AC Milan vs Arsenal Champions League: Preview and Live Score

For live score of AC Milan vs Arsenal Champions League match, visit the following link:

AC Milan vs Arsenal: Live Score and Live Updates

AC Milan and Arsenal will face each other in the second leg match of last 16 round of Champions League 2007-2008. The match takes place at San Siro, home ground of Milan, on 4 March 2008. Arsenal failed to reel off a victory in the first leg match at home last month. So, AC Milan now has the advantage as they will get Arsenal in front of their home supporters in the second leg match. It seems that Arsenal might have to face some strong challenges from AC Milan on Tuesday.

Match: AC Milan vs Arsenal, Second Leg of Round of 16, Champions League

Venue: San Siro

Date: 4 March 2008, Tuesday

Time: 19:45 GMT

AC Milan has not been in an impressive form so far this season. In fact, they are currently stand fifth in the point table of Serie A this season. With 19 points behind the leaders Inter Milan at the top, AC Milan is certainly out of title race in the domestic league. So, the defending champions of Champions League definitely give more focus on defending the title this season.

Arsenal, on the other hand, is still leading at the premier league with three points clear of Manchester United. However, it does not mean that Arsenal will have less focus on Champions league. Arsenal lost their star forward Thierry Henry at the beginning of the season following his move to Barcelona. With having no star footballer in the squad, many wrote off Arsenal having hardly any chance to win silverware this season. It is true that they have not won any title, but the way they have progressed so far this season is simply tremendous. They lost only one premier league matche so far this season.

Recent form of AC Milan and Arsenal

To begin with, AC Milan’s recent performance is not as bad as it was at the beginning of the season. Milan was held to a 1-1 draw against Catania Calcio in their recent league match. Including this draw, AC Milan came up with four draws and three victories in their last seven matches in all competitions. AC Milan has drawn a number of matches so far this season that cost them heavily in Serie A. AC Milan must try their best to come out of draw against Arsenal at home in order to continue their progress in Champions League in their pursuit to defend the title.

Arsenal, in contrast, has gone though some tough times in their last few matches. They shared points with Birmingham City away in their last premier league matche before their lackluster draw against AC Milan in the first leg match. Arsenal is yet to be back in winning run since their FA Cup thrashing to Manchester United. So, the task will not be that much easy for Arsenal when they travel to Milan in the return leg match.

Anyway, both AC Milan and Arsenal have a league match for each ahead of their high profile meeting. AC Milan will face Lazio Roma in Serie A on 1 March, while Arsenal will host Ashton Villa in premier league on the same day. Both teams must seek an inspirational performance in the matches in order to have a huge boost in their confidence level ahead of their mouth watering clash.

AC Milan must have an advantage over Arsenal as they will play at their home ground. Famous coach Marcello Lippi said that Arsenal would have fear of AC Milan. He thinks that Milan will give their maximum in Champions league.

Goal.com reported:

“They (Milan) give their maximum in this competition and there is no doubt that Arsenal had some fear against this Milan side,” Lippi told Sky Sport Italia.

“Arsenal’s youngsters, as good as they are, must have asked themselves why does this team always win? Why do they become World and European Champions? There is this type of fear that you can see on the pitch.

Kaka Expected to be Back against Arsenal

AC Milan has no major injury woe ahead of their Champions League showdown against Arsenal. The only injury problem they are facing is with their star midfielder Kaka. The Brazilian, however, is expected to be back in action in the match against Arsenal. He suffered a knee injury during Milan’s 2-1 victory over US Città di Palermo. Thus he missed the match against Catania Calcio. Kaka is not yet confirmed for the match against Lazio Roma. However, AC Milan fans are now eagerly waiting to see Kaka in action in the Champions league tie with Arsenal. Goal keeper Dida will remain sidelined with his injury and Željko Kalac from Australia will continue his service in the Milan goalpost.

While Kaka has a realistic chance to come back in action against Arsenal, his countrymen Pato is in impressive form with Milan. Pato scored in their recent match against Catania Calcio. The forward expressed that he was thinking of fellow striker Ronaldo while celebrating his goal. Ronaldo has been sidelined with a career threatening injury recently and his chances to come back in action not confirmed yet.

Tribal Football reported:

"When I celebrated, I was thinking of Ronaldo. It was a good feeling, like last year when I scored in the derby for Inter (nacional de Porto Alegre)."

AC Milan has an experienced squad with the players like Cafu, Paolo Maldini etc. Midfielder Gennaro Gattuso is expected to be crucial for AC Milan. Andrea Pirlo and Filippo Inzaghi have some particular roles to play for AC Milan.

Arsenal Needs to Recover the Eduardo Blow and Cope up with a Number of Injury Woes

Arsenal not only lost points against Birmingham City but also saw a horrific injury to the Croatian striker Eduardo after he was tackled badly by the Birmingham City defender Martin Taylor, who was shown red card for the incident. Eduardo has fractured in his left fibula and suffered an open dislocation to his left ankle following the tackle. He was immediately rushed into the hospital. Though he has been released from the hospital recently, he is now out of action for at least nine months. Thus he will miss the remaining season of Arsenal and miss his country’s EURO 2008 campaign.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger admitted that Eduardo’s injury was a disappointment for Arsenal. However, Wenger does not want to rush his striker, Robin van Persie, back in action quickly. Persie was out of action for two months after he had picked up a knee injury. He then gave two comeback shots, but failed in both as he was sidelined again with injury.

Telegraph reported:

"We will not rush Robin van Persie back, but the news is quite good," said Wenger, who has since admitted that bringing the Dutchman back for the January cup fixture was a mistake on his part.

"It is difficult to say, we go step by step, but he should come back into normal training very, very quickly now.

"Maybe I am being a little over-cautious in my statements, but I do not want to put any special pressure on him."

Now, Danish forward Nicklas Bendtner is expected to be seen pairing up with Togolese striker Emmanuel Adebayor in the up front. Theo Walcott will be seen in the left wing. However, Walcott said that he would do his best if he was asked to fill the void left by Eduardo’s injury.

Arsenal has some more injury problems including Ivorian defender Kolo Touré, Johan Djourou and some long time absentees Alex Song, Tomas Rosicky. Toure has not yet recovered fully from his knee injury. So, even if he misses the match against Aston Villa, he is likely to take part in the second leg Champions League match against AC Milan. Emmanuel Eboué is now under suspension because of his being shown red card against Manchester United in the FA Cup match.

Arsenal midfielder Abou Diaby has recovered from calf injury and is expected to be back in action with the premier league match before facing AC Milan. Arsenal striker Adebayor is expected to play a big role for Arsenal. He is currently the second highest goal scorer of this season in Premier league.

AC Milan vs Arsenal Champions League: Online Live Score

The match is expected to be a classic one as both teams will be looking to win the match to progress to the next round. Fans are now eagerly waiting for the live action of the match. However, many of you will not be able to watch the match on television because of your personal and professional works. So, you can get the online live score and updates of AC Milan vs Arsenal match from the online live score websites. Here, I am giving some links of the websites from where you can get the online live score and updates of the match:

Live Score

Goalzz

Footie Scorez

Sportpress

Goal.com

The match has everything to be an exciting one. Both teams have some talented footballers. AC Milan footballers are experienced, while Arsenal players are young but talented. So, it seems to be a match of experience against youth. AC Milan will have home advantage over Arsenal. Though it would be very tough for Arsenal to break AC Milan, I do not think that they are less capable of achieving it. However, I hope to see an exciting match.