Thursday, November 26, 2009

Milan and Marseille battled for a draw

Milan and Marseille battled to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro to take a three-way qualification dog fight with Real Madrid for a place in the last 16 into the final match day.

Marco Borriello fired the Italian side into the lead with a superb solo effort after ten minutes, only for Lucho Gonzalez to level six minutes later.
The Rossoneri are now in pole position to qualify and will fancy their chances against FC Zurich, while Marseille will go head-to-head with Real Madrid at the Stade Velodrome in a fortnight.
Both teams came out with intent and it was the hosts who almost opened the scoring with six minutes gone.
Andrea Pirlo's lofted ball found Gianluca Zambrotta and his close-range left foot strike was superbly saved by Steve Mandanda.

The Rossoneri only had to wait a further four minutes before taking the lead.
Borriello picked up the ball on the Marseille left, ran at the sky blue defence and, after turning Gabriel Heinze, he calmly slotted the ball past Mandanda.
Marseille boss Didier Deschamps felt that Milan were vulnerable to the counter attack and when l'OM skipper Mamadou Niang raced down the Milan flank, Rossoneri stopper Dida parried his cross straight to Lucho, who crashed the ball home.
Fabrice Abriel then tried a speculative long-range effort that sailed narrowly over Dida's bar before Borriello was denied by a superb stop when one-on-one with Mandanda.
With both teams looking to attack in the second period, Benoit Cheyrou was embarrassed by taking an air-shot after a clever free-kick routine, while Borriello scuffed his own shot wide of Mandanda's post after a great ball from Ronaldinho.
Brandao should have put the visitors ahead midway through the half, only to side-foot against the bar from yards out after Niang's superb run and cross, and as the game swung from end to end, it was the unmarked Borriello who was then left holding his head after heading wide with Mandanda to beat.
When the woodwork came to Milan's rescue from Souleymane Diawara's header with four minutes remaining, the chance of a winner had gone, setting the stage for a nail-biting final matchday.

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