Rossoneri Resurrection, AC Milan 4 — 1 Lazio

Call­ing all Milanista, I got it wrong and admit it but what’s more impor­tant is under­stand­ing why.  The key to today’s vic­tory was man­ager Ancelotti get­ting back to basics. Take a look at the start­ing XI, leav­ing Ronald­inho and Andriy Shevchenko on the bench was the right move. 

Ancelotti would instead go with young Pato, Marco Bor­riello and a Pirlo-less mid­field which sup­ported the front two while pro­vid­ing breath­ing room with goals.  

Mid­fielder Clarence See­dorf opened the scor­ing in the 8th minute after a failed attempted to lay the ball off to Kaka. Seedorf’s pass would ric­o­chet off a Lazio defender back into his path and from ten yards out the big man made no mis­take in bury­ing it behind Lazio keeper Juan Pablo Car­rizo.
 
Milan looked dan­ger­ous much of the first half but dur­ing the 25th minute, a lack in con­cen­tra­tion on a threaded pass by Goran Pandev, allowed Lazio for­ward Mauro Zarate to slip the defen­sive line and gain a equalizer. Ten min­utes later, defender Gian­luca Zam­brotta would restore the Milan lead with an absolute cracker from far out on the right. Trav­el­ling from right to left the ball curled across the front of goal end­ing up in the far side-netting, 2 –1 home side at the half.  

Sec­ond half action saw Milan’s Brazil­ian crew, Alexan­dre Pato and Kaka, pro­vide insur­ance goals three and four. Pato’s was an excep­tional header well placed and away from the keeper’s reach.  The young man would make way for Ronald­inho in the last quar­ter and there was one spot of magic when Ronald­inho part­nered with Bor­riello in split­ting the defense, and foil­ing the off­side trap, with a well feed ball. Bor­riello open on goal struck low and hard but keeper Car­rizo man­aged to block the shot.

Although Lazio had sev­eral excel­lent chances to draw closer, they could not cap­i­tal­ize on their oppor­tu­ni­ties. The vis­i­tors lost belief in any come­back and in my opin­ion it all van­ished after Pato’s 48 minute header.  The sub­sti­tu­tion of Pasquale Fog­gia for Mauri was a good move as the player cre­ated all kinds of prob­lems for the Milan mid­field with his runs for­ward but the deci­sion to bring Fog­gia on was left too late by Lazio man­ager Delio Rossi.  

Final Thoughts

Gat­tuso was back in the start­ing XI which was a sur­prise to me. His early return from injury will be good for the team but is it good for him?  Jankulovski played a very phys­i­cal game, I didn’t count the fouls but he did receive a yel­low card and no chance of tak­ing him off early with the lim­ited bench. Brazil­ian inter­na­tional Kaka is return­ing to 100% fitness with his sec­ond start for the Rossoneri, his cre­ative flair in the mid­field has been sorely missed. Finally old-timer Ambrosini made sev­eral key plays in break­ing up the Lazio attack and all in all the Milan mid­field per­formed rea­son­ably well with­out Andrea Pirlo. Time will tell if Ancelotti has found the right formula.

Line­ups

Milan: Abbiati; Zam­brotta, Mal­dini, Kaladze, Jankulovski; Gat­tuso (Emer­son 78), Ambrosini, See­dorf (Flamini 64); Kaka; Pato (Ronald­inho 71), Borriello

Lazio: Car­rizo; Licht­steiner, Siviglia, Rozen­hal, Kolarov; Broc­chi (De Sil­vestri 79), Ledesma, Matuza­lem (Meghni 68); Mauri (Fog­gia 62); Zarate, Pandev

Goalscor­ers: See­dorf 8 (M), Zarate 25 (L), Zam­brotta 35 (M), Pato 48 (M), Kaka 61 (M)

Goal High­lights

Tagged as: AC Milan, Alexandre Pato, Clarence Seedorf, Gianluca Zambrotta, Kaka, Lazio, Mauro Zarate