Milan and Samp Fail; Udinese Through in the UEFA Cup; U21 Group Stages Set

AC Milan were knocked out of the Coppa Italia today by Lazio. Sheva scored first for Milan (Yeah, I had to read that twice, too. It isn’t a typo), but Zarate and Pandev both scored towards the end to win it for Lazio. Milan played with 10 men for the last 20 minutes or so as Emerson was sent off, which didn’t help their chances either.

For most clubs, the Coppa doesn’t really mean anything. For most bigger clubs, that is. Smaller clubs go into it for prestige and money. Milan probably doesn’t care too much that they’re out, but combined with the fact that they lost to Palermo soundly over the weekend and are 6 points behind Inter, Ancelotti’s probably pissed.

Another Italian team feilded a below par side today and were similarly humbled- but it was Sampdoria, and in the UEFA Cup, which counts quite a bit more than the Coppa Italia. Palombo was out, and Cassano and Bellucci started on the bench. Standard Leige scored 3 times in the first half, and though Mazzarri through on Cassano in the second, it made little difference.

Now, there isn’t much shame in this. I dunno if you guys remember, but Standard nearly knocked Liverpool out of the Champions League this year in preliminary qualifiers. Either Mazzarri underestimated them or doesn’t care about the UEFA Cup.

Udinese had a much better day in their UEFA Cup exploit, beating Dinamo Zagreb 2-1. Zorro Quags got on the scoresheet early in the 5th, and Obodo doubled in the second before Dinamo grabbed one back late into stoppages. Sadly, the victory was overshadowed by reports of an injured fan. A Dinamo supporter fell from the stands and had to be taken to the hospital. Early reports indicate that the idiot was probably smashed, but I hope he makes a quick recovery.

Obviously, I would’ve loved to see both Italian teams win, but it’s far from over. Udinese qualified for the next round with thier victory today, and Samp still have a shot, as long as they take the next game a bit more seriously.

Finally, the draw was made today for the group stages of the U-21 Tournament next year, and Italy got quite possibly the easiest group we could’ve. We were placed in Group A with Belarus, Serbia, and hosts Sweden. The other group, B, contains heavyweights Germany, Spain, England, and Finland. Top two from each group progress on, and the first game is June 16th against Serbia.

Casiraghi isn’t happy:

“I would have preferred to meet Spain and Germany, seeing as we always seem to find it tough against sides like Serbia and Belarus, as we saw two years ago in Holland”

He raises two pretty interesting points. One, two years ago, we crashed out of this tourney at the group stages after losing to Serbia and drawing with England, despite thumping the Czechs. Two, Italy in general seems to step up its game against bigger teams.

Speaking of stepping up game, it appears I’ve gotta step up mine as a blogger. Latest info shows that page views for this are down since last month. I know that’s probably because there’s really been no games recently, but I’d love to see more people on here and more comments. I realize that the onus is on me to post often and to post conversation-promoting topics, though, so I can’t blame you guys. Let’s get those numbers up for next month!