retired_rblake

27/12/06
Paolo Maldini damaged a foot in training and will be out for three weeks as we head into the Winter Break, having played 18 of the 28 league games.

Serie A League Table
1 - AC Milan 45 pts
2 - Inter Milan 38 pts
3 - Udinese 37 pts
4 - Palermo 36 pts
5 - Juventus 35 pts
6 - Roma 31 pts

retired_rblake

02/01/07
More bad news on the injury front, Massimo Ambrosini after working his way back to fitness has damaged his Cruciate Knee Ligaments and will be out for 8 months and will see a specialist.

retired_rblake

03/01/07
£5m was the price negogiated to bring a 19-year-old Belgium defender/midfielder from Anderlecht by the name of Anthony Vanden Borre, whilst Perugia has splashed out £9k for 40-year-old centre defender Alessandro Costacurta.

retired_rblake

04/01/07
A deal has also been struck with the young Roma striker Stefan Chuka Okaka, half Nigerian and half Italian, the 17-year-old standing at 6 foot 2 and weighing in at 13st 3 lbs. He will join the club in the summer on a bosman.

05/01/07
Chairman Silvio Berlusconi has again spoken of his desire to bring the world's best players to the San Siro and I imagine if I don't do so, he will. The only problem is that I don't really require any new players at this stage.

rastilbear

Nice. Okaka is a beast.

retired_rblake

I've watched him play a few times for Roma (in real) such as against Boro in the UEFA Cup last year and he certainly has a physical presence and a certain rawness about him.

I'm hoping that he will develop into a mighty fine player in a few years and the youth team will develop him along with some outings in Cup competition and sub appearances.

retired_rblake

06/01/07 - Serie A
Cagliari (H)
Team: Abbiati; Jankulovski, Gonzalo, Nesta, King; Seedorf, Kaka, Gattuso, Robinho; Shevchenko.

Injuries rule out Maldini, Kaladze and Ambrosini, whilst Vanden Borre takes his place on the bench.

Always in control against a struggling and out of form Cagliari side. Kaka opened the scoring just before half time when his clever run was spotted by Pirlo and the Brazilian slotted into the far corner.

A beauty team goal was chalked out ten minutes into the second half, a series of passes through the middle was finished off by Shevchenko before the assistant's flag cut short the celebrations. Ten minutes later and King won a tackle and played the ball square to Nesta who collapsed in a heap, allowing on-loan midfielder Martin Ericsson in on goal but Abbiati stood tall to save. Nesta was subsequently stretched off and Vanden Borre got his first taste of Serie A action at right-back with King moving to the centre. The game was made safe with five minutes later when Pirlo laid it off for MOM Robinho to slam home only his second Serie A goal.
Alessandro Nesta bruised his thigh in apparently an accidental collision, although he collapsed with no one around him and faces two weeks on the sidelines.
AC Milan 2-0 Cagliari

retired_rblake

10/01/07
Leandro Depetris has agreed to join Triestina of Serie B for the remainder of the season on loan.

Serie A
Livorno (H)
Team: Abbiati; Jankulovski, Gonzalo, King, Vanden Borre; Seedorf, Kaka, Pirlo, Gattuso, Robinho; Shevchenko.

Vanden Borre takes the right-back spot and King moves to central defence in the absence of the injured Nesta.

It took 16 minutes for the young Belgian to receive his first booking. Despite completely dominating the first half, the scores were level at 0-0 with the referee handing out five bookings.

Robinho made way at half-time after picking up a knock, Maldini his replacement moving to left-back and Jankulovski moving to the wing.

Livorno came out after half-time with renewed vigour and created two excellent chances but failed to take either but they reminded AC Milan that they were by no means out of the game. Cometh the hour, cometh the Captain, Gennaro Gattuso scored from twenty yards after Shevchenko had set him up but in truth Macro Amelia should and will be a little disappointed that it beat him. With Livorno pouring men forward the second arrived with twenty minutes left. Gonzalo won the ball in the air and Shevchenko ran on to the loose ball but Amelia dived well at his feet, unfortunately for Livorno it broke to Kaka to side-foot home from 20 yards into the vacant net.
AC Milan 2-0 Livorno

retired_rblake

13/01/07 - Serie A
Roma (A)
Team: Abbiati; Jankulovski, Gonzalo, Nesta, King; Seedorf, Kaka, Pirlo, Gattuso, Vanden Borre; Shevchenko.

Robinho dropped to the bench for this encounter, due to being away from home and felt it better to go with a more solid and defensive player given as Roma play an attacking 4231 formation.

Also the search for the world's best players go on, looking for a wide midfielder, bids for Antonio Cassano, Joaquin and Vicente have all been rebuffed.

First blood to AC Milan after 26 minutes. Whilst the 451 formation away from home concedes a lot of possession to the home team, Roma haven't mustered a shot on target and Pirlo's goal was our sixth thus far. Shevchenko got down the line and crossed, Sammy Kuffour's header wasn't great and Pirlo curled home from the edge of the area. Five minutes later and Shevchenko hit the post. Half-time and Roma only had one shot all half, a header from a corner well saved by Abbiati, whilst AC had 10 shots, six on target.

Into the second half and both teams had half chances but nothing on much note until the 70th minute when Christian Chivu was sent off for kicking out at Clarence Seedorf. Roma left it the same, with a 3231 formation. However Roma equalised ten minutes later when Totti broke the offside trap (not being played) and finished nicely past Abbiati.
Roma 1-1 AC Milan

retired_rblake

17/01/06 - Serie A
Juventus (A)
Team: Abbiati; Jankulovski, Gonzalo, Nesta, King; Seedorf, Kaka, Pirlo, Gattuso, Vanden Borre; Gilardino.

With Robinho on International Duty with Brazil in the North American Gold Cup until early February (assuming they make the latter stages) Anthony Vanden Borre has a chance to impress on the right hand side of midfield. Alberto Gilardino comes in up front for Andriy Shevchenko who has been off form of late. Another big away game.

Withstood a lot of early pressure but eventually the break-through came on 34 minutes a nice move Juventus move saw Trezeguet feed Ibrahimovic in behind and lob Abbiati as he came out to meet him. AC Milan hit immediately when Cannavaro fouled Gilardino as he turned and the responsibility was left to Vanden Borre who didn't shy away, hammering the ball past Buffon.

Straight after half-time the AC players heeded the manager's advice and produced, Seedorf and Kaka were involved, culminating in Gilardino firing in from a tight angle beating Buffon at his near post for 2-1. Straight from kick-off AC again produced and Gilardino was sent away and tried to chip Buffon who made an excellent save. The resulting corner was cleared off the line in a bit of a scramble. The lead looked to have lasted a matter of minutes when Ibrahimovic chased a long ball, Abbiati made the wrong decision to stay on his line and the Swede powered an effort past the Italian no.2 goalkeeper. Joy turned into disappointed however as the assistant endulged in a spot of flagging and the goal was disallowed. With twenty minutes left referee Paolo Bertini produced his sixth yellow card of the afternoon, all for AC Milan players, this was a decisive one as Andrea Pirlo (of all players) picked up his second yellow and AC were left to fend with 10 men for the remainder. Johann Vogel was introduced to replace Kaka in the middle of midfield to add some more steel, bite and workmanship. Ibrahimovic struck the resulting free-kick against the bar and Abbiati saved well from Emerson's follow-up. Shevchenko came on for Gilardino and had a couple of opportunities to make the game safe late-on but Buffon reacted well on both occasions. The expected late onslaught never materialised as Maldini came on for Seedorf to make a 531 formation as AC recorded another victory over Juventus.
Juventus 1-2 AC Milan