Welcome to Fiorano!

One slight problem with your lineup: Pirlo is definitely out (thigh strain of some sort, to be evaluated on Friday).

CMF, I still don't think goal.com is right in the lineup. (And janku doesn't ever play on the right).

Why does everyone call him this? It sounds like some kind of dish. I'd stick with the same formation, except for the fullbacks of course. (Zambrotta/Antonini) and perhaps, just have Seedorf and Flamini swap places.

Boriello must play if he is fit. He is awesome.

ohh i put him on my left same with kaladze no on the field left

He needs to get his samurai hairdo back. Does anyone have a pic of that. It was from the 2006-07 season in a friendly.

Apologies to CMF - looks like goal.com got this (mostly) right. They're bound to be generally accurate eventually!

Herewith are highlights of Carletto's press conference (it's really long and don't have time to do a full translation):

* Pirlo, Rino and Pippo won't play
* Zambrotta is being given a rest day
* Ronaldinho and Shevchenko are training separately and will be available though they won't likely play the full game.
* Flamini and Emerson are the players able to play in Pirlo's spot, with Flamini the one most likely to take the spot due to his being in good form.
* Everyone's united in this difficult time, etc etc etc.
* There are 2 goals for the game: a good victory with good play and the hope that by beating Zurich, the team will go on to the group stage.
* There's pressure on the team to do well tomorrow but tomorrow's an opportunity for the team to find the right spirit to resolve its problems
* Ronaldinho is very professional at Milanello; the Brazil party thing was a management intervention
* Ronaldinho and Shevchenko trained separately after yesterday's tests. This separate training will continue for the next several days, with the priority to improve their condition. They are in condition to play about 45 minutes, however.
* Maldini will not play tomorrow.
* Dida will play in goal, he's been doing well in training and now needs to find his confidence.
* Senderos is not available tomorrow but may be on Sunday
* Gattuso may be available for the game on Sunday and is wearing a cast (of sorts? I think this is the right word) to avoid hurting himself or adversaries
* Ancelotti had a productive talk with Pato.

link to full interview in Italian.

Just what I expected. Carlo seems to be getting his marbles back. Abbiati knows better to play three competitive games in a span of one week, with one of them being with a club like Lazio. Other than that, best press conference from Carlo I've read all season.

What's going on here? Did Dunga really pull out that bad a mindf@ck on the kid? Save him Carlo!!!!

*Waits for zd to come in with the proverb on the devil and the deep sea*

So we'll see Antonini as a right back or Darmian in the pitch.
I prefer this line up,classic Xmas tree for a euro match

Thanks, but no thanks! he's OK right now. plus he better concentrate on football not his hair!



Just play him a full game you dumb *******



Cliche, cliche, cliche

Dinho won't start according to Carlo, so switch Dinho with Pato, Kaka playing behind them. It looks like a solid lineup, excited to see 4-3-1-2 again.

^^

Exactly.

Pato and Borriello up front with Kaka' supporting them. Simple.

+1

Plus that I prefer to see Seedorf in Pirlo's place instead of Emerson.

This is what I want to see:



This is probably what Carletto will go for:

call ups

MILAN-ZURIGO: I CONVOCATI ROSSONERI
17/09/2008
MILANELLO - Carlo Ancelotti convoca 18 giocatori per Milan-Zurigo:
Dida, Kalac, Antonini, Bonera, Darmian, Favalli, Jankulovski, Kaladze, Ambrosini, Emerson, Flamini, Gattuso, Borriello, Kakà, Pato, Seedorf, Shevchenko, Ronaldinho.
Giocatori non convocati (not called up): Maldini, Pasini, Zambrotta.
Giocatori indisponibili (unavailable): Senderos, Pirlo, Inzaghi.

That's the excuse for Lazio sorted then, when we conceed goals "Our defenders haven't had enough time to play together". When he could have easily called them up for this game.

Heh.

The situation right now is very depressing. Not anyone is confident at all. If we can win against Zurich hopefully it will bring back a little bit of confidence otherwise be prepared for a streak of losses.

I'm not going to celebrate my 1000th post with a loss! Please Milan, win for me! win for the fans!

