All things equal at San Siro

UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE AC Milan 1 Real Madrid 1: THE two glittering but troubled aristocrats of European football went to war last night on one of the great battlegrounds of the game.

Karim Benzema crowned Real Madrid’s opening assault with the club’s first goal at San Siro for 53 years, only for their chances of beating Milan for the first time in their history to be pegged back almost immediately by Ronaldinho’s penalty.

Earlier in the day Silvio Berlusconi’s willingness to sell Milan to the right bidder, almost 30 years after acquiring the club, was made plain in an interview given to the author of a book to be published in Italy this week.

“I would make the sacrifice to sell Milan only to someone who would benefit the club,” Berlusconi told the writer, the television journalist Bruno Vespa. “Up to now, no one has come forward who fits the bill.”

Berlusconi’s refusal to hire a coach of the first rank was seemingly matched by Florentino Perez’s decision, having failed to attract Arsene Wenger to the Bernabeu, to give the coach’s job to Manuel Pellegrini. The Chilean has plenty of experience and earned respect for his work at Villareal, but is hardly front rank.

Stung by the 3-2 defeat in the Bernabeu a fortnight ago, Real swarmed forward to dominate the opening exchanges. When Dida sliced Alessandro Nesta’s bobbling backpass high into the air in the fourth minute, the lapse gave Madrid instant encouragement.

Two minutes later Benzema brought the ball in from the left and hit a deflected shot that Dida was forced to tip over his bar.

Lassana Diarra exchanged passes with Marcelo before hitting a low drive that Dida gathered comfortably. Kaka, marauding down the left, forced Thiago Silva to intercept his dangerous cutback.

Sergio Ramos, advancing down the right, took advantage of a slick combination between Kaka and Benzema to shoot powerfully just wide of the far post. Higuain, again well placed, fired high with his left foot.

And Kaka and Marcelo put Benzema in on the left for a low shot that grazed Dida’s right-hand post. All that in the first 20 minutes.

Milan looked sclerotic, a reminder that more than half their side are virtual contemporaries of the night’s referee, the 34-year-old Felix Brych of Germany. Deprived of Kaka, they now rely for their thrust on Ronaldinho’s intermittently effective scampering and the shrewd but increasingly ponderous advances of the 33-year-old Clarence Seedorf.

Madrid took the lead just before the half-hour when after Dida spilled Kaka’s low 20-yard shot, Benzema closed in from the right to drill the rebound under the Brazilian goalkeeper’s body.

Milan’s equaliser, six minutes later, was hardly deserved. Overlapping and turning into the Madrid area, Gianluca Zambrotta was confronted by Pepe, who blocked his advance and was adjudged by the referee to have handled the ball in the process.

Ronaldinho blasted the penalty high past Casillas.

The arrival of Raul and Filippo Inzaghi adorned the final stages with the presence of two of the competition’s greatest strikers, and the veteran Italian could have settled the result with seven minutes left when he met Pato’s cross with an off-balance effort that cleared Casillas’s bar, only for Raul five minutes later, to draw a marvellous save from Dida.

Guardian Service

AC MILAN: Dida, Oddo, Nesta, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta, Pirlo, Seedorf, Ambrosini, Alexandre Pato, Ronaldinho, Borriello (Inzaghi 79). Subs not used: Roma, Kaladze, Gattuso, Huntelaar, Flamini, Abate. Booked: Alexandre Pato.

REAL MADRID: Casillas, Sergio Ramos, Albiol, Pepe, Arbeloa, Lassana Diarra, Alonso, Kaka, Benzema (van Nistelrooy 82), Marcelo, Higuain (Raul 74). Subs not used: Dudek, Gago, Mahamadou Diarra, Van der Vaart, Granero. Booked: Marcelo, Arbeloa, Pepe.

Referee: Felix Brych(Germany).