Milan glad to avoid Reds

AC Milan coach Carlos Ancelotti breathed a sigh of relief after the Champions League last eight draw was made in Athens, revealing afterwards that he was desperate to avoid United and the Reds' quarter final opponents AS Roma.

Ancelotti's side face Bayern Munich, dark horses under Ottmar Hitzfeld during his second spell at the club, in the last eight.

The Rossoneri boss was glad not to be handed an all-Italian tie, and was desperate not to be paired with United.

"Bayern Munich have a great tradition and a lot of value," admitted Ancelotti. "We know them well, having faced them in the past.

"I would have been more disappointed to have met Roma or Manchester United at this point of the tournament.

"Manchester United is the team that plays the best football in Europe right now."

The Reds were knocked out of the competition by Milan in 2004/05, with Sir Alex citing that defeat as a valuable lesson to a then young squad.

A much more mature United side could meet Milan in the semi finals should both teams progress past the quarter final stage, although neither tie is clear-cut.

The man is clearly on drugs! nft.

Why, United have by far been the best side this season in the league out of all the sides still in it. MANCHESTER LA LA MANCHESTER LA LA nFT

Nice to see someone still has a bit of respect for the way Manchester United play.

Compared to how Milan are playing at the moment, I guess we look pretty good. We concede very few goals and have beaten some big side of late. When have italians ever given a flying £#%&! about whether it was pretty or not? For them it's all about 1-0. nft.

Originally Posted by 1MUFC

Why, United have by far been the best side this season in the league out of all the sides still in it. MANCHESTER LA LA MANCHESTER LA LA nFT

Peaked too soon

We play, in Europe, like the Italians like to. £#%&!ing woeful shite hoping for a 1-0, no wonder he likes it.

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

Nice to see someone still has a bit of respect for the way Manchester United play.

Inter said pretty much the same thing before they drew Valencia last round. United are very much fancied this season.

Slightly hysterical but plausible too. Not sure how to feel about all this tbh.

Originally Posted by Gog Coch

Peaked too soon

Seriously though,

Milan Bayern both shite in their league this year
PSV – Got to fancy are chances
Roma – We can beat Roma with out a doubt
Chelsea and Liverpool – we would fancy are chances again
Valencia - They aren’t a bad side like no of them are but they aren’t out of this world.

United should fear anyone in my opinion because we have played unreal football at times this reason, if we play anything like we have this season against any one of these sides they wont be able to handle us.

the only team to win both their games in the last 16 was United, so we've no chance obviously

united are doing well imo.

most teams fear chelsea with all their big names and to the rst of europe.

we have been above chelsea all season
we have at points stretched our lead over them to 12 points.
in our game against them they were lucky to nick an equaliser.
we went and beat a team at home that had just beaten barcelona.
we are about 20 points above arsenal and liverpool in the league.
we have the best player in world in our team(ronaldo) and the old heads are who are well respected in europe(scholes and giggs)
we are the only team to win both legs of our knock out game and not conceed a goal.

why would anyone from the outside fear us

Originally Posted by violater™

united are doing well imo.

most teams fear chelsea with all their big names and to the rst of europe.

we have been above chelsea all season
we have at points stretched our lead over them to 12 points.
in our game against them they were lucky to nick an equaliser.
we went and beat a team at home that had just beaten barcelona.
we are about 20 points above arsenal and liverpool in the league.
we have the best player in world in our team(ronaldo) and the old heads are who are well respected in europe(scholes and giggs)
we are the only team to win both legs of our knock out game and not conceed a goal.

why would anyone from the outside fear us

because we're playing like donkeys? nft.

Originally Posted by El Calafate

because we're playing like donkeys? nft.

its the fear though.

IF and i know its a BIG "IF...
but if we click we can humiliate milan or roma...

i have a feeling ancelotti knows this.

despite our form it has to be said we're winning everything Beat Liverpool who themselves beat Barcelona.

