Marcello Lippi maintains Manchester United’s victory over Juventus was “a fluke, as they could’ve conceded four goals,” but gives Milan advice ahead of their showdown.
“Anything can happen in a one-off game,” Lippi told La Gazzetta dello Sport.
“Milan are improving, but they really need to have Gonzalo Higuain in the box, so they’ll hope he recovers in time.”
The Bianconeri have dropped points only twice this season, drawing to Genoa and beaten by Manchester United with two late goals, but World Cup winner Lippi was not impressed by Jose Mourinho’s approach.
“That win was a fluke. Manchester United defended for 85 minutes, could’ve conceded four goals, Juve hit the woodwork twice, then they won with a free kick and basically an own goal. Juve will be very angry at their first defeat of the season, especially losing it that way.
“Massimiliano Allegri is one of the best Coaches in the world. It’s not easy to win everything he has, not to mention reaching the Champions League Final twice. I can say that as someone who reached four Finals and unfortunately only won one of them.
“Allegri reads the game well and is smart with his substitutions. He makes sure everyone feels important and rotates the squad, because a truly big club needs to have 20 first choice players.
“You can see the way he has developed and enriched Rodrigo Bentancur, teaching him to cover different roles in midfield.
“Everyone loves Rino Gattuso, but he’s more than just a really nice guy. Grit is not enough at that level. His teams are organised, they try to play the ball. He has already done well against Juve and has everything it takes to be a fine Coach.”
How would Lippi advise Milan and Gattuso to close down Cristiano Ronaldo?
“People talk about building a cage for him, doubling or tripling the marking, but he might have three players around him and leave room for a teammate to score instead.
“I worked with Zinedine Zidane, the essence of football, the greatest I ever had. Ronaldo is a goal-scoring machine and at the end of the day, that makes him more effective.
“All Milan can do is play to the best of their abilities, stay solid, concentrated and hope Suso or Higuain can score.”
Kawacklmpr
199
if you are counting woodworks forget.we also had such chances you luck dat extra time was 4 min don't forget dat da match almost ended 3-1 in favour of manutd.dat own goal means presure
havi20
185
cewmoprtz
177
at the end of the day it's three points coz football is all about three points however good your football was, no body wants to know.
Kokcdmrz
150
Truly speaking if any sober head thinks man U win against Juve was a fluke,then this world has all gone bonkus... If it was difficult or impossible to beat Juve,then wat was the purpose of the fixture....!!!??Juve shouldnt hv wasted its energy toiling for 1(one)goal) they got.... At Old trafford,wat was the Juve United result that makes you guys think it was hard for Vnited to humble yu its critics....!!!???I think it was still 1 zero in favour of Juve and who doesnt yet believe that United domestically is still the master of comebacks.... 1.From 2 zero first half to 3/2.... 2.From1 zero first half to 2/2 3.From 1 zero first half to1/2.... wat is a fluke here...!! I hope am comunicating with pipo who understand football....
Sitbdorsz
131
nonsense as old as you have stayed in football u still believe there is a fluck in match winning were they sleeping when manutd equalised, were they tied when manutd got the free kick that brought about the goal? what a nonsense from u oldie
vuwdikpt
111
Man U didn't clip the legs of Juve players for 90mins. Man U didn't score any controversial goal. In a match, what matters is the final score. what is all these rambling about United win. is it because the Lion has a broken leg? the goat now wants to play on it's head.
Football-Manager
109
What we expect and what happens are 2 different things. That is why the game is played and not balloted. Having the world best stars doesn’t win you a game. They have to turn up and play as a team. There has to be a formation and tactics. United did their home work and came into that game with a different approach and game plan. They did not play to Juventus strengths. And that’s what the difference was. Juventus was expecting space and time for their fancy players to play the game their way. United had other ideas and that was the difference. I’ve always had respect for Lippi, He’s been in the game for a long time. He should understand how tactics work and should know it’s the one main strengths of Jose. If he didn’t know that then he’s not very good at his job and his spoken nonsense has lost him respect.
Stanstanfords7
65
Juventus relied on how good their feet were,they played as the best 11in the world....Manchester United played as a team and a family, we played for the pride of English football and the reputation of ourselves and our coach. they mocked maurinho the whole 90min, they called him names because his team was 43-57% short on ball possession. This game made me understand they have Ronaldo, dybala,quadrado the best players in the world but we have a Team, a family. if our win is a fluke how come non of the other teams juve played with ever won by fluke, hell why didn't juve who played good football get stupid results? we fired 3 shots and got two goals they fired over 10shots only one counted and the rest were blanks. did we ask them to fire blanks.?? I loved Juve but now they are trash