In an article on Soccernet, Rui Costa is quoted as saying that AC Milan will be playing to win tomorrow because if they can eliminate Real Madrid at this stage of the competition, they'll be better off. That brings up an interesting question in my book. First off, if AC Milan does beat Real Madrid, that wouldn't eliminate Real. Assume for a second that Dortmund beats Lokomotiv tomorrow as well. That would leave the standings at: AC Milan 15 Dortmund 7 Real Madrid 5 Lokomotive 1 Which means that Real would only be eliminated if Dortmund ALSO won next week against -- guess who -- AC Milan. In otherwords, if AC Milan can beat Real tomorrow, they could only guarantee eliminating Real by laying down against Dortmund. So is that what Rui Costa is really saying that they can eliminate Real by beating them tomorrow and laying down next week?
I doubt it, but in all reality Milan won't be trying too hard in either game. They'll play too win, but not with any conviction.
Yes i agree, can't see them "leting" them win. Aren't there rules governing the fielding of weakened teams in exactly these situations?
If Milan don't eliminate Real Madrid, they could come back to haunt them. I wouldn't fancy it against Madrid in the final.
Whose to say they won't do that - I would given the same situation, and I'm sure any manager with any sense would do the same.
Teams have to name 25 players in their Champions League squad - any team selected from that 25 is deemed "full strength".
Um....How to play to lose and look like we're trying to win time it might be then. Still, i would expect that Real will lodge some type of "caution" to UEFA and a large contingent of reps will watch the game. That squad of theirs was put together for one reason and one reason only. Wining La Liga wasn't it.
I guess it would be a first if a team fielded their A team in one of the games when they're already qualified, and fielded their B team in the other. (don't think that has happened yet; could be wrong) Don't really think UEFA can do something about that though.
Probably not really. However it is the Real madrid we are talking about here. Of course the small matter of beating them still has to be resolved first before any of this is even relevant.
heya guys, i read a german article about a phonecall between milan´s manager and germany´s bundeskanzler Schröder. The manager promised to beat madrid, cause Schröder is a big dortmund fan! fight milan! go for dortmund!