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Road to the semis? AC Milan content with scoreless first-leg draw at AjaxPosted: Tuesday April 08, 2003 4:53 PMUpdated: Tuesday April 08, 2003 5:46 PM
AMSTERDAM (Reuters) -- Ajax Amsterdam and AC Milan battled to a goalless stalemate in the first leg of their Champions League quarterfinal on Tuesday to leave the Italians favorites to reach the last four of the competition. Despite some high-quality passing and goal chances for both teams, neither side could find the net but Milan will be the happier with the home leg to come on April 23. The winners of this tie will play either Inter Milan or Valencia in the semifinals early next month. Milan striker Andriy Shevchenko forced Ajax keeper Bogdan Lobont into a fine save with a fierce shot after just five minutes in the clearest opening of the first half. Hatem Trabelsi interrupted a fluent move between Rui Costa, Shevchenko and Filippo Inzaghi otherwise Inzaghi would have had free passage to the Ajax goal. Gradually, Ajax began to take control of the midfield, although they had little to show for their supremacy apart from a Rafael van der Vaart header that was saved by Dida. Milan were forced into making a substitution after 26 minutes when former Ajax player Clarence Seedorf, who was injured in a tackle with Trabelsi a few minutes earlier, was replaced by Serginho. After Milan suffered that setback, Ajax put the visitors under more pressure, and a back pass from Alessandro Costacurta put his goalkeeper Dida under pressure from the chasing Ajax forward Zlatan Ibrahimovic. Gennaro Gattuso picked up the first yellow card of the match for hauling down Ajax's American John O'Brien which rules Gattuso out of the second leg. Milan dominated for much of the second half but the midfield failed to create much for Inzaghi and Shevchenko. Ajax kept coming forward though and 12 minutes after the break Ibrahimovic shot wide after combining well with Steven Pienaar. Milan seemed set to take the lead on 71 minutes but Lobont pulled off a fine save from Milan midfielder Massimo Ambrosini. Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti replaced Inzaghi and Shevchenko with Rivaldo and Jon Dahl Tomasson for the closing stages, but they barely had a chance to shine. Ajax coach Ronald Koeman threw on Jari Litmanen in place of the tiring Ibrahimovic but the Finn, out since last December with injury, clearly lacked match fitness and had only a minimal impact on the game. The veteran Paolo Maldini and his fellow defenders -- especially Alessandro Nesta -- played well to give Milan every confidence of advancing in two weeks. Ancelotti believes his side can build on their 0-0 draw with Ajax on Tuesday and progress in the second leg in Milan. "It's a positive result," he said afterwards. "Defensively we played well, and hardly gave them any chances, although I don't think we played aggressively enough and we allowed Ajax to control the match. "But everything is still open. We have proved in the past that we can play very well at home and that gives us a good chance. Although we did not create as much as I hoped we would tonight, taking the match as a whole, I think we did well." Koeman also looked on the bright side of the stalemate. "We were trying to score, but despite a good overall team performance, we did not create too many chances. We experienced a tough start but after 20 minutes regained control of the match and never let Milan in again. "A 0-0 draw is still a good result for us because we have shown in the past we can score anywhere." He also explained his surprise decision to play Ghanaian defender Abubakari Yakubu from the beginning.
"He has been playing well recently, and I had no doubts
about him. He showed tonight what a good footballer he is and
how strong he is. He was our man of the match."
Copyright 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. |
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