Serie A- Milan Derby Time!

godtabh

Preview

Serie A: Milan happy to be away team for derby

MILAN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - AC Milan will be pleased they are the 'away' side for Sunday's city derby with Serie A leaders Inter having failed to win at home in the league this season.

Although Milan lifted the Club World Cup last weekend and saw their top player Kaka named FIFA world player of the year on Monday, their Serie A form has been dire with five draws and two defeats at the San Siro this term, leaving them in 11th place.

Carlo Ancelotti's side, who share the stadium with Inter, now have the chance to end their home hoodoo as the visiting team, especially with champions Inter suffering an injury crisis.

Midfielders Dejan Stankovic and Luis Jimenez are doubts with Patrick Vieira, Luis Figo and Olivier Dacourt definitely out.

Roberto Mancini's problems in the middle of the park have not stopped his team going unbeaten this term however, and they lead second-placed AS Roma by seven points after just 16 games.

The lack of midfielders forced Mancini to play a three-pronged strike force of Julio Cruz, Hernan Crespo and David Suazo in Sunday's 2-0 win at Cagliari and he may have to try a similar system against Milan but with different personnel.

Sweden forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic, suspended for the Cagliari game, was rested for Wednesday's 4-1 win over Reggina in the Italian Cup last 16 first leg but will definitely start on Sunday (1400) given his excellent form this term.

'Sunday's clash with Milan is a very important match between two great teams with excellent players. It will definitely be a wonderful match. It's certainly a bit different to the other games,' Mancini told reporters.

Milan came through the Club World Cup in Japan largely unscathed although striker Ronaldo will be unavailable to face his former club because of a nagging fitness problems which have restricted him to just one game this season.

Security will be tight given minor trouble at Milan derbies in recent years.

Roma host Sampdoria on Saturday (1930) with Samp striker Antonio Cassano banned from facing his old club after picking up a booking in last weekend's 2-2 draw with Fiorentina.

Francesco Totti is a doubt after his foot problem reappeared and forced him to miss Roma's lacklustre 0-0 draw at Torino on Sunday.

Juventus, a point behind Roma in third, host strugglers Siena on Sunday with fourth-placed Udinese entertaining third-bottom Empoli.

Saturday, December 22, 2007
TIME HOME AWAY VENUE
17:00 UK Genoa v Parma Comunale Luigi Ferraris
19:30 UK Roma v Sampdoria Stadio Olimpico

Sunday, December 23, 2007
TIME HOME AWAY VENUE
14:00 UK Fiorentina v Cagliari Artemio Franchi
14:00 UK Inter Milan v AC Milan Stadio Giuseppe Meazza
14:00 UK Juventus v Siena Stadio Olimpico Grande Torino
14:00 UK Livorno v Atalanta Armando Picchi
14:00 UK Napoli v Torino Stadio San Paolo
14:00 UK Palermo v Lazio Renzo Barbera
14:00 UK Reggina v Catania Calcio Stadio Oreste Granillo
14:00 UK Udinese v Empoli Stadio Friuli

Not really intertested in other games this week.

Inter all the way. I think they will win it.

Reasons to follow later

estebancambias

I think the Sampdoria vs Roma game is appealing to a certain degree.

Is Montella allowed to play?

Milan to win in my opinion, I think this result will turn their season. I expect a performance from Kaka.

eirebhoy

Cassano had the wildest of temper tantrums at the weekend after getting booked which suspended him for this game against his old team.

godtabh

estebancambias wrote: »

I expect a performance from Kaka.

He wont be able to run with all his travelling lately. Last weeks outings for Milan are gona tell this week.

I wonder what time Inter will field. Very limited in midfield at the moment

Pepe LeFrits

eirebhoy wrote: »

Cassano had the wildest of temper tantrums at the weekend after getting booked which suspended him for this game against his old team.

Not sure that description does it justice to be honest... he starts crying. It has to be seen to be believed.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6u1B1tmQLoM

ninebeanrows

Milan Derby has messed up my acc.

Damn Milan are losing 2 nil to Catania, shame on them

eirebhoy

kearnsr wrote: »

He wont be able to run with all his travelling lately. Last weeks outings for Milan are gona tell this week.

I wonder what time Inter will field. Very limited in midfield at the moment

They looked to be at their best in that tournament. Pirlo was class against Urawa and Kaka was class over both games. Seedorf involed much more than usual and Inzaghi scoring a couple. Even Ambrosini was excellent. They get home to Italy and they're 2 nil down at home. I don't know what it is.

eirebhoy

I didn't realise that was the Coppa Italia for Milan tonight. Thought they were catching up on one of their 3 games in hand.

