Inter Milan held by Siena to send title race to final weekend

Inter Milan again missed the chance to retain their Serie A title when they were held 2-2 at home by Siena on Sunday with Marco Materazzi having a penalty saved.

Second-placed AS Roma beat Atalanta 2-1 to cut the gap to one point with one round of matches remaining next weekend.

Livorno were relegated after a 1-0 defeat at home to Torino.

Fiorentina beat relegation-threatened Parma 3-1 to move into fourth spot and the final Champions league qualifying place after AC Milan lost 3-1 at Napoli and now two points behind with a game left.

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Fiorentina open Champions League door for AC Milan

Milan move two points behind fourth-placed Fiorentina - held 2-2 by Sampdoria - thanks to a Filippo Inzaghi hat-trick.

Livorno 1-4 AC Milan
AC Milan won 4-1 at Livorno a result which boosts the Rossoneri's Champions League hopes as it brings them to within two points of 4th placed Fiorentina.

Filippo Inzaghi opened the scoring in the 23rd minute, scored his second seven minutes into the second half and completed his treble seven minutes later.

Clarence Seedorf added a fourth in the 70th minute before Dario Knezevic pulled a goal back for the home side two minutes later.

Fiorentina 2-2 Sampdoria
Fiorentina trailed to Christian Maggio's 63rd-minute goal but must have thought they had beaten Samp when Christian Vieri levelled in the 77th minute and Adrian Mutu converted an 84th-minute penalty.

But Daniele Gastaldello's stoppage-time equaliser earned a point for the visitors.

Fiorentina looked a little tired, as they are still battling in the UEFA Cup and can claim a place in the UEFA Cup final if they beat Glasgow Rangers on Thursday.

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Roma keep Serie A title race alive - but Inter need just one more win.

Roma kept the Serie A title race alive for another week at least with a 4-1 thrashing of Torino.

Inter Milan 2-1 Cagliari
Leaders Internazionale won 2-1 at home to Cagliari, Inter's victory was comfortable as they led through Julio Cruz's 21st-minute strike and doubled their lead through second-half substitute Marco Materazzi in the 83rd minute.

Davide Biondini's stoppage-time effort for the visitors was just a consolation.

AS Roma 4-1 Torino
So defeat for Roma would have seen the Nerazzurri claim their second successive Scudetto. But the result was rarely in doubt after David Pizarro opened the scoring for Roma in the 18th minute from the penalty spot.

Mirko Vucinic doubled his team's lead two minutes later and Mancini made it 3-0 in the 25th minute and then netted his second shortly after the half-hour mark.

Substitute Nicola Ventola reduced the deficit five minutes after the interval but the visitors could not make further inroads, even after Roma defender Juan was sent off with 15 minutes left to play.

So Inter Milan can clinch the title next week in the Milan derby with a win.

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Ronaldinho to leave Barcelona for AC milan

Barcelona's Ronaldinho has reportedly agreed initial terms with Italian giants AC Milan, according to his brother and agent Roberto de Assis.

The Brazilian, 28, is set to miss the rest of the season with injury but is said to be disillusioned with life at the Nou Camp and keen for a move.

De Assis insisted it was not yet a done deal but said: "Basically, Ronaldinho and Milan have come to an agreement. He was impressed with first contact with them, they are a great team."

Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani said: "There is a general agreement with the player. Now a deal has to be reached with Barcelona. Give us time."

The forward has also been linked with a move to Manchester City after De Assis was a guest at the home game against Chelsea. But De Assis claims the meetings at Eastlands were regarding "personal matters" and did not concern his brother.

And he now believes only a fee needs to be agreed with Barca for the two-time world player of the year to make the move to Italy a reality.

Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti admitted on Friday he would like to bring both Ronaldinho and Chelsea's out of favour striker Andriy Shevchenko to the San Siro next season.

Milan are fifth in Serie A and in danger of missing next year's Champions League after a poor season. They were knocked out of this year's Champions League as holders by Arsenal in the first knockout round.

And Ancelotti's men have struggled to score and create goals with Brazilian Ronaldo playing just a handful of games before being ruled out long term with a knee injury.

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UEFA CL : AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal (video)

Words fail me ... so ... watch the goals
:-)



(Apologies if you've found this old post ...
YouTube finally found the video and deleted it)

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Serie A Shocks on Sunday

Substitute Daniel Pablo Osvaldo struck an added-time winner as Fiorentina moved a point behind Juventus with a 3-2 victory in Turin – their first away victory over the Bianconeri in two decades.

