This midweek can be count as a very bad midweek for two Italian representatives in the Champions League, Ac Milan and As Roma as both teams failed to get the maximum points they needed despite playing at their own stadium.
The Rossoneri were beaten by a single goal by from Peter Crouch, while the Giallorossi suffered a thrilling 3-2 defeat from Shaktar Donets that makes thing really difficult for them in the second leg.
In San Siro, the current Serie A leaguer, that are forced to face Tottenham Hotspurs with a very limited midfield line up and also the inability to play Antonio Cassano, Mark Van Bommel or Urby Emanuelson, played very poorly leaving lots of questions being marked. Not only that, some controversial incident on the game kinda makes the Rossoneri a currently victimized name for biased English media, that provides another silly discussion material for people.
Yes some of the attitude done by Mathieu Flamini and Gennaro Gattuso may not be something worth defending but that’s not something uncommon happened in world football as even players from English clubs have also done in the past. Exiting the controversial context, Milan did failed to play a proper football on the night as having too many defensive minded midfielder hampered the creativity they needed to break a surprisingly defensive Spurs’ side.
This defeat puts Milan in a similar situation like last season, where they also needed a victory in the second leg as they travel to London pretty much becoming the underdog as many pundits would now puts all the pressure on Spurs. With the possibility having all of their offensive minded players back in the second leg, surely the premier league side normally gets the nod but their would be questions on the tactical approach that Harry Redknapp would take as their success on Tuesday happened because the defensive tactic he unveiled.
Meanwhile, in Rome, the capital club’s current poor form continues in Europe as their on the pitch and off the pitch issues seems effecting the Giallorossi’s performance that made so many defensive errors which led to the jeer by their fans. The Romans went asleep for 13 minutes as they concede all of their goals around that spell of time with the addition of John Arne Riise’s howler of gifting a ball that led to Shaktar’s third goal on the game.
Having already beaten by Inter Milan and Napoli in the league, another loss in the Champions League pretty much jeopardize Roma’s season that have been in an extreme Roller Coaster ride so far. With the potential change of owner process happening, things seems not in the capital club’s favor at the moment as players seems to have their head filled with plenty off the pitch issues at the moment which pretty much seen from their lack of motivation in some games.
Nevertheless, despite of the difficult condition that happened with both Milan and Roma ahead of their second leg match in the Champions League, writing them out is not a wise thing to do as there’s still a chance for both teams to fix the damage done. Although last season the Rossoneri got a beating when they travel to England, with a different set of mentality and some players probably fit for the second leg, the chance to turn the match is pretty open. The same thing also goes to the Giallorossi, that normally could still snatch a surprise despite the need for playing away to Russia in the second leg.
photo credit: Matthew Wilkinson
