Celtic-Milan: An Old Nemesis Returns

By: JT | October 2nd, 2007

I try to keep things positive here on the Celtic Offside, attempting to avoid disparaging opponents too frequently, unless of course they reside on the blue side of Glasgow. Although politics will forever be entwined with football, and most definitely with Celtic Football Club, I try to stay away from that too. However when Milan come calling at Celtic Park, I lose all sense of perspective.

Because of one man. Silvio Berlusconi. Its amazing to me that in a modern democracy an autocrat who abhors fair play in politics and on the pitch can be consistently allowed to fix the tables in his side’s favor with absolutely no repercussions. And let’s not even discuss where the money that has financed his and his club’s rise has come from. Dirty, dirty, dirty.

Really the only thing that keeps me from hating Milan all out is Paolo Maldini. A class act in every sense of the word, it turned my stomach to see him so cozy with Berlusconi after Milan dubiously won the Champions League in May.

All right, enough of that, back to football. Milan travel to Scotland in about as big a funk as the Rosseneri ever find themselves. They currently sit a startling eleventh in Serie A, drawing five of seven matches, with one win and one defeat.

On the injury front, Maldini, Serginho, and Ronaldo are definitely out. Dida will face a fitness test before the match. If he can’t go, we’ll see the Aussie Zeljko Kalac, who started the match at Parkhead in last year’s Round of 16, between the pipes.

Apparently there is some debate as to whether Carlo Ancelotti should go with Alberto Gilardino or Pippo Inzaghi up front. Why is this always a question for Milan? To me, the answer will forever be Inzaghi, Inzaghi, Inzaghi.

Pippo reminds me of my Westie, oddly named Brazil. Most dogs can be counted on to do roughly the same 20 or 30 things all the time. Not Brazil. He pops up in the weirdest places, under all sorts of different furniture, and is generally one of the most unpredictable creatures on this good earth. Just like Pippo in the box. A real pain in the ass.

There are injuries on the Celtic side as well. Jan Vennegoor of Hesselink is definitely out. Kiwi Chris Killen is the likely candidate to replace him alongside his Oceania sidekick, the Aussie Scott McDonald, in attack.

Shunsuke Nakamura has been a doubt for this match for about ten days, but my guess is that he’ll find his way into the lineup. WGS says he’ll be less than 100%, but he’ll still be in there. If he can’t go for some strange reason, I’d love to see Derek Riordan get a run out.

Elsewhere in the midfield, I’d expect to see Aiden McGeady, coming off an awesome performance against Dundee on Sunday, Scott Brown, and Milan cast-off Massimo Donati. The man will be trying to prove a point, no doubt. If you see Paul Hartley, Celtic are playing for a nil-nil.

Mark Wilson is out at right-back, and Jean-Joel Perrier-Doumbe will take his place. Sadly, Gary Caldwell will likely start in central defense next to the Captain, Stephen McManus. Lee Naylor as always will be at left-back.

The ever present Artur Boruc will man the Celtic net, as the Hoops try to set the Champions League record for consecutive home clean sheets at seven.

If Celtic can protect their flanks, they can win this match. I have every confidence that they will do that, keep a clean sheet and score the requisite solitary goal. The crowd will be rabid, pushing them on throughout the match. I see Celtic losing the possession battle, and Boruc coming up huge on a number of occasions. 1-0 to the Bhoys, with Donati celebrating the winner early in the second half.