball out wide to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Steven-Pienaar-c34208 for the English club side. Tottenham’s natural width meant that they were always at an advantage when it came to stretching the Milan defence.
Not only that, Aaron Lennon down the right hand side had a brilliant game as he had the better of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Luca-Antonini-c22503 in most of his duels with the Italian full back. This prompted Allegri to deputize Mathew Flamnini as a right sided defensive midfielder for the
second half to double up on the English winger.
However, this allowed Tottenham more free space in the center of the park where Tottenham’s two midfielders, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Wilson-Palacios-c36948 and Sandro made easy work of Seedorf and Gattuso.
AC Milan was being captained by Gattuso who found it extremely hard to keep up with Van Der Vaart’s movement. In the first half of the match, Van Der Vaart drifted across the field to evade Gattuso’s man marking tendencies. This opened up space for Sandro
to surge up field for Spurs as well but Palacios remained content with covering for his teammates as the Honduran midfielder covered for the offensive ambitions of his teammates by providing security to Tottenham’s back line.
Moreover, in the first half, Tottenham mixed up play when they realized that Milan’s back line was not susceptible to the pass and move game.
Harry Redknapp’s men used their plan B by launching diagonal balls towards the tall frame of http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Peter-Crouch-c29741. Crouch’s presence inside the Milan penalty area induced chaos amongst Nesta and Yepes who found it hard to deal with the English target man’s ability
to head the ball by using his height advantage.
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