Late AC charge hard to resist

Champions League semi-final: Paddy Agnewon how Berlusconi's favourites have hit form just in time

Two weeks ago, on the night that AC Milan looked to have seriously compromised their Champions League campaign with a first leg, 2-2 draw against Bayern Munich at the San Siro in Milan, flies on the Milan dressingroom wall after the match would have seen something strange. There he was, the club's charismatic owner, media tycoon and centre-right opposition leader Silvio Berlusconi sitting on the dressingroom bench.

For once, the normally smiling Berlusconi was not a happy camper. Looking by turns furious and disappointed, Berlusconi was so cross he did the (for him) unthinkable. The man who loves nothing more than to talk about his beloved AC Milan dribbled his way past the microphones waiting outside the dressingroom door and went home to lick his wounds.

Berlusconi cares about Milan, he cares about the club's winning image at home and abroad. In a season when Milan long ago lost the Serie A battle to runaway leaders Inter Milan (more salt in the wound since they are, of course, bitter city rivals), Berlusconi was furious that the chance of European glory now seem irrevocably compromised.

Milan, however, defied the worst presentiments of their owner with easily their best performance of the season so far when defeating Bayern 2-0 at the Allianz Arena in Munich.

As Milan now prepare for their fourth Champions League semi-final in the last five seasons, Berlusconi and the Milan fans are beginning to believe that perhaps the club can stage a truly spectacular, springtime revival.

For make no mistake, this has not been a good season for Milan. Their troubles, inevitably, began last summer with that hairy old beast, the "Calciopoli" match-fixing scandal. Not only was the club penalised eight points in Serie A but, arguably more tellingly, Milan were threatened with exclusion from the Champions League itself and in the end were forced (by the Italian Federation) to play in the August, third preliminary round of the competition (beating Red Star Belgrade 3-1 on aggregate).

Given that August is traditionally a pre-season training month for Italian clubs and given also that key Milan players such as World Cup winners Andrea Pirlo and Gennaro Gattuso as well as Brazilian Kaka showed up late for training in the wake of their exertions in Germany, Milan still got off to a lousy seasonal start. Not only were there serious physical problems but also there was the sensation that a summer of involvement in "Calciopoli" had seriously undermined the team's mental well-being.

Clearly, too, the squad had also been weakened by the sale of talisman striker Ukrainian Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea. Whatever about his problems with the Premiership side this season, Shevchenko had time and again dug Milan out of holes over the previous seven seasons.

Almost immediately out of the Serie A running (thanks only partly to their eight-point penalty), Milan hardly distinguished themselves when losing their last two Champions League group games in the autumn, beaten 1-0 by AEK Athens in Athens and then losing 2-0 to French side Lille at the San Siro.

The poor form continued throughout the winter and anyone who saw their recent 1-1 draw with AS Roma, on the eve of their return match against Bayern, could have been forgiven for predicting a bright European future for Roma and a short one for Milan.

Yet, in the week that Roma touched a humiliatingly new low when drubbed 7-1 by Manchester United at Old Trafford, it was the old dog for the hard European road, namely Milan, who came good with a clinical hatchet job against Bayern. It was a quintessential Italian performance - give them no chances whatsoever but make the most of those few chances you create for yourself.

As Milan prepare for a trip to Old Trafford on Tuesday, one thing seems certain - namely that Manchester United will not be afforded the chance to register another 7-1 victory. Looking forward to the tie yesterday, manager Carlo Ancelotti suggested the key to thwarting United will be linked to tight, "pressing" defence in which two men mark the man on the ball, making forward progress very difficult. Easier said than done but the scene is already set for a classic defensive Italian job.

Ancelotti and his players, of course, can take heart from the consideration that as many of six of them have already won a Champions League tie at Old Trafford (1-0, 24th February, 2005 - the goal from Argentine striker Hernan Crespo). Furthermore, all the signs suggest Milan are shaking off their winter slumbers at just the right moment - not only the elimination of Bayern but also refound Serie A form that has seen them clamber back into the Champions League zone into fourth place augur well. As do also eight goals in their last two league outings, 3-1 and 5-2 wins against Messina and Ascoli respectively.

Clearly, the return of long-time injury victims such as central defender Alessandro Nesta and Brazilian veteran Serghino has had a hugely positive impact on the squad. As too has the introduction of World Cup winner, 30-year-old right back Massimo Oddo, bought from Lazio in January (in a €12 million deal) and called in to replace 36-year-old Brazilian Cafu.

More likely, though, is the consideration that it is the Champions League itself which has put a spring in the step of Messers Kaka, Pirlo, Seedorf et al. Looking forward to Old Trafford, Gattuso summed up the importance of Champions League this week (and incidentally had a little dig at city rivals, Inter) when saying: "As far as I am concerned, the Champions League is worth three or four Serie A league titles."

Much speculation has focused on Milan's ageing defence in recent seasons, with many critics suggesting that sooner or later Milan will pay a heavy price for fielding a defence led by a player, Paolo Maldini, who will be 39 in June.

That could well be but it is worth considering that the three other defenders in Milan's back four on Tuesday night are likely to be 30-year-old Massimo Oddo at right back, 31-year-old Alessandro Nesta in central defence and 30-year-old Czech Republic left back, Marek Jankulovski. In other words, three players still in their physical prime and who can go a long way to covering for "old man" Maldini, if and when necessary.

In midfield, too, Milan look more "experienced" than ageing with Gattuso and Ambrosini both 29 year olds and Pirlo 27. Up front, Milan may be without another prominent member of their Dad's Army in the shape of 33-year-old striker Filippo Inzaghi, ruled out by injury and due to be replaced by 24-year-old former Parma striker Alberto Gilardino.

Gilardino, too, will be assisted by another 24-year-old in Brazilian Kaka, arguably Milan's best player, and by a 31-year-old, three-times Champions League winner, Dutchman Clarence Seedorf.

With 24-year-old Australian Zeljko Kalac due to replace injured Brazilian Dida in goal, Milan hardly deserve their "ageing" label. If and when they get beaten, age will not have been the problem.