SSC Napoli also enjoyed a notable success as they became the first club to beat the champions FC Internazionale Milano in Serie A this term winning 1-0.

That leaves Inter Milan (61) leading by 6 points from AS Roma (55), with Juve (48) and Fiorentina (47) battling for the Champions League spots.

Perrenial powerhouse AC Milan are in 5th spot on 43 points are are starting to run the risk of missing out on a lucrative Champions League spot next season.

The full Serie A table is available on the main Italian page on the GoonersGuide.com site.

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UEFA Champions League Draw

Liverpool and Arsenal have paid the price for finishing second in the their Champions League groups with draws Inter Milan and AC Milan in the first knockout round.

The Gunners will meet the holders AC Milan in February, while Rafa Benitez's Liverpool side go up against the reigning Serie A champions and current league leaders Inter Milan.

Sir Alex Ferguson's Manchester United have a tough match against the dangerous French champions Lyon while Scottish representatives Celtic are facing up to two matches against Spanish giants Barcelona.

Chelsea were drawn against Olympiacos of Greece and the other big tie in the last 16 pits mighty Real Madrid against Francesco Totti and Roma.

Schalke 04 of Germany take on 2004 winners FC Porto and Sevilla face Turkish side Fenerbahce.

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AC Milan 4-2 Boca Juniors

Milan win FIFA World Club Championship

Finally we had a football game worth talking about at the "World Club Championships" as an aging Milan team overcame an out-of-season Boca Juniors side in the "final".

Filippo Inzaghi scored twice as AC Milan beat Boca Juniors to win the Club World Cup in Japan. Inzaghi struck after a Kaka pass on 21 minutes but Boca equalised a minute later through Rodrigo Palacio's header.

Alessandro Nesta's volley, Kaka's solo run and finish and Inzaghi's second - all in the space of 10 minutes - settled the match in Milan's favour.

Kakha Kaladze saw red, as did Boca's Pablo Ledesma, while Milan's Massimo Ambrosini scored an own goal.

So well done and congratulations to AC Milan - who learned that Paulo Maldini will be retiring at the end of the season.

----

GOONER BEER RANT :

But frankly the preliminary games are a bit of a farce - and even if an upset did happen so that we did not get a Europe v South America final all it would mean is another imbalanced game in the final.

This is one FIFA turkey that will not fly - no matter how much they dress it up. Either bring over a couple more top sides for the "tournament" or stop pretending that it's anything more than a one-game title.

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The Fiver Rumour Mill ...

As stolen from the high-profile (for a blog) and always funny Guardian Fiver blog ... their rumour mill always has a nice turn of phrase.

Milan have had enough of Ronaldo's injury problems, and would be happy to see the cuddly striker lending his weight to another team's attack.

Wayne Bridge has had enough of not being picked by Avram Grant, and is considering taking his unique brand of comedy to Newcastle or Spurs, where it will be properly appreciated.

And Liverpool co-owner Tom Hicks has had enough, and will sell his stake in the club as soon as Rafa Benitez stops whining about transfer targets long enough for him to get a word in edgeways.

Check out the Guardian Fiver Monday to Friday (around tea-time) for a regular laugh.

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Italian midweek spreadsheet up

There is a round of midweek action in Serie A - and now that we've got the site back up and running we've been able to post our home work.

We've done all the calculations and premutations for the midweek games in Italy and posted the spreadsheet with a few betting notes into the forum

The Sheet -> Italian midweek

Four "likely winners" :
-----------------------------
Inter Milan @ 1.40
Napoli @ 1.86
Juventus @ 1.28
and AC Milan (away) @ 2.33

The discovered value system suggests three bets (two repeats of above).
-----------------------------
DV-Home ::: Inter Milan @ 1.40
DV-Draw ::: Lazio v Cagliari @ 3.30
DV-Away ::: AC Milan @ 2.33

Good luck.

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Jose Mourinho to manage Portugal in Euro2008?

Jose Mourinho looks likely to be the next manager of the Portuguese national side if the weight of punters money is to be believed.

The job of the Portuguese manager is obviously one that might appeal to the ego of Mourinho - and returning as a "national hero" of sorts will surely appeal to the self titled SPECIAL ONE.

Also remember that with Big Phil Scolari getting into trouble recently - trying to punch a Serbian player after a 1-1 draw in qualifying - that the Portuguese FA may well be looking for a popular way to cut the ties.

The Portugal national side is the outstanding favourite at 1.50 (after starting at 14.00 at some bookmakers) and the next two contenders are Tottenham and AC Milan at 6.00 and 6.50 repectively.

