Wenger outlines Milan plans

Gunners boss confident of reaching quarter-finals

By Chris Burton   Last updated: 2nd March 2008   Subscribe to RSS Feed

Wenger outlines Milan plans

Wenger: Predicting success

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Arsene Wenger insists that Arsenal have the quality to overcome Milan in the San Siro on Tuesday.

The Gunners were held to a goalless draw in the first leg of their UEFA Champions League last 16 tie, but remain confident of getting the required result in Italy.

Wenger knows that any success is likely to rest on their ability to restrict the influence of Brazilian playmaker Kaka.

However, he has admitted that he has no intentions to try and mark the World Player of the Year out of the game and will not resort to hatchet tactics in an attempt to stop him dominating proceedings.

Acceleration

"Milan have shown in Europe that they can deal with all sorts of opposition, they can slow the game down," Wenger reflected.

"What Milan do well is put you to their pace, and when Kaka gets the ball they can have sudden acceleration which can kill you.

"We will have to adapt to that because we like to play always at a high pace."

The Arsenal boss added: "In Italy, what do the teams do who play against Milan? They take Kaka, get him out of the game.

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"We will play zonal and will not mark him man to man. We will be faithful to what we do usually.

"We will try to get him out of the game by cutting the connections with him.

"If you kick the great players out of the game, why should people go to watch football?

"Great players make football a bit special, they make it art. If you are there to kill them, it is not acceptable."

Tight

Wenger knows that it is vital his side do not concede against the defending champions, and needs only to look at Milan's demolition of Manchester United in the home leg of last year's semi-final to know how difficult that may prove to be.

"We have to be tight defensively, because they tore Man United apart in the first 20 minutes of the second leg at the San Siro last season," he said.

"It is important for us to start strongly in defence, but also not to hide.

Patience

"What is good from the first result is we know every time we get the ball we are incited to go for a goal.

"I do not like to go away from home thinking your team just has to defend. With a 0-0 result, we know that we have to attack as well.

"From the first game, we have the belief we can beat them because we dominated the game - that always has an impact on the second game.

"We will need patience against them, but our pace can be a good asset."