Part 2 AC Milan versus Tottenham – Detailed Analysis
At the half time break, both the teams were dead locked but Tottenham was clearly the better side during the first half.
When both the teams came out for the second half, Allegri introduced http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Alexandre-Pato-c4901 into the match in place of Seedorf. Milan then started to utilize Robinho as their traditional No. 10 whereas Pato took up his compatriot’s place in the Rossoneri front line.
This change worked wonders for the home side as Milan started to dominate the match. However, just like Tottenham in the first half, Milan was unable to carve any clear cut opportunities.
Allegri’s team just had two good chances from two corner kicks which were comfortably dealt with by Gomez in Tottenham’s goal. As the match went on, Milan began to push more men up field.
Furthermore, the Rossoneri lost their characteristic cool as the likes of Ibrahimovic, Flamini and Gattuso started to get frustrated. The second half saw a sequence of bad fouls from Milan, one of which from Flamini deserved a red card from the referee.
Harry Redknapp responded to his team’s failure to dominate the second half by changing things around. The English manager substituted Luka Modric for Rafael Van Der Vaart and http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Steven-Pienaar-c34208 for Nico Kranjcar.
With pace to burn in their midfield, Tottenham soon struck first blood near the 77th minute mark. Tottenham gained possession near the midfield area as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Aaron-Lennon-c3062 on a counter attack.
Lennon had teammates alongside him in attack but the nippy winger went solo as he beat http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Peter-Crouch-c29741. In space, in front of the Milan goal, Crouch made no mistake in giving his team the lead.
Tottenham retained the lead till the end of the second half and came away with a crucial first leg win at San Siro. However, at the end of the match, after the full time whistle, Gattuso tussled with Joe Jordan on the side line after both of the involved
parties exchanged few unsavory words.
AC Milan’s captain head butted Joe http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jordan-c2929 as officials rushed to separate the two men. It is expected that Gattuso will be given a hefty ban of around about 10 to 12 matches due to his unsporting conduct after the match.
Nonetheless, Tottenham now have a fantastic base to build upon in the second leg of their Round- of-16 match against Milan.
Harry Redknapp’s team will play the second leg at White Hart Lane, which adds another tick in their column as Milan have a lot of work to do now when they visit http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/England-c749 on 9th of March, 2011.
Tags: