It was by far Milan’s most convincing victory of a season which might bring a hugely unexpected title — and yet it was difficult to work out whether their manager Alberto Zaccheroni actually enjoyed the afternoon.
Zaccheroni emerged from the Stadio Friuli tunnel to be greeted with a huge ovation from the Udinese supporters, and a gaggle of photographers desperate to capture his reaction. The Milan boss reached for his sunglasses, perhaps trying to hide a couple of tears.
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It’s somewhat unusual for a visiting manager to receive such a reception, but the reason, of course, is that Zaccheroni guided Udinese to a remarkable third-place finish last season, the highest in the club’s history. It’s a placing that would have been good enough for Champions League qualification had it been achieved this season, after UEFA’s dramatic reformatting of the competition.
But even without entry to Europe’s premier tournament, this was a remarkable achievement for a traditionally small club, and was particularly intriguing because of Zaccheroni’s revolutionary 3-4-3 formation. He stumbled upon that system almost by accident a couple of seasons before, but was now as synonymous with 3-4-3 as Arrigo Sacchi is with 4-4-2.
Indeed, tearing Milan away from their obsession with Sacchi’s four-man defence had been Zaccheroni’s biggest task, but with the tactical intelligence of players like Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Costacurta, the backline adjusted quickly. The real problem had been figuring out what happens further forwards.
Zaccheroni, inevitably, brought a couple of familiar faces on the long journey along the E70 and A4 from Udine to Milan: a specialist right-wing-back, Thomas Helveg, and, more significantly, Serie A’s most old-school target man, Oliver Bierhoff. Before joining Udinese, the German spent three years plying his trade in Serie B with Ascoli, but was now threatening to head Milan to another scudetto. He — somewhat belatedly — received Udinese’s Player of the Season award before kick-off here.
Once the match started, however, there was no room for niceties, and Bierhoff was inevitably involved in the opener. Demetrio Albertini’s searching free-kick found the German challenging his former team-mate Valerio Bertotto in the air. The ball struck the defender’s arm, and referee Robert Boggi pointed to the spot. Zvonimir Boban converted the penalty, but as the rest of the Milan bench erupted in delight, Zaccheroni refused to celebrate against his former club.
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Udinese threatened at the other end, with Maldini fortunate to be shown only a yellow card for tripping the speedy Marcio Amoroso. But Milan were flying, and after George Weah evaded a couple of challenges down the left, his cut-back was met with a quite remarkable finish from Boban, for his second of the game. With almost any other player on the pitch, you’d say that this off-balance, outside-of-the-boot shot that trickled in off the far post was a fortunate scuff. But from Boban it was surely intentional, another example of the technical brilliance that has allowed him to force his way back into the side.
Midway through this campaign, it appeared Boban was on his way out of Milan, because of a combination of indiscipline — two red cards — and his inability to fit into the two central midfield roles in Zaccheroni’s 3-4-3. But after showdown talks with Zaccheroni, and a tweak of the formation to 3-4-1-2 — their typical starting XI is shown below — the brilliant Boban was suddenly Milan’s key player. Inevitably, club president Silvio Berlusconi — who has always stated his preference for Milan using a classic “trequartista” — has attempted to take a share of the credit for Milan’s transformation, and Boban’s fine form.
Bierhoff scored his inevitable goal — equally inevitably, a header, from another Albertini free-kick — on the stroke of half-time, and followed his manager’s lead by not celebrating. At 3-0 to the away side, it was game over.
The second half was nevertheless hugely entertaining. Arguably the goal of the game was Udinese’s consolation: Amoroso’s superb first-time chest control propelled the ball 10 yards in front of him before he beat Roberto Ayala to the loose ball and finished smartly.
But Milan restored their three-goal advantage shortly afterwards. Again it was Bierhoff, again it was a header, again it came from an Albertini free-kick, again he didn’t celebrate.
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That meant it was two for Boban and two for Bierhoff. At other Serie A clubs, this would become a competition to see who could get the hat-trick — Juventus’ delicate situation with Alessandro Del Piero and Pippo Inzaghi springs to mind. But Milan were harmonious, cohesive and increasingly playing wonderfully free-flowing football, so the fifth goal came when Boban received the ball between the lines, slipped in Bierhoff, and he dinked the ball to the far post for Weah, the only one of Milan’s tridente yet to register, to nod in.
The victory left Zaccheroni’s Milan just one point behind Sven-Goran Eriksson’s Lazio, who suffered their second straight 3-1 loss at the Stadio Olimpico. Having been defeated by Roma in the derby last weekend, they crashed at home to Juventus, who were inspired by two goals from young left winger Thierry Henry, who looked set to be a Juve star for many years to come. The title race was wide open, and with five games remaining, on course to be Serie A’s most exciting run-in for many years.
Some pundits remained unconvinced by Milan, who weren’t expected to be in the title hunt having finished in the bottom half in the last two campaigns. In the aftermath of this victory against his former side, and amid a couple of favourable refereeing decisions, Zaccheroni was asked whether he thought he was a “lucky” coach. “Today,” he said, perhaps remembering his pre-match reception, “I feel luckier than most.”
(Photo: Achim Scheidemann/Getty Images)
