Or in other words: ouch.

With this year’s Russian Railways Cup (an annual pre-season football tournament held in the Russian capital and hosted by FC Lokomotiv Moscow) featuring prestigious teams such as Sevilla, Chelsea, and AC Milan, this was the perfect opportunity for the Rossoneri to test their European pre-season form. The loss against FC Sevilla (capped by a Gattuso own goal) on Saturday was already disappointing enough for Milan supporters, but needless to say that after today’s whopping 5-0 defeat at the hands of Chelsea (goals by Lampard and a Nicolas Anelka quadruple), Ancelotti has a lot of work on his hands if he hopes to achieve anything in the UEFA Cup this season (or Serie A for that matter).

Some might even seize this opportunity to badmouth, and say that perhaps it’s not such a bad thing Milan aren’t in the Champions League this year , but I’m not going to go that far. Indeed, without a real striker providing weight up front (Inzaghi, Pato, and Borriello were all unavailable) the Rossoneri are losing much of their well-oiled machine capabilities, so let’s just wait till the manpower is back from injury and/or the Olympics (along with a certain Ronaldinho) before making hasty conclusions.

Still in the meantime, eating five goals from Chelsea has got to hurt…

(From Gazzetta): MOSCOW, 3 August 2008 – Humiliated and shattered. AC Milan leave Moscow with a heavy heart, after being defeated by Chelsea in the third place match of the Russian Railways Cup, a game which ended with a 5-0 victory for the Blues. Playing without a clear tactical plan (due to the many absentees, especially the strikers), the Rossoneri never got in the game and completely fell apart when confronted with their Premiership opponents. A devastating gap, highlighted by the difference in preparation between the two teams and also in the way each one approached this friendly encounter.

NO STRIKERS – All things considered, the loss is far easier to understand if one looks at AC Milan’s line-up. Carlo Ancelotti selected Kalac at goal, a defensive line-up that included Bonera, Maldini, Simic, and Favalli, with Zambrotta and Jankulovski out on the flanks in midfield and Gattuso and Flamini inside. The “strikers”? Pirlo and Ambrosini (no, that’s not a typo), with the former operating behind the latter. Such a combination doesn’t even begin to make sense, but this was a necessary arrangement due to the unavailability of almost all strikers and Alberto Paloschi being left on the bench.  Chelsea on the other hand could count on “full troops”, as Luiz Felipe Scolari lined up his best team (or almost) with Cech – Ivanovic, Alex, Terry, A. Cole – Ballack, Mikel, Lampard – Wright-Philips, Anelka, Malouda.

The Londoners just needed a third of the first half to slice Milan: Frank Lampard opened the score in the minute 3, followed by Nicolas Anelka in the 8^th and 18^th. Shivering stuff.  Zeljko Kalac couldn’t get his hands on a single shot, the kind of performance that ranks a keeper back to third choice (because that’s as low as you can get). By comparison, Dida gets the Lev Yaschin award. As for the defence, it could have made you pull your (rossonero) hair out: bad clearances and acres of space being left to the British team, able to maneuver pretty much unopposed. Plenty of confusion in midfield as well, while a very composed Chelsea kept spreading out.
 
ALARMS – The substitutes entering in the second half (Seedorf, Kaladze, Digao, Antonini and Paloschi) didn’t seem to make any difference. Actually, Chelsea pushed even harder and Nicolas Anelka scored two more goals, much to Roman Abramovich‘s delight (who in good company in the stands with girlfriend Daria Zhukova, couldn’t stop applauding). In the 66^th minute, Anelka left the pitch for Andriy Shevchenko, who until then had been a mere eye-witness to his former teammates’ baffling performance. Sheva was committed to creating confusion and pushed Kalac further to the limit, as Milan’s goalkeeper continued his state of shock and progressively made his bench-warming role for future line-ups more and more certain.

Eventually, the massacre ended 5-0 without any further casualties, with a spectacle that Milan could have avoided and that will go down in history, despite this being a friendly match. Who knows, maybe Sunday was useful to make Milan’s powers-that-be understand Serie A is not a joke, and that they still have one month to sign a decent goalkeeper and at least a couple of real defenders. Surely they’ll want to leave the battle against relegation to other teams.

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	CHELSEA-MILAN 5-0 [Match Highlights]
GOALSCORERS: 3’ Lampard (C), 8’, 19’, 50’, 58’ Anelka (C)
CHELSEA (4-3-3): Cech (71’ Cudicini) – Ivanovic (61’ P.Ferreira), Alex, Terry (61’ Carvalho), A.Cole – Ballack (46’ Deco), Mikel, Lampard – S.W.Philips (77’ Sinclair), Anelka (66’ Shevchenko), Malouda. Coach: Scolari.
MILAN (4-5-1): Kalac – Bonera (46’ Paloschi), Maldini (46’ Digao), Simic (46’ Kaladze), Favalli (64’ Antonini) – Zambrotta, Gattuso, Flamini, Jankulovski, Pirlo – Ambrosini (46’ Seedorf). Coach: Ancelotti.

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