AC Milan 1-0 Cagliari

Milan made to sweat

With almost a dozen matched left in this season, the former Serie A champions, AC Milan has been striving hard to catch up with the leaders Inter and Juventus. Milan had a tough day at the office on February 22^nd at the San Siro stadium up against a spirited Cagliari. They toiled hard for a well-earned, valuable 3 points to take themselves up towards the Serie A summit.

The seventh placed Cagliari came up with a positive and attacking performance in the match. This comes after a very good mid season, which has seen them go past Serie A powerhouses Atalanta and Lazio in the points table. The depleted AC Milan side, which is without most of its leading strikers Kaka, Ronaldinho, Shevchanko and Pato, found itself at the other end of the tunnel when Cagliari’s Acquafresca, Conti and Cossu came very close to scoring in the first twenty minutes. Milan found it hard to penetrate Cagliari’s defence, though a few shots at the goal aided by a series of accurate passes from the newly signed Beckham found the keeper.

Milan finally had a break through in the 65^th minute through a Seedorf strike. This was due to a small lapse in concentration in the Cagliari defense when defender Lopez and keeper Marchetti did a blunder to open up a free goal. Seedorf made full use of the opportunity to pull in one goal up. Milan held off this advantage and saw off the next 25 minutes to earn a hard fought win.

Milan will look to carry forward the momentum in its future matches and catch up with the leaders for a direct spot in the Champions’ League.

Check out the highlights here:

The 28-year old player from Brazil, Ronaldinho, joined the Rossoneri recently. Many were enraged with what happened but there are also some who thinks that it is clearly just a marketing strategy. But not matter what everyone else thinks, Dinho proved that he does not lack the form in contrast to what his non-supporters are rumbling about.
According to the Turin-base Italian newspaper, Tuttosport, Adriano Galliani, the Vice President of Milan, he is now prepared to tie Ronalddinho with another contract.

If you would remember, the Brazilian ace has just signed a contract last July that would last for three years. This contract is worth €6.5 million for every season. But there are rumors that he will be given a contract extension so he could still play for the team until the year 2012. Rumors also had it that he will be given a salary worth €8 million for every season.

The talks about the alleged contract extension may start next week. They are still waiting for the brother of Ronaldinho and his agent, Roberto de Assis to arrive in Italy.

What are the latest betting odds on Ronaldinho scoring in the next match - find out at Bwin!

Olympic Tournament 2008: Semifinals

Argentina 3-0 Brazil

Check out the Goals and Highlights here: