Pato’s goal not enough to save troubled Milan
by Soldier ~ March 2nd, 2009.Milan traveled to Genoa, hoping to back their “3rd Place Finish Campaign” against a tough Sampdoria side. Unfortunately, despite Pato’s goal, Milan was not able to turn the table around after Sampdoria had scored 2 goals earlier in the match.
The Official Formations were the following:
SAMPDORIA: Castellazzi, Raggi, Lucchini, Accardi, Stankevicius, Sammarco, Palombo, Franceschini, Pieri, Pazzini, Cassano.
MILAN: Abbiati, Zambrotta, Bonera, Senderos, Antonini, Beckham, Pirlo, Flamini, Jankulovski, Seedorf, Pato
The match, as recently, started off slow with Sampdoria clearly being the better side on the pitch. Milan seemed too fragile , with only few players out there trying to turn the game around, Pato and Flamini among the few. Despite Pato’s constant movement that troubled the Sampdoria defense, and Flamini’s defensive abilities, Cassano was the one to open the score at the 33 minute, his header just past the goal line, and it needed an eagle eye from the linesman to spot it. The fans in the stadium where silent for a moment, and then exploded in cheering after the goal. The referee, later on, blew his whistle to end yet another disappointing half for Ac Milan.
Second half, same story, nothing much from Milan except from few great movements from Pato. On the other side of the pitch, Pazzini the Sampdoria’s New-Comer, scored a goal just after 7 minutes from the start of the second half, a goal that took much skill from him. Pato was seen trying and trying, and it wasn’t until the 80th minute that he was able to head in a cross from the substitute, Favalli, a goal that saw him add his tally of Serie A goals for this season to 12. Despite a better display in the last 10 minutes, Milan where not able to earn even a point, as the Milan players left the pitch disappointed.
Pato was by far the best Milan player out there, along side Flamini who was seen “battling and fighting” for the ball.
Scorers:
Cassano-33′
Pazzini-52′
Pato-80′
Final Score:
Sampdoria 2 – 1 Milan
