No bias intended, but coming back from a 4-1 loss to win 4 nil against the most prolific defensive names in Europe is an anomaly of the times.
Definitely the Depor result. Milan looked spectacular in Italy against Depor. They looked real solid all round, particularly on the defense (b4 it was exposed). They had also beat Depor in Spain last year 4-0 I think before becoming champions, and looked unbeatable this year! The Madrid defense had already been exposed several times, so it was not a huge surprise for them to lose like that. Clearly, to me the Milan-Depor result is the most stunning result in champions league history!
Madrid was noticeably spent when the game started & they came off of a loss in La Liga. I wasn’t expecting that they would loose but there was some idea in the back of my mind saying that they might. Milan’s lose however was completely mind boggling and I think only the biggest Deportivo fans could have thought of such a thing.
Overall the Madrid result is probably the biggest shock but after the first leg result Milan losing is by far bigger.
I forgot to mention, Deportivo are a "bigger" team than Monaco. Consistently there or there abouts in La Liga, which is arguably the best league in Europe. So, taken over two legs the Real Madrid result. Even considering how bad they've been so far.
After the 1st leg, Monaco needed to win 3-1 to go through.... that sort of result happened to Real madrid before!!! AC Milan has been steady through CL and Serie A. Furthermore, with Maldini and Nesta on defense, it is very hard to put 4 goals past them.
Biggest shock has to be Monaco 8 Deportivo 3. You probably will never see 11 goals in a champions league game ever again in your lifetime especially afer such a close game the first time around(it was 1-0 by the way) and Depor won. The Monaco-Madrid result wasn't too much of a shock, everyone knew they hadn't a defence and that Monaco could score goals. Depor were destroyed in Milan in the space of 10 minutes but when you look at the goal that Depor scored in the first leg you could see how easily they breezed past the Milan defence, which during that period also let in 2 against Chievo and conceded a goal in every game the whole month of March(showing they aren't the clean-sheet machine they're made out to be). Deportivo on the other hand are always capable of scoring just look back to the 8-3 defeat, not many teams in the champions league score 3 and still lose, in fact I don't think any team has this year. People go on about it being the most stunning result in champions league history, if it hadn't been Milan would it be different? In my opinion, yes. Why, because quite simply when you defend like Milan did you can expect to get beaten, it wasn't as if both sides were goin at it hammer and tongs, Milan were clearly going into that game thinking that they would never get beat by 3 goals let alone 4, they were stunned by the early goal and Deportivo worked from there. But compare that to the 8-3 result and you get a different story all goals in that game were of a general high standard, the quality of both sides shows as they are in the Semi-Finals after beating the two favourites, it's not as if it was a David vs. Goliath, Real Madrid vs. Scunthorpe match.
Very good points. Its also no coincidense that Depor is the best defensive team in their league because remembering back to the second leg in the Riazor I can recall a Depor defense that did not make a single mistake. On a similar note I'm glad that Milan has convinced Europe of its exciting football, however I personally miss (sometimes) the rigid and compact team Milan was in the 02/03 season. That team wasn't fantastic or extremely convincing by any means, but they got the job done.
Milan had conceded 4 goals in their previous 9 Champions League matches this year. For them to concede 4 in one game where they were defending a 3 goal aggregate lead was almost inconceivable. Real losing 3-1 was surprising but not inconceivable by any stretch. Real's defense is not Milan's.
Lol. It's pretty ironic that although everyone here agrees that Milan's game was the upset, the poll is still at 50/50.
Maybe it depends on interpretation. If you'd asked me before the 1st leg, I'd have said Monaco advancaing would've been more of an upset. If you'd asked me after the 1st leg, I would've said Depor.
That's not that surprising. Most people on these boards still think that Real are ther best club in the world and any time they lose they feel it is a shock. I bet most people would consider ManU losing to Porto a shock as well. But it wasn't.
The question was asked AFTER both games. But it is scary to think Milan would lose against Depor considering that Milan had won the home leg in spectacular fashion, coupled with the fact that they were playing better than the previous year, with more solid defense as well. To me, the Depor X Milan return leg was the most shocking result in CL history
I would have to agree. There wasn't one person on earth who thought Depor could overcome the 4-1 deficit. Also, Milan hadn't given up 4 goals in a game since Nesta arrived. If you would have talked to a lot of Milan fans prior to the second leg alot of them would have even considered playing a second string side. This result was mind-boggeling.
Exactly. Milan had beaten Depor 4-0 last year in Spain indicating a prolific attack. They've hardly conceived more than 2 goals for a while now. I wanted Depor to qualify but not by beating Milan 4-0. It was clearly mind-boggling.