Crowd trouble sees Milan derby abandoned
Inter Milan 0 AC Milan 1 (match abandoned after 71 minutes, AC Milan leading 3-0 on aggregate)
Inter Milan's Champions League quarter-final second-leg clash with AC Milan was abandoned with 19 minutes to go tonight after crowd trouble at San Siro.
Andriy Shevchenko netted the only goal of the game after half an hour to put Milan 3-0 ahead on aggregate although UEFA's Control and Disciplinary committee will now meet to judge whether the result will stand.
Whatever the outcome of that meeting, it appears certain Milan will progress to the last four as their fans seemed to be blameless for the outbreak of violence in the second half which saw missiles, including flares, pour down on to the pitch from the area behind the goal in which the Inter fans were housed.
One of the flares struck Milan goalkeeper Dida on the shoulder, promoting German referee Markus Merk to call a halt to proceedings.
The players left the field for a short period of time but, when they returned, an attempt at a resumption was met with more missiles and Merk decided to call it off with approximately 19 minutes to play.
The disgraceful off-the-pitch scenes detracted from what had been a gutsy Inter effort.
The Nerazzurri started the game 2-0 down from the first leg, and only some fine goalkeeping from Dida, and some woeful refereeing from Merk prevented Roberto Mancini's men from finding their way back into the tie.
Merk's opening blunder was to miss a clear headbutt from Shevchenko on Marco Materazzi after just three minutes. It may have been out of character from the Ukrainian, but his dismissal could have changed the outcome.
Shevchenko's next involvement was to put Milan ahead.
The European Player of the Year cut in from the right and fired a wonderful curling drive across Francesco Toldo and into the right-hand corner.
By the time Shevchenko had scored, Dida had already excelled himself with fine saves from Juan Sebastian Veron and Kily Gonzalez.
Inter had valid claims for a penalty seven minutes before the break when Esteban Cambiasso went down under a clumsy challenge from Alessandro Nesta but Merk waved the Inter protests away.
If Inter's task at the break - they had to score four times in 45 minutes - was extremely difficult, it became virtually impossible five minutes after the restart when top scorer Adriano limped out of the action with what appeared to be a recurrence of a knee injury.
His withdrawal provided a chance for Obafemi Martins and the young Nigerian almost made an immediate impact by bursting past Nesta and firing a shot onto a post via Dida's outstretched hand.
Martins was proving a handful for the Milan defence and the 20-year-old's pace embarrassed Jaap Stam but his shot was straight at Dida.
The Milan goalkeeper was keeping Inter at bay almost single-handedly.
His next save was arguably his best as he flung himself full length to turn Andy van der Meyde's right-footed drive from the edge of the box past the post.
The incident which led to the crowd trouble came after 71 minutes.
Cambiasso had a header ruled out for a foul by Julio Cruz on Dida, prompting a hail of missiles to pour down from the stands behind the goal.
UEFA will decide what happens now but it is almost certain to involve a heavy fine for Inter while Milan are virtually assured of their place in the semi-finals where they will play either PSV Eindhoven or Lyon.
| Related Stories: |
|
