AC Milan was not intimidated by Real Madrid's threatening offensive at the start of the game.
AC Milan's average age was indeed on the older side, but they had unparalleled football experience, which was a valuable asset that allowed them to maintain a good mentality during the game.
However, due to the away game and Real Madrid's extremely sharp flank offense, AC Milan's flank offense was relatively suppressed.
Oddo had to be wary of Snede at all times, and Kaladze had to be wary of Robben's surprise attack.
Even though the midfielders and frontline players had the ability to pull the sides, there was a relative lack of pure wingers, which caused AC Milan's offense to lack more variety in positional warfare.
On the other hand, as AC Milan won the Champions League last season, Real Madrid attached great importance to their opponents. Bosque had a targeted deployment in the lineup, and the core of it was naturally to restrict Kaka's play.
In the fifth minute of the game, Kaka received Pirlo's direct pass in the front field and did a wall combination with Seedorf. He easily broke through Guti's defense, but just as he received Seedorf's return pass and changed direction to get rid of Diarra's interception, the ball at his feet was bravely intercepted by Heinz!
Kaka was a little surprised that Heinz, as a full back, rushed to the middle in front of the penalty area to assist in the defense!
Ancelotti looked dignified on the sidelines. He turned his head to look at Bosque sitting in the technical area. According to his understanding of Heinz's playing habits, even though the Argentine was sometimes hot-headed, it must be the manager's arrangement for him to leave his defensive zone on such a large scale to run to his teammates' territory to assist!
Did Bosque see that AC Milan's flank offense was weak, or did he deliberately want to expose a gap and opportunity for AC Milan to lure the enemy?
Once AC Milan was unable to maintain the most basic defensive line of four defenders to face Real Madrid's attack, Ancelotti did not dare to imagine how Real Madrid's passing in the front field would wreak havoc on AC Milan's defensive line.
Real Madrid brought out the momentum that a home team should have from the start of the game, constantly attacking AC Milan's defensive line.
Today, AC Milan naturally placed the utmost importance on keeping an eye on Qin Xiong.
Ambrosini and Gattuso were in charge of flanking Qin Xiong. One of them stayed close to him, while the other was ready to strike at any time.
This made it difficult for Qin Xiong to wait for the ball in place. Just as he ran out of space, it was easy for him to be closely marked by the opponent.
After all, the closer he was to AC Milan's penalty area, the less space he had to run into. Not to mention, the two AC Milan players who were good at defending him were the ones who focused on marking him.
Qin Xiong knew that today's match was a test for him.
He would not have as many dribbling and breakthrough opportunities as he did in other games, which meant that he had to not only be more proactive in his positioning during the game, but also handle the ball cleanly and not sloppily.
He didn't want to get involved with a thug like Gattuso.
In the 11th minute of the game, Guti did a diagonal long pass from midfield to the left in front of the penalty area.
Qin Xiong ran diagonally from the middle, and Gattuso followed like a shadow. Ambrosini was ready to work together with Gattuso to snatch the ball after Qin Xiong stopped the ball.
But when Gattuso followed Qin Xiong and ran in the direction where the football fell, Gattuso felt strange.
The football came from behind, and Qin Xiong ran forward without looking back. He did not have the slightest intention of looking back or stopping.
Was he going to let the ball slip?
He glanced at Raúl's position and found that Raúl did not cut diagonally to the football's landing area.
There was not enough time for Gattuso to speculate. He could only take one step at a time.
Just as the football fell, Qin Xiong had already run to the front of the football. At that moment, he suddenly stopped. Gattuso originally wanted to take advantage of this time to head the ball to break the siege.
But Qin Xiong was stuck in position. Then Gattuso saw the football hit Qin Xiong's back, and Qin Xiong also took the initiative to arch his back!
The football bounced back!
Gattuso and Ambrosini turned their heads in surprise and saw Snede rushing diagonally from about five yards behind them to the front of the penalty area. He stopped the ball with his chest and perfectly controlled it under his feet.
The coordination this time made the Real Madrid fans in the Bernabéu stand intoxicated. Some people immediately stood up and applauded.
Snede completed a high-quality long shot in the middle in front of the penalty area. The football went straight to the lower right corner of the goal. The goalkeeper, Kalac, struggled to the end and used his fingertips to block the ball out of the end line. The football brushed the outside of the goalpost and rolled out.
"Real Madrid has another threatening offensive. This coordination reminds us of the time when Qin Xiong and Snede completed such a coordination during the Ajax era. That was in the Champions League final of the 0304 season. Unfortunately, they did not play this time. Snede's shot was just a hair's breadth away from breaking the goal."
The AC Milan players really felt the pressure.
But they still had some confidence in their hearts.
Today, they had to face Real Madrid's powerful and terrifying attack.
AC Milan did not put on an extreme defensive formation, but it was also impossible to take the initiative to attack Real Madrid. When there was a chance, they mainly seized the opportunity to counterattack and attack quickly.
In the 14th minute of the game, Guti tried to pass a straight ball to Raúl but was intercepted by Maldini. After Maldini intercepted the ball, he immediately passed the ball to Pirlo in front.
Pirlo did not hesitate to pass the ball straight to the front of the field.
After Seedorf stopped the ball, he dribbled to the side, which made Real Madrid's defensive tactic of tightening the flank to the middle to contain Kaka show a flaw.
After Seedorf took two steps forward, he did not pass the ball to Kaka. Instead, he passed the ball to Pato, who was running in an anti-offside position.
Pato, who had just joined AC Milan in the winter, was stepping into the Champions League for the third time. After he successfully broke into the penalty area from an anti-offside position, he was not in the goalmouth area. His shooting angle was not good, and he intended to adjust it.
But when he tried to kick the ball back to have a chance to shoot from the far corner, Pepe fiercely rushed from behind diagonally and destroyed the ball under his feet.
Pato was annoyed and blamed himself. He was still inexperienced in this kind of top-level confrontation game. Whether he could shoot or not did not depend on whether he wanted to or not, but on whether the situation allowed it!
AC Milan did not invest too many attacking players in the corner attack. They were obviously afraid of Real Madrid's fast attacks after the successful defense of the corner.
The lightning-like fast attacks had become a nightmare that many teams did not want to recall.
However, AC Milan still played a relatively good offense in the corner attack this time.
Pirlo kicked the corner, and Oddo nodded the ball back. Kaka, who was outside the penalty area, shot a volley in the air before Diarra could!
The football flew out of the end line above the crossbar.
Kaka sighed to the sky after seeing that the ball did not go in.
He also knew that he would not have many chances to dribble the ball and break through in this game.
Just like Qin Xiong, he was also a target that Real Madrid focused on.
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