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Serie A: AC Milan 3:0 Juventus - match report 15.5 || webmaster
Source: Football Italia
Scorers: Antonini 14 (M), Ronaldinho 29, 68 (M)
Ronaldinho bagged a brace as Milan crushed Juventus 3-0 and a touched Leonardo waved goodbye to San Siro.
The Bianconeri have amassed 15 defeats in a single Serie A season, a club record matching the 1961-62 run.
There was only pride at stake here, as both teams were already secure in third and seventh place respectively. Leonardo and Alberto Zaccheroni waved goodbye in their final games after confirming their exits. Mathieu Flamini sat out a ban, while Daniele Bonera, Massimo Ambrosini, David Beckham, Momo Sissoko, Sebastian Giovinco and Antonio Chimenti were injured. Diego and Felipe Melo were not 100 per cent fit, so Antonio Candreva took the trequartista role.
Juve were unbeaten here since a 3-1 result in October 2005, but lost 3-0 at home earlier this season. Milan supporters held up a large banner before kick-off thanking Leonardo and the players for their efforts, but blaming President Silvio Berlusconi for the poor campaign.
Vincenzo Iaquinta should've given Juve the lead after four minutes when he sprung the offside trap and rushed towards goal, but he pulled the angled drive across the face of goal.
Antonio Candreva also broke through the Rossoneri defence to fire over. At the other end Luca Antonini's cross found Alexandre Pato at the back post, but he couldn't get enough power to the free header to beat Gigi Buffon, while the goalkeeper parried at the near post from Ronaldinho.
Nelson Dida beat away a Claudio Marchisio snapshot in messy fashion, as it bounced off his chest.
It was Milan who struck against the run of play with a classic counter-attack. Antonini exchanged passes with Clarence Seedorf in the final third to surge into the box, where his shot took a deflection off Fabio Cannavaro to leave Buffon stranded at the near post. There were touching scenes after the goal, as Antonini rushed to the byline to lift up Leonardo.
Juventus fans repeatedly threw fireworks from the stands, prompting warnings from the officials and the threat of suspending the game.
Hasan Salihamidzic curled just wide of the top corner with Dida rooted to the spot.
Milan doubled their lead with Ronaldinho. The Brazilian started the move through the middle and - thanks in part to a clumsy Fabio Grosso attempt at an interception - Pato was able to prod it back into his path to drill home the daisy-cutter at the near post. It was a special goal for Dinho, who has been left out of Brazil's World Cup squad.
Alex Del Piero received from Jonathan Zebina 20 metres out and unleashed a screamer that Dida palmed out from under the crossbar. Cannavaro had a free header from a set play, but couldn't steer it on target.
Just before half-time the Milan fans unfurled a banner that read: 'Leo - quite simply, thank you.' The Coach stood and waved to the supporters, clearly moved by their affection in his final game.
Pato went on a blazing slalom through the Juve defence, eventually closed down for a corner by Giorgio Chiellini.
Zac made a double change at the break with Alex Manninger and Mauro Camoranesi coming off the bench, as Buffon is suffering from a back problem.
Manninger's first test was having his palms stung by a powerful Pato free kick. Alessandro Nesta made his comeback after a long injury lay-off, replacing Giuseppe Favalli.
Marco Borriello's shot was charged down when he perhaps should've passed it to Pato.
Milan made it 3-0 with a Ronaldinho brace, confirming his strong record against Juventus, as he also netted two in Turin. Zambrotta's long cross found an unmarked Dinho down the left side of the box and his snooker-shot flashed across Manninger into the far bottom corner.
Ronaldinho was also visibly moved as he made way for Pippo Inzaghi and accepted the standing ovation from San Siro, then held Leonardo in a long hug on the touchline.
Dida took two touches to get a Claudio Marchisio snapshot under control, while on the counter Thiago Silva had to put the ball out for a corner under pressure. Dida also waved goodbye, as he is expected to leave Milan this summer.
Milan: Dida (Abbiati 86); Zambrotta, Thiago Silva, Favalli (Nesta 62), Antonini; Gattuso, Pirlo, Seedorf; Pato, Borriello, Ronaldinho (Inzaghi 71)
Juventus: Buffon (Manninger 46); Zebina (Caceres 74), Cannavaro, Chiellini, Grosso; Salihamidzic (Camoranesi 46), Poulsen, Marchisio; Candreva; Iaquinta, Del Piero
Ref: Trefoloni
You can watch match highlights on Free Soccer Highlights.
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