Milan will win.. it's always like this, when we're tipped to win games, we lose. when everyone says we're in crisis and are going to lose our games, we win.

Yup....it's all an effort from Galliani to take us through a rollercoaster of emotions. He wishes us to build character through constant trials of faith.

Personally i would rather watch House and Mock the Week (UK fans may know about this) than watch another poor stale performance from us

I'm waiting for the line-up to decide if I'm going to watch the Napoli game instead.

And you call Sheva a traitor? This is why I love Newcastle...

What is why you love Newcastle?

Well if you had a Newcastle fan mentality, you would not even contemplate watching another match? You'd grimace and frown and curse and pull your hair out, but you'd still watch!!

I'm worse than a Newcastle fan. If not live, I'm going to watch the game on replay whether we have won or lost. The thing is, there's a possibility the other game is going to be great so I'd rather be tormented after I have enjoyed a football game...

Mock the Week is great. Frankie Boyle is a genius!


That's not a Newcastle fan mentality! These are the same fans that threatened not to go to the Hull game and support the team. And they call themself the greatest fans on earth? I think the correct answer would be they're possibly the worst fans in the league, what fans don't go and support their team?

Anyways, don't know when it kicks off, so I don't know if I'll watch it.

Of course they threatened...but SJP was still full that evening. Unlike the San Siro over the past two seasons.

It wasn't actually. Considering they're meant to have the most amazing support and have no real local rivals to take support away, their 2 home games have been 47k and 50k respectively. Their stadium holds nearly 53k.

You're splitting ends over a couple of thousands? 50,000 out of a possible 52,390 is nearly full to me.

(Question: What time kick-off is this game [GMT]?)

19:45

Then nearly every EPL team has a 'full' stadium every week.

Merci.

Fine! You're forgiven!!

3000 people missing from 52,390 vs 3000 missing from 42,640....

Hang on while I call dst, to do that math.

No need to bring Villa into this .. oh, so you wanna go percentages?

This season we have had an average of 1839 from capacity, working out at 4.3% seats unsold.

Newcastle have had an average of 3411 from capcity, working out at 6.5% seats unsold.

Case closed.

Frankie is by far the funniest and most consistent out of all of them. All are funny and have their moments (especially Dara O'Brien) but Frankie leaves me in stitches all the times. I didnt think Scottish people could be that funny

He just mocks Scotland all the time, so you gotta like him! I love the way he's so controversial and isn't scared to say anything, one of my favourite comedians at the moment for sure. I like the one on his team, Hugh.. can't remember his second name, Dennis maybe? He's pretty funny too.

Ahh...you noticed. I had to make it personal to needle you.


Oh well the 6.5% is with us on strike, and you blokes happy about everything. So go figure...

The line up I like to see

--------------------Dida-------------
Bonera---Kaladze---Darmian---Jankulovski
--------Flamini----Ambrosini---Seedorf
-------------------Ronaldinho-------------------
------------------Kaka----Pato

Probably the one Carlo will Use

--------------------Dida-------------
Antonini---Bonera---Kaladze---Jankulovski
--------Flamini----Emerson---Ambrosini
-------------------Kaka----Seedorf-------------------
----------------------Borriello

Darmian should surely play in this game, it's a good chance for him.

any streams u guys?!

Here you go, sansiro1708. More as the kickoff time approaches.

Milan vs Zurich
Complete UEFA Cup 2008-09

Canale5 teletext seem to think Pato & Borriello are gonna be upfront, Kaka behind & Seedorf in midfield. Would be happy with that. If your defense is right it wouldn't be too bad... forza Kala!

I think it will be that ... Milan will play with two up front and it would be great if the front pairing which you stated would play. I also like the idea of Kaka' behind the two

But what I miss more is the diamond formation I would love to see that tonight

It would be great seeing the diamond again. But we don't really have the players for it without Pirlo.

I'm happy tonight as long as it's not the xmas tree.

I'm gonna watch the game live on IRIB 3, which is an Iranian channel with Farsi commentary... I'm getting so nostalgic...

THANXS!!!

If anyone on here gets the mediaset channels (Rete 4, Canale 5, Italia 1) Rete 4 will be showing the match live