[novfan]

Ancelotti stays defiant, ‘Winter break will do us good’

MILAN: AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti refused to rule his side out of the Serie A title race after a 4-2 defeat at Juventus on Sunday.

Milan, who were without the injured Kaka, Mathieu Flamini and Gennaro Gattuso, are now nine points behind leaders Inter Milan and three behind second-placed Juve after 16 games.

The Rossoneri, only fifth last season, host faltering Udinese next weekend before a mid-season break when David Beckham joins on loan from Los Angeles Galaxy.

“I think there will definitely be a reaction to this defeat.

“The winter break will be useful as we will get some players back,” former Juve boss Ancelotti told Sky.

“From a defensive point of view, we gave them too much. We started the game really well.

“We’ve had a lot of injuries and been without some important players.”

Brazilian-born striker Amauri, signed for €22.8mil (US$30.3mil) from Palermo in the close season having played for Chievo among others, grabbed two of Juve’s goals.

Juve coach Claudio Ranieri was thrilled with the 28-year-old, who is waiting for an Italian passport and may make himself available for Italy boss Marcello Lippi having never been called up by Brazil.

“I expected it as the club paid lots of money for him. Amauri arrived at the right time, he has gained experience around Italy and has matured before joining us. He is doing great things,” Ranieri beamed.

“We knew Milan would start strongly and we suffered a lot in the first 10 minutes but I had faith.” — Reuters

[dst]

One of my major reasons why I was against his signing.. get him out of the club, he's been a waste of time.

Same for me but I don't see how it would be fair if we kicked him out... I mean... Ronaldinho does not try enough in training, Seedorf is not trying enough during the games... so we either get them both out or stop favoring who we like!

This post has been edited by dst: Mar 3 2009, 09:02 PM

[kurtsimonw]

Same for me but I don't see how it would be fair if we kicked him out... I mean... Ronaldinho does not try enough in training, Seedorf is not trying enough during the games... so we either get them both out or stop favoring who we like!

Seedorf merits his place on the squad due to his service to the club and one off class performances. Ronaldinho, however, has been terrible in towards the end of his time in Barca and in his time here. We kicked Oliveira out who was bad, but at least he had the excuse of off the field problems and he did try, Ronaldinho has no excuses, he just doesn't care about football.