Molinaro on Milan: Pride restored
Posted February 15, 2012 7:20 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
In case you missed it, here are the highlights from Wednesday’s UEFA Champions League action.
The results
Zenit St. Petersburg beat Portuguese outfit Benfica 3-2 in Russia, while AC Milan blanked visiting Arsenal 4-0.
What these results mean
Roman Shirokov scored his second goal of the game in the 88th minute to lift Zenit St. Petersburg to the victory. While Benfica will no doubt be disappointed about conceding late and letting a draw slip through their hands, they’ll take great comfort from their two road goals: a 1-0 win the return leg in Lisbon would be enough to see the Portuguese advance to the quarter-finals.
As for Arsenal, they have a mountain to climb. Their capitulation in Milan means the Gunners must beat the rossoneri by five goals in the return leg in London to stay alive in the competition. Good luck to them: no team has ever lost a Champions League tie after taking a four-goal lead in the first leg.
Match highlights: Zenit 3, Benfica 2 | Milan 4, Arsenal 0
The major storyline
Wednesday’s events at San Siro not only marked a major victory for AC Milan, but also for Serie A.
Italian clubs have suffered at the hands of their English counterparts in this competition in recent years, none more so than Milan – the rossoneri were knocked out at this same stage by English teams in three of the past four seasons, including by Arsenal in 2008.
Barring a major meltdown, the Italian champions will advance to the quarter-finals at the expense of Arsenal, where the Premiership will at most only have one remaining team and Serie A could have as many three.
A lot of attention in the English press will focus on an abysmal defensive performance by the Gunners, especially the central pairing of Thomas Vermaelen and Laurent Koscielny who were dreadful. Fullbacks Kieran Gibbs and Bacary Sagna were also poor on the night. Compounding Arsene Wenger’s frustrations was the fact that the midfielder Alex Song hardly supplied any kind of protection in front of the back four.
But proper credit should be paid to the Italians, who showed great attacking initiative and expertly exposed the Arsenal defence the entire night.
This was one of those rare evenings that Robinho was clearly up for it right from the opening kickoff. The Brazilian tirelessly worked himself into scoring positions and used his pace and trickery on the ball to pose serious questions of the Gunners’ defenders.
Kudos should also go to the irrepressible Zlatan Ibrahimovic, who has long been harangued by many members of the English media as a slacker who doesn’t pull his weight and goes missing in big games. The Swedish forward was the best player on the pitch Wednesday night, effectively linking up with Robinho and dropping back to assume a more playmaking role.
Interesting tidbits
— Benfica’s starting line-up featured four Brazilians, two Argentines, one Uruguayan, one Serbian, one Belgian, one Paraguayan and one Spaniard. The only Portuguese on the field at the start of the match was Zenit defender Brunos Alves. Portuguese defender Miguel Vitor came into the match for Benfica as a 90th-minute substitute.
— Benfica had lost just once in 36 previous matches in all competitions coming into this game.
— Prior to Wednesday, Benfica had lost just one of their 24 Champions League matches in which they took the lead (they suffered a 3-1 loss to Manchester United in 2006)
— The Russian league is currently on hiatus due to winter, which means this was Zenit’s first competitive match since Dec. 6th.
Goal of the day
With the game tied 1-1, Zenit conjured a bit of magic in the 71st minute. Aleksandr Kerzhakov took a brilliant back-heeled pass from Vladimir Bystrov and expertly knocked the ball across the box to Sergei Semak. The Russian midfielder then elevated the “wow” factor on the play to another level by effortlessly back-heeeling the ball past Benfica goalkeeper Artur from close range.
Play of the day: Sergei Semak’s amazing goal for Zenit
Save of the day
AC Milan goalkeeper Christian Abbiati didn’t have to make a single save until the 66th minute when he came up with a brilliant stop. Thierry Henry’s flick over the Milan defence found Robin van Persie who hammered a volley towards the corner only to see Abbiati deny him a goal with a fantastic, diving save.
Burning questions
— Will the prospect of a seventh consecutive year without a trophy, punctuated by Wednesday’s humiliating loss in Italy, finally convince Arsenal to fire manager Arsene Wenger?
— How quickly will Zenit rush injured starting goalkeeper Vyacheslav Malafeev back into the line-up after the disastrous performance by back backup Yuri Zhevnov against Benfica?
— With the Gunners on the brink of elimination (and with Manchester City and Manchester United having exited in the group stage) how many doom-and-gloom editorials can we expect on the “dire state” of the Premiership to appear in the English press Thursday morning?
3 stars
1.) Zlatan Ibrahimovic: The Super Swede has long divided opinion amongst English reporters, but the doubters were silenced Wednesday as the Milan forward scored one goal and set up two others.
2.) Robinho: The Brazilian was brilliant for Milan, finding the net twice and terrorizing the Arsenal defence with his speed and touch on the ball.
3.) Roman Shirokov: The Russian midfielder bagged a brace, including the decisive strike in the 88th minute, to propel Zenit to the victory.
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