FanNation - The Republic of Sport

     Yesterday while watching TV early in the morning I stumbled upon the listing of Fiorentina  v. AC Milan.  So I decided that I would watch the game and hope for a good one.  That it was ladies and gentlemen.

     The start was fast.  They came out and quickly pressed the face of Zeljko Kalac's goal.  They knocked on the Aussie's door, but he wasn't letting them in.  The rest of the first half pretty much went by with Fiorentina wasting many a good chance and Milan not doing a whole lot. 

     For the first 15 minutes of the first half, it was a terrible drag game.  Both defences played well during this stretch, especially the Milan defence.  They played great the whole game, but I'll get back to that later.  At about the 60th minute mark, I started to pray for a substitution.  I was getting tired of Adrian Mutu and Kaká trading the ball and the defence clearing it out.  So finally, I got my wish when AC Milan brought in Brazilian wonderkid Alexandre Pato for Dutch international Clarence Seedorf.  Seedorf walked off the field very unhappy, so unhappy that he didn't even leave at midfield.  Instead, he just walked off. 

     When Pato came in, excitment started quickly.  In the 75th minute, Kaka played a ball into the area in which Pato brought down beautifully and put past the 'keeper.  The hosts had been planning on bringing in Christian Vieri, but it appeared as if he had been brought in too late.  He entered after the goal from Pato and did help Mutu a great deal.  Vieri took some pressure off of Mutu and allowed for more chances, but it just didn't work out for a while.  Then a terrible injury to Pato occured.  This forced Milan to play with 10 men for a long time. 

     Fio wanted lots of extra time, and they got it in the form of 5 minutes.  In the last minute of that time, Milan gave up a corner kick, and would prove to be the last chance for Fiorentina.  On the corner, the ball was played across the area all the way to Alessandro Gamberini, who had his header from close-range saved wonderfully by Kalac.  This proved to be the end of the match, Milan won it 1-0. 

     This match was good all because of a little thing called UEFA Champions League.  See, coming into the match Milan was in 6th place and had been on a roll and the other side Fiorentina was in 4th place.  With the win, Milan helps solidify that they really do deserve to be in the Champions League, and they proved that they can win a tough game that is very ugly. 

Keeper's MVP of the Match- Kalac (Goalkeeper- AC Milan).  Milan's defence was a close second, but the tall Aussie held his ground throuhout the match.

Fiorentina MVP- Adrian Mutu (Striker)

Well, this was a great game, and I hope that you will come back.  Until next time, it has been Keeper, and I'm out.