While AC Milan would be a good fit for Mourinho they seem to be in a good solid position and not looking for a change so I can't see that happening - while the Tottenham link is surely just a reaction to the instability of Martin Jol's job - as I also cannot imagine Mourinho being happy to settle for 5th best !!

One club job that might be worth a tickle could be the Barcelona role where boss Frank Rikkard is under pressure again after a slow start by Barcelona in this seasons La Liga - and Barca may simnply think that it's time for a change.

But as mentioned the overwhelming favourite is manager of Portugal - and the challenge of the task of finally leading Portugal to international success must surely appeal to Mourinho.

JOSE MOURINHO NEXT JOB ODDS -- BET AT BET365
1.50 Portugal
6.00 Tottenham
6.50 Milan
11.00 Valencia
15.00 Porto
15.00 Real Madrid
21.00 Barcelona
21.00 England
21.00 Juventus
41.00 Man Utd

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2007-08 Champions League Begins ...

It's only been seven weeks since AC Milan were crowned champions of Europe with a 2-1 win against Liverpool in Athens, but the road to the 2008 season's UEFA Champions League final begins on Tuesday.

Of course, in all likelihood NONE of the 28 sides are involved in the the first qualifying round, will even make it to the group stages, but the money in being invovled in this stage means a lot to the little clubs.

(see our Champion League section for the blog post.)

For the first time the champions of Andorra, San Marino and Montenegro will be invoved in the competition and the inflow of money is an important step in raiing the standards of football for the small nations.

Kaunas likely to progress
FK Zeta will represent Montenegro, lining up against FBK Kaunas who are veterans of this stage as they prepare for their seventh first qualifying round fixture in eight seasons. Only twice have Kaunas failed to reach the second stage and though they have never progressed beyond that, Angel Cervenkov's team approach the tie in high spirits after claiming a maiden Lithuanian Super Cup triumph last month.

Sheriff a tough task for Andorran side
Andorran champions FC Ranger's travel to FC Sheriff for the right to meet Besiktas JK in the next round.

Sheriff saw their UEFA Champions League hopes ended by FC Spartak Moskva 12 months ago but pushed the Russian team all the way before missing out on goal difference and have been busy strengthening ahead of this campaign.

Striker Sasa Kajkut and midfielder George Daniel Negrut have both arrived in Tiraspol, raising hopes the Moldovan champions can go further this term.

Top sides await the winners
Red Star Belgrade who were European champions in 1991 will meet either FK Pobeda or FC Levadia Tallinn while Scottish side Glasgow Rangers FC will face the victors of the Zeta tie.

RELATED LINKS :
UEFA Champions League Live Scores
UEFA Champions League Betting Previews

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Bet365 take a beating as AC Milan win

Bet365 suffered substantial losses of well over £450,000 on Wednesday night's Champions League final as a successful gamble on AC Milan was landed.

The Italians defeated Liverpool 2-1 in Athens thanks to a brace from veteran striker Filippo Inzaghi and Bet365 spokesman Steve Freeth commented : "The punters landed a monumental gamble and we've felt the full force of it."

"Our 7/5 on Milan stood out like a sore thumb on Monday and punters took full advantage of our 103% margin. Milan eventually went off at 11/8 after peaking at 13/10 and we'll be counting the cost well into the night."

Of course all GoonersGuide.com readers should have done well as Simon's UEFA Champions League Final preview on the main site was touting Milan as the winner all week.

And the great prices at Bet365 along with their financial security to make these payouts quickly are some of the reasons why Bet365 remain our #1 recommended bookmaker.

Enjoy your beers.

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Milan are early favourites for UEFA Champs Final

AC Milan are 5/6 favourites (1.83) to lift the Champions League trophy when they contest the final against Liverpool in Athens on May 23.

The Italian side thrashed Manchester United 3-0 in the second leg of their semi-final at the San Siro on Wednesday night to progress 5-3 on aggregate.

First-half goals from Kaka and Clarence Seedorf allowed the Rossoneri to turn around the 3-2 first leg deficit, before substitute Alberto Gilardino put the game beyond United's reach with 13 minutes left.

AC Milan book a meeting with Liverpool, in a repeat of the thrilling 2005 final which finished 3-3 after extra time.

The 2007 Final will take place in the Athens Olympic Stadium on 23rd May.

OUTRIGHT WINNER BEST ODDS :
AC Milan 1.83 at Ladbrokes and EuroBet
Liverpool 2.10 at Betfred.

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