Tomorrow night AC Milan and Man United take centre stage at the San Siro in the knockout round of the UEFA Champions League. The last time these two met was in 2007 when Milan knocked United out of the semi-finals.
All the fuss ahead of the game is surrounding David Beckham, who could play for the first time against the club he supported as a child since he left Old Trafford in 2003.
Any kind of positive result for Man United tomorrow evening would be fantastic. An away goal or two would be helpful. Obviously I would love a win, that would put us in a great position because I fancy us to win at Old Trafford but a draw isn’t so bad.
AC Milan have been given a boost with the news that Thiago Silva is in the squad to play United. Luca Antonini and Clarence Seedorf have also been named in the 21-man squad. Alessandro Nesta and Pato returned for Milan on Friday, both are expected to play a part in the game. Marco Borriello and Gianluca Zambrotta both miss the game due to injuries.
Here is the squad who travelled out to Milan: Edwin Van Der Sar, Ben Foster, Tomasz Kuszczak, Gary Neville, Wes Brown, Jonny Evans, Rio Ferdinand, Fabio da Silva, Rafael da Silva, Patrice Evra, Antonio Valencia, Ji-Sung Park, Luis Nani, Gabriel Obertan, Paul Scholes, Michael Carrick, Darron Gibson, Wayne Rooney, Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Owen and Mame Biram Diouf.
As you can see, there are three big names missing from that squad list- Nemanja Vidic, Ryan Giggs and Anderson. Vidic and Giggs are both out with injuries. Anderson is a different story, I am not sure what is going on with him but as far as I know, he is not injured.
Milan haven’t been in the best of form over recent matches, their win on Friday was the first in five matches but that doesn’t mean United can take them lightly.
“The match against AC Milan will be a very tough game,” Van Der Sar said during the pre-match press conference. “Milan have great qualities, we know of their success. We must be very careful in defence because they are very strong in attack.”
Van Der Sar has praised his International team-mate Klaas-Jan Huntelaar: “We were team-mates for the national team”
“I know him well. He’s a great striker, very good at exploiting opportunities that can appear. We must make sure we don’t let those opportunities happen.”
No matter what happens tomorrow the game at Old Trafford will be the decider but that won’t stop it from being a fascinating game, which both sides will want to win.
Predicted Man United starting XI- Van Der Sar, Brown, Evans, Ferdinand, Evra, Valencia, Scholes, Carrick, Fletcher, Nani, Rooney.
Predicted fulltime scoreline- AC Milan 1-1 Man United.