Any team just looking at the results would shit it if they played us, knowing at any given time one of our players can blow them apart even i we're playing like shit. God help any teams who face us when we're on song - I think I'd be scared of us as well frankly.

Scary thing is every team left in the competition has advantage over us in terms of tactics or machine-like organisation. Generally the teams who give us the most problems.

Our advantage is simply attacking flair and great first team. Its perhaps a bit unreliable though.

Originally Posted by El Calafate

because we're playing like donkeys? nft.

Donkeys that would win the donkey derby, though. Nifty, eh?

Originally Posted by Tumescent Throb

Nice to see someone still has a bit of respect for the way Manchester United play.

it would be nice if our manager had the same £#%&!ing respect.


ancelotti must be basing his comments on our pre-christmas league form. I am sure what he meant to say was that united are capable of playing the best football in europe (if fergie encourages them in that direction). in that sense, we are the team to fear, because we have unplayable players. with chelsea and liverpool, you know what you're going to get. with united, you just hope it's an off day.

unfortunately for us, fergie is more than likely to guarantee an off day.

Originally Posted by El Calafate

"Manchester United is the team that plays the best football in Europe right now."

Coaching sponsored by specsavers.

Originally Posted by jem

it would be nice if our manager had the same £#%&!ing respect.


ancelotti must be basing his comments on our pre-christmas league form. I am sure what he meant to say was that united are capable of playing the best football in europe (if fergie encourages them in that direction). in that sense, we are the team to fear, because we have unplayable players. with chelsea and liverpool, you know what you're going to get. with united, you just hope it's an off day.

unfortunately for us, fergie is more than likely to guarantee an off day.

We haven't been pleasing on the eye but we did score one cheeky goal and one picture goal to get past Lille. We could and should have had at least two more over there from brilliant football by Rooney and the Ronaldo chance. And if Rooney had slotted Scholes' cross the other night it would have been a class goal. Why he chose to whack it I don't know. Even I would have chested it back inside that scrambling defender - and then whacked it!

maybe this is also waht Ancelotti sees?

Don't forget, Ancelotti and the Juve team were caught out by United's tactics in Turin in 99 even though most on here think we played a usual 4-4-2.

you can say what you like, but it seems obvious to most that our form has taken a dive recently and it's mostly down to fergie feeling the pressure of leading the pack. we're much better facing a challenge than we are trying to hold a lead of any sort. any time a draw would be a good result, we are horrible to watch.

we have relied on star players finding a bit of magic. that's not a formula for success, it's a gamble. our luck will run out at some point. it would be better if we had a team coached to attack in a coherent manner. in a way, I'm glad to see the back of larsson, because I'd much rather see saha leading the line. so, I suspect, would rooney.

Originally Posted by violater™

united are doing well imo.

most teams fear chelsea with all their big names and to the rst of europe.

we have been above chelsea all season
we have at points stretched our lead over them to 12 points.
in our game against them they were lucky to nick an equaliser.
we went and beat a team at home that had just beaten barcelona.
we are about 20 points above arsenal and liverpool in the league.
we have the best player in world in our team(ronaldo) and the old heads are who are well respected in europe(scholes and giggs)
we are the only team to win both legs of our knock out game and not conceed a goal.

why would anyone from the outside fear us

Originally Posted by violater™

united are doing well imo.

most teams fear chelsea with all their big names and to the rst of europe.

we have been above chelsea all season
we have at points stretched our lead over them to 12 points.
in our game against them they were lucky to nick an equaliser.
we went and beat a team at home that had just beaten barcelona.
we are about 20 points above arsenal and liverpool in the league.
we have the best player in world in our team(ronaldo) and the old heads are who are well respected in europe(scholes and giggs)
we are the only team to win both legs of our knock out game and not conceed a goal.

why would anyone from the outside fear us

we have managed to continue getting results even while our form has slipped. the key question is whether we can regain our form of earlier in the season, and take that into europe. i think we can.