San Heroes- Oh What A Night

HERO!

Is it really 3 weeks until we play them at home? God, this is going to be torturous.

Oh Harry, you wiley old fox. Who else was taken in by his ‘What’s a defensive midfielder? We ain’t got none of them so we’re probably just going to attack’? Me, for one. While our often tactically maligned leader was pedalling out his perfectly manicured salt-of-the-earth, just f**kin run about a bit, Mike Bassett caricature, a tactical master plan had already been hatched. There would be no sentiment over Niko’s recent heroics in the league, with Peanut preferred down the left for his work rate and extra cover provided to Benny, while Wilson and Sandro were deployed as our immovable hit-houses. Rafa to hold, Lennon to break and Peter to fight for every high ball. Even the substitutions had the kind of consideration of a brilliantly executed scheme, not often associated with Harry and his gang of backroom rogues.

No need for player ratings on this one, pretty much faultless to a man. Only Flamini, who should have gone for the ‘challenge’ on Charlie, covered more pitch than the excellent Crouch. His positioning, movement and experience in winding up the opposition, most notably the little dog, was a joy to behold, and the winning goal was a worthy reward for a man who slogged away all night and epitomised the ethic of this special side. To quote @therealtomscott from twitter ‘did Palacios travel to the San Siro in a DeLorean? It’s like he’s gone back 2 years’. Can’t say it better than that, all fears about one of his ‘dog chasing a car’ performances were allayed early as the man-wall he built with the equally outstanding Sandro, was a thing of pure seasoned European campaigning beauty. Not a yellow card between them speaks volumes about their professionalism.

Gomes pulled another worldey out when many feared he’d crumble like a biscuit. The whole back 4 were magnificent, and the one time they were beaten, it was correctly ruled out for a push on Michael Awesome. Yes, we can call him that again. Not bad for a Champions League (proper) debut. Lennon, for so much of the game did not receive the ball at any point without Antonini, or Yepes, or both, being within 5 yards of him as they laboured to try and nullify his threat. The one and only time he received the ball with space to run into, he devastated them with sheer pace, riding the cynical attempted challenge of the tortoise-like Yepes, and squaring perfectly for Big Pete to find the bottom corner. You know those moments in big games when you get one big chance? Taken.

And what of our opponents? Watching experienced pro’s turned into confused wrecks by our discipline, work rate and quality was a joy to behold. Gattuso’s extraordinary reaction to his booking followed several physical digs from Crouch throughout, as well as Joe Jordans verbals from the touchline. One of the most experienced midfielders in the modern game turned into a petulant child before our eyes and epitomised the meltdown of the Milan side. Compared to Crouch, Ibra Robby and Pato were an embarrassment to their famous old shirt, while the impotence of Seedorf, Gattuso and Flamini led to the disgraceful scenes we all saw at the end of the game. UEFA will take action and probably ban him for 5 games, and at this rate, they will be carried over to next season. Shame, I’d quite enjoy seeing him in the home leg.

I’m not counting any chickens here, but even if we’d lost the game, looking at their performance, I saw no danger they could pose at our place, unless Pirlo miraculously recovered and the forwards deferred from their sloth like work rate… which they won’t. This was no fluke. Out played, out thought and massively out fought, and heading for the quarters with another performance of that ilk.

That result was the best thing to come out of Italy since Gino Ginnelli. I cannot WAIT for the home leg.