Preview: Real Madrid C.F. – AC Milan, The Greatest Meet

AC MILAN and REAL MADRID, the most successful clubs in the history of football face each other again, and this time is it interesting for one reason called Kaka. Wednesday night, at the Santiago Bernabeu

This is really the best encounter of this Champions League season, better than everything is. The fact this is still the group stage might hurt the great ramification this match has, but a boring game we’ll not see.

Ricardo, Ricky Kaka, with different colors for the first time against AC Milan, the team that followed him during beautiful six years. Now, this is the real task of Milan, and Real Madrid.

AC Milan 2 – 1 A.S. Roma: Ronaldinho & Pato Reach Milan A Comeback

On the paper, the open of the Blancos for the league is 90% perfect: having lost only one game in the first nine rounds of the La Liga, and sit on the second place in the league, after Europe champions, FC Barcelona.

Real had a weak game versus Real Valladolid on Saturday, despite won 4-2 from a really, top-class goals. However, it is really not enough if they are aiming everything this season.

The match against Valladolid and the one before that against Sevilla emphasized Madrid’s real problems. Real are wining so far when they are only depending on personal skills, the lack of playing together plays a side.

Furthermore, the Blancos are looking very bad at defending, as the main problem is left-winger Marcelo, who’s doing a lousy job at the back. This is where the coach has to take control and show he knows the job.

It seems like Manuel Pellegrini has done nothing with the team and Cristiano Ronaldo is the proprietor. The absence of Ronaldo is an important part in Real’s problems that coach Pellegrini must figure out.

The Spanish goalkeeper, Iker Casillas is one of the best three goalkeepers in the world, and we could see that against Sevilla when 300% percent goals were stopped by him. The defense must improve but when Iker stands up, it will be hard to score.

At the attack, Pellegrini has some options: Raul is one of the key players in Real Madrid and despite Karim Benzema said he doesn’t get enough balls when Raul plays alongside him, it’s hard to believe that he will benched. The French scores sometime but he’s still not there for Real with his game in La Liga.

The spotlight of course will be referred to Kaka. The Brazilian changes Real play when he gets on the field, like he did for Milan. The 27-years-old is the best Real player on the field, and he will have to show to Milan that he’s still one of the world’s best.

Manuel Pellegrini has called in the names of these names: Casillas, Dudek; Arbeloa, Pepe, Ramos, Marcelo, Drenthe, Albiol, Garay; Diarra, Kaka, Lass, Xabi Alonso, Van Der Vaart, Granero; Raul, Benzema, Higuain.

Injuries have befallen on Real, as Cristiano Ronaldo, Ruud van Nistelrooy, Fernando Gago, Alvaro Arbeloa and Christoph Metzelder will be all sidelined. Guti was said to reach full recover, but according to the called-up list, Manuel takes no risks with him.

Crossing to Italy, Milano. AC Milan will be at the Santiago Bernabeu for the greatest & toughest match in this season. The pressure was very high on Milan but the victory over Roma gets some pressure off them, as they now meet the only team that is more successful than they are in Europe.

AC Milan against Real Madrid was supposed to happy two months ago, but Milan called it off. Now, for the first time on Wednesday night, they will see Kaka alongside Raul, Xabi Alonso and many more from close, and will finally feel, what the Champions League is all about.

The situation was very bad for the Rossoneri until Sunday. The reporters in Italy suggested Milan to fire Leonardo unless he wins both Roma and Real Madrid games. The first part of the deal has successfully fulfilled, but against Real, the chances are against him.

Alexnadre Pato and Ronaldinho, who knows Real’s defense well since his days at Barcelona, are the main reasons for Milan win, but basing on the entire performance, Milan can go out to the Bernabeu will half a smile on their faces.

The victory on A.S. Roma reminds the one in the opening round against Siena, when Pato’s brace gave Milan a promising start. However, in the next fixture, all the fans of Milan saw were tears, against a tough, bitter opponent, like Inter.

The fans of the Rossoneri around the world hope that Milan have learned from their mistakes, and the same thing will not happen twice, as Real Madrid are as strong as Inter, or even more.

Leonardo must know how to use Real Madrid’s problems against them. The midfield of the Blancos will be well-covered with probably Kaka, Alonso, Van Der Vaart and Granero, so Milan must look for counterattacks, and go trough the left-side, where Marcelo defends.

Ronaldinho showed signs of magic against Roma, like versus Roma. But in the game against Inter who performed very bad. ‘Dinho said that he wants to get more active and be a better pro, and this is the first opportunity to see what he works on, and if he can keep up the good performance he had played.

The attack of AC Milan has many problems, starting with the fact that the balls that arrive from the midfielders and wingbacks aren’t good enough to be controlled, and when the balls do arrive, the attack finds it very hard to finish and make the final touch.

Like Kaka of Real, also for Milan’s Klaas-Jan Huntelaar this is a special encounter. Real Madrid was Huntelaar’s team for only half year, but he wants to show them that this was a wrong thing to sell him so early.

However, he’s very likely to open this game, as Leonardo, like Leonardo in all those days he’s been coaching, does not change things that work. Pato and Ronaldinho are most likely to open this match in a 4-4-2 system.

Leonardo called up in these 22 names: Dida, Donnarumma (n°60 – Primavera), Roma; Antonini, Jankulovski, Kaladze, Nesta, Pasini (n°57 – Primavera) Oddo, Thiago Silva, Zambrotta; Abate, Ambrosini, Flamini, Pirlo, Seedorf; Borriello, Huntelaar, Inzaghi, Pato, Ronaldinho, Verdi (n°58 – Primavera).

Marco Storari still suffers from an injury and will be out for a months according to AC Milan Official Site. Oguchi Onyewu, Gennaro Gattuso, Davide Di Gennaro will be sidelined as well.

PREDICTION

A match between these two sides is not going to be boring. The history is with Real Madrid, nine wins of the previous 11 matches, and so as the better players. It will be very surprising to see a Black & Red side winning the game. Real Madrid are better as for now, despite the injuries and defense problems. Easy 2-0 win for the home side.

By Meytar Zeevi, Rossoneri Blog