Kalac, Cafu, Simic, Favalli, Digao, Emerson, Brocchi, Serginho, Gourcuff, Aubameyang, Paloschi.

Never heard of Digao or Paloschi.

estebancambias

Did Digao not look like a certain number 22?

weemcd

MILAN, Dec 20 (Reuters) - AC Milan will be pleased they are the 'away' side for Sunday's city derby with Serie A leaders Inter having failed to win at home in the league this season.

I think they've mixed up inter and AC there, according to this inter have won 7 home games, its AC who haven't won any homes. Not that this isn't completely irrelevant, since its the san siro, and lets face it, whether the fans are in the home or away ends it makes fa. difference to these teams

semibluff

anyone tel me anything about juve at home. 2/9, banker yeh??
whats form and injuries like??

weemcd - your choosing to read that statement as you choose. put a comma after the word Inter, and it makes sense as one big sentence

godtabh

I just coppied and pasted from soccernet.com but Inter havent lost a game this season.

Dont pay much attention to the Coppa Italia as I cant watch it any were.

Milan rested a few players for Sunday. Even if I was a neutral I think Inter would still win. Probably end up a draw.

Have to check out if its being streamed any where

weemcd

semibluff wrote: »

weemcd - your choosing to read that statement as you choose. put a comma after the word Inter, and it makes sense as one big sentence

forgive me my browser doesn't support invisible punctuation...

Peyton Manning

I hope Milan twat Inter, just to shut up my gob****e of a room mate.

godtabh

Archimedes wrote: »

I hope Milan twat Inter, just to shut up my gob****e of a room mate.

We dont live together.

semibluff

weemcd wrote: »

forgive me my browser doesn't support invisible punctuation...

take a deep breath and read the sentence as a whole, minus any invisible punctuation.

does your browser put an invisible comma after the word derby??

doubt it, but apology accepted!

godtabh

One all at half time

PHB

Poor defending from Maldini, terrible goalkeeping from Dida, what the **** was he doing?

godtabh

2-1 inter.

Dida call yourself a goalkeeper?

godtabh

PHB wrote: »

Poor defending from Maldini, terrible goalkeeping from Dida, what the **** was he doing?

The keeper goes to his left the ball went down the middle. What was he doing?

PHB

I actually have no idea, I guess he was just guessing that he would shoot to the right, but that's just a ludicrous thing to do

godtabh

The ball went through Didas legs

godtabh

Jemenz just taken off. Havent seen much of him before but he's a class player

godtabh

crap my feed just went down

estebancambias

Say this after me....

E---S---T---E---B---A---N C---A---M---B---I---A---S---S---O

godtabh

I've been saying since he left Real that he is one of the best midfielders in the world at the moment.

I still cant get over the fact he cost us nothing.

Thankfully this year he got a hair cut.

godtabh

Cambiasso
9.47

rating out of 10 on the inter web site. Not bad!

estebancambias

Hhaha...yeah he eventually gave in.

I think Cambiasso is a very unique player... he is hard to sum up, unlike other midfielders such as Pirlo, Xavi, De Rossi, Gerrard, Viera, Hargreaves, Ballack, Lampard.

Tiago in my opinion is sort of similar.

godtabh

estebancambias wrote: »

Hhaha...yeah he eventually gave in.

I think Cambiasso is a very unique player... he is hard to sum up, unlike other midfielders such as Pirlo, Xavi, De Rossi, Gerrard, Viera, Hargreaves, Ballack, Lampard.

Tiago in my opinion is sort of similar.

What do you mean to sum up? He does a very similar job to viera but not the others but has the skill of lampard and the rest after he made a dick of Nesta. He's had a g00d 2-3 years.

estebancambias

Most players you can categorise into different sections

(Deep sitting midfielder) Xavi, Xabi Alonso, Pirlo
(Box to Box) Viera, Gerrard, De Rossi

However Cambiasso is not exactly a box to box player in the conventional sense..like he is not an Athlete like a Viera for example.

His style of play is sort of abstract, like Iniesta or Juninho Pernambucano amongst others.

godtabh

estebancambias wrote: »

However Cambiasso is not exactly a box to box player in the conventional sense..like he is not an Athlete like a Viera for example.

Without having the stats I'd say 80% of his goals for inter have been in or around the 18th yard line i.e he covers box to box.

If you watched is goal in the last world cup you'd see how much he gets around.

estebancambias

Man, he's my favourite player by a mile. By saying he's 'not box to box' I am not saying it as an insult to his game, of course he covers the pitch, but just in a different way to other players.

That goal he scored http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hhuRMiDz63w actually illustrates what I mean.

This is just my impression I get, you have watched him more(presumably) so I will trust what you have said.