Until Tuesday evening, the press urged Carletto to play in the manner of “Roma”, that is, without a center forward. However, the events that erupted on the eve of “Old Trafford”, somehow immediately removed the example of Luciano Spalletti from the category of successful.
Ancelotti avoided non-trivial tactical moves and put the 33-year-old Inzaghi as a striker. Filippo - by the way, the fifth sniper in the history of the Champions League - started the match a bit vain, acting in a unique impulsive-explosive style. But in the 31st minute he used his only real opportunity to score.
Ottmar Hitzfeld, on the contrary, was quite surprised by the starting lineup. Surprisingly, he saw an alternative to the injured Schweinsteiger in Christian Lella, who was previously known as ... the right-back. It is worth recognizing that in the debut of the match, the 22-year-old blond, who last season did not have a stable place even as part of Cologne, strained the Milan defense several times. In one of the episodes, Massimo Oddo interrupted the flight of the ball when he only had half a meter to go.
However, closer to the end of the inning, the validity of Lell's stay on the left edge of the midfield became less and less obvious - Lam easily covered the entire edge. And it would be naive to expect Christian Schweinsteiger’s creativity.
Actually, part of the creative functions in the Bavarian game was quite seriously entrusted to the Brazilian Lucio - probably the only stopper playmaker in the world. In the Bundesliga, his adventurous forays have already gotten used to it. But in the Champions League, such exercises of the central defender of the “Bavaria” often mislead the enemy defense. But not this time.
In the Saturday game with Empoli, the main quartet of Rossoneri defenders rested in full force, and therefore in Munich looked extremely fresh, concentrated and cold-blooded. Non-dangerous long-range shots of Podolsky, Makai and Ottl - the maximum than the Hitzfeld team was able to disturb Dida in the first half.
The key difference in Ancelotti's strategic plan compared to the first match was the actual rejection of striking flank attacks. Jankulowski and Oddo, perhaps the most active Rossoneri players in last week’s game, this time got out to the other half on very big holidays. An extremely reliable defensive game and a bet in an attack on impromptu Kaka - this seems to be a simplified version of Ancelotti's plan.
However, the implementation of this idea could be prevented by a powerful Bavarian fist in the middle of the field, which almost completely blocked oxygen for the Brazilian in the first meeting. This time, Hitzfeld even expanded the support zone, incorporating van Bommel into it. But - paradoxically - it had the opposite effect. Kaka much more often than in Milan, owned the ball and, even more surprisingly, had more space for creativity.
Admitting this, Hitzfeld actually lost the match - it was Kaka who gave the goal pass to Seedorf, who opened the score. By the way, Clarence, who then sent Inzaghi with a magnificent jewelry transmission, is undoubtedly the best player in the meeting. In addition to participating in both goals, the Dutchman also did a great job on the defensive - especially in the first minutes, while the Milanese settled on the Munich arena.
During the break, Hitzfeld swapped Lell with Salihamidzic, and also released Santa Cruz instead of Ottl. The need for the latter has really disappeared - what can you do if Bavaria plays more reliably with two defenders than with three?
However, with the release of the Paraguayan striker, the Bavarians didn’t add any more threatening attacks. “Bavaria” absolutely could not oppose the opponent except long-range strikes. Only one Van Bommel six times unsuccessfully struck from outside the penalty area!
The release of Claudio Pizarro, Bayern's top scorer in this League, marked an emotional outburst in the Munich game. True, the confusion prevailed so much on this segment of the game that it was not possible to squeeze out something productive from him by the Hitzfeld wards.
By and large, the match was lost by the hosts in the first half. Inzaghi's second goal, it seems, really was scored from offside - but just what does it change? Unless, now, Rummenigge and Hennes have an excellent reason to be indignant if a Spanish panel of judges is appointed for future Bavaria European Cup matches.
By the way, in the 70th minute, Ancelotti still resorted to the “Plan of Spalletti”, replacing Inzaghi with the midfielder Serginho. Alex Ferguson, who was present at the match, probably appreciated the richness of the tactical repertoire of the Milan counterpart.
BAVARIA Munich - MILAN Italy - 0: 2 (0: 2)
Goals: 0: 1 - Seedorf (27), 0: 2 - Inzaghi (31).
BAVARIA: Kahn, Lusio, van Beiten, van Bommel, Lam, Hargreaves, Salihamidzic, Lell (Gerlitz, 77), Ottl (Santa Cruz, 46), Mackay (Pizarro, 61), Podolski.
MILAN: Dida, Maldini, Nesta, Yankulovsky, Oddo, Ambrosini, Kaka, Pirlo, Seedorf (Gurkuff, 80), Gattuso (Kafu, 87), Inzaghi (Serginho, 70).
Warnings: van Bommel (47), Salihamidzic (63).
April 11th. Munich. Alliance Arena.
Judge: M. Mehuto González (Spain).
The first match - 2: 2.