PFDC- Perugia incurred the
first loss of the season yesterday in the San Siro stadium of Milan, where
AC Milan delighted the home crowd with a resounding 3-0 win.
Perugia finally fielded former Zob Ahan defender Rahman Rezaei in
from the first minute, after a series of preparation matches that saw him
mostly subbed in during the game. Both Rezaei and Brazilian defender Ze
Maria were placed on the right hand sided of defense by Perugia coach
Serse Cosmi in order to thwart the ballplay of Kaladze and Serginho, who
were both active on that side of the field.
Despite having based the team strategy along defensive lines, Serse
Cosmi's team was outmatched by the flair and skill of Carlo Ancelotti's
team, who have already established themselves as one of the hot favourites
to clinch the Scudetto away from arch-rivals Juventus. Even though major
players such as Rivaldo, Gattuso and Seedorf were kept off the field by
the AC Milan coach, skipper Paolo Maldini took the honour of scoring the
opening goal with a clever header at the 40th minute of the first half,
when AC Milan finally managed to break open a well-structured Perugia
defense. After finally taking the lead, AC Milan easily grasped the reins
of the game and Perugia could do nothing but wait for more goals to come,
as they promptly did in the second half, when Pippo Inzaghi first scored
his fifth goal of the week and substitute Clarence Seedorf scored the
third one. There was also time for a penalty missed by Serginho that did
not however allow Perugia to avert its first loss of the new Serie A
season.
The whole Perugia defense played a good game until conceding the
first goal, after which AC Milan easily took over and scored repeatedly.
It was Rezaei's first appearance in a competitive game since his return
back to Perugia about 4 weeks ago and it will take at least a couple of
more matches before he fully fits in the Perugia schemes once again.
Perugia's next game is against newly promoted Empoli at the Renato
Curi stadium in Perugia next weekend.
