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All grown up United lays Italian ghost to rest in Milan
Posted: Thursday March 18, 1999 02:53 PM
MILAN, Italy (Reuters) -- Manchester United's 1-1 draw at Inter Milan on Wednesday finally laid their Italian ghost to rest and suggested they may now have the composure and maturity to claim the biggest prize in European club soccer. They secured their 3-1 aggregate victory in traditionally Italian style, winning at home and then defusing the fervour of an 80,000-strong crowd and defending solidly in the second leg before a late away goal on the counter-attack. Coach Alex Ferguson has said beforehand that victory over an Italian side was a prerequisite for any club with world beating pretentions and after the match he was jubilant. "This is a splendid night for Manchester United. We've finally achieved the great step forward we hoped for. It's a fact that to win the Champions' League you have to beat an Italian team and this time we've managed to do it." United had never knocked an Italian team out of European competition in 42 years of trying and, although they had beaten AC Milan and Juventus twice each at Old Trafford, had never left Italy with anything other than defeat. They were beaten 4-0 here by Milan in 1958 and lost four successive times to Juventus in Turin between 1976 and last year. Overall against Italian sides in Italy they had conceded 13 goals and scored just one -- against Juventus in the 1984 Cup Winners' Cup final. "On the balance of the two matches we deserved to qualify," Ferguson said after Paul Scholes had come off the bench and scored United's late equaliser. "At the San Siro our general play was better than Inter's and we created a number of goalscoring chances, quite apart from the one from which we scored." "Inter had to attack at the end and with only two men at the back they were always open to a counterattack. Scholes is a terrific finisher. He wasn't left out of the side because he'd done anything wrong. It was simply that I felt Ronny Johnsen's abilities were best suited to a match of this kind." United's cause was helped by the fact that Ronaldo, Inter's Brazilian would-be saviour, had a poor match and looked unfit. "Ronaldo's obviously not at full strength," Ferguson said. "I can understand why Inter would want to play Ronaldo even if he's not playing at his peak. A player like that is always capable of changing the match with a piece of individual skill." "Inter played like a team that needed to be inspired by either good play or by Ronaldo. On the occasions when their play was good they had us in trouble." Inter's Romanian coach Mircea Lucescu said he felt their hopes of a semifinal place died in the 82nd minute, when Brazilian Ze Elias broke through on the right and skewed a shot wide of goal with only Peter Schmeichel to beat. "For me that was the turning point. I think that's when the players sensed it was not their night," Lucescu said. Ze Elias described the moment as "like having lost a child." "I timed my run right and then I saw the enormous presence of Schmeichel coming towards me and I tried to beat him with a shot along the ground. It was the perfect moment to go 2-0 up. If we'd have gone to extra time I'm sure we would have won." The Italians were unhappy with the refereeing of Frenchman Gilles Veissiere, lauded by Ferguson after the match. "There we're two clear penalties, one against Zamorano in the first half and once against Ronaldo in the second." Lucescu said. "These referees consider themselves protagonists too much." Zamorano was adamant he should have been awarded a penalty when Schmeichel tripped him in the 16th minute - even though the ball appeared to running away from him when he went down. "I can say it clearly and loudly without risk of lies - the referee denied us a clear penalty." the Chilean striker said. "I touched the ball first and the keeper came across me, preventing me from reaching the ball after the first touch. "It was a penalty and probably should have been a sending off," he said. Zamorano protested to Veissiere "and he told me the foul was committed by me. It's incredible to find a referee like that at this level. "They [the officials] deprived us of a goal in the first leg and now they've deprived us of a penalty here." United, still on course for a European Cup, domestic cup and championship treble, now face a day's wait before learning their semifinal opponents. With Bayern Munich in such formidable form and Dynamo Kiev having knocked out champions Real Madrid, Ferguson's side could do worse than draw Juventus for the third successive year. Now they have finally broken their Italian jinx, the prospect should hold no fear for them.
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