Last Friday we had UEL RO16 draw and we were surprised with a really exciting match, a typical match up in the UCL during the 2000's decade: Manchester United against Milan.
Red Devil's record against Milan historically is very poor: they faced Milan five times on Champions League knockouts (two times when UCL was still called European Cup) and advanced only once.
We could even argue that one of Sir Alex Ferguson kryptonite, was AC Milan: they faced them three times and advanced only once. And surprisingly knowing that problems they had against the Italian team, they won the knockout 7-2 (2-3 at San Siro and 4-0 at Old Trafford)
But if they had so many problems against them, why they won so convincingly this time?
The key was this guy.
Rooney in fact talked about the influence Park Ji Sung had on that knockout:
"Ferguson told him "Today I don't want you to make passes or to have the ball. Today I only care that you take care of Pirlo". On that match, Pirlo made only like 40 passes and 95% were backpasses because Park didn't allow him to breath. We won 7-2".
Pirlo talked about this incident too, in his autobiography and remember Park as one of the footballers that better marked him.
With Pirlo neutralized, Manchester United did what they wanted to do.
Park Ji-Sung influence in the match wasn't only that, he even scored a goal on the home leg.
Without a doubt Manchester United - Milan is the match of this UEL RO16, so which team do you think will advance? Let me know in comments!