Double blow for Milan as LA say ´no-way´ to Beckham

AFP - 7 February 2009 20:40

Inter Milan´s midfielder Dejan Stankovic (R) jumps for the ball with Lecce´s Edinho Ferreira Campos during their Italian Serie A football match in Lecce. Inter Milan piled the pressure on title rivals AC Milan and Juventus as they stormed to a convincing 3-0 victory at lowly Lecce.

ROME (AFP) - AC Milan suffered a double blow on Saturday as Los Angeles Galaxy refused their 10-million-dollar bid for David Beckham and rock-bottom Reggina held them to a 1-1 draw at the San Siro.

Earlier in the day Inter Milan had cruised to a convincing 3-0 victory at lowly Lecce to extend their lead at the top to eight points.

Milan vice-president Adriano Galliani revealed before kick-off that Galaxy had turned down their initial bid for Beckham and then sat and watched his team frustrated by a team fighting for their Serie A survival.

"We made an offer to Galaxy which they didn't accept," said Galliani.

Milan were without the suspended Andrea Pirlo and lined up with a very attacking formation that included the recalled Ronaldinho, Kaka and Pato.

However, for all Milan's early possession and pressure, they fell behind on 33 minutes.

Reggina burst away on the counter-attack and Bernardo Corradi set up Carlos Carmona, whose fierce drive was parried by Christian Abbiati in the Milan goal.

The Italian giants failed to clear their lines, though, and a Corradi flick set up the late arriving Davide Di Gennaro to lash home left-footed.

Milan continued to push forward and Ronaldinho demonstrated a glimpse of his Barcelona form of old on 41 minutes with some typical Brazilian magic.

The 28-year-old ran at goal, twisting, turning and sending three defenders the wrong way before curling his shot just past the far post.

After the break, Di Gennaro almost doubled his tally but arrowed his shot just wide while Kaka had two chances, sending one softly into goalkeeper Andrea Campagnolo's arms and the other past the near post.

On the hour, Milan came their closest yet to scoring as Kaka hit the post and substitute Clarence Seedorf bundled the ball home, but the Dutch midfielder was penalised for a handball.

Milan were given a lifeline on 67 minutes as Matej Krajcik brought down a marauding Pato in the box and Kaka smashed home the penalty.

Ronaldinho made way for Filippo Inzaghi and he almost converted a sumptuous cross from Beckham, heading just over the bar 17 minutes from time.

Five minutes from the end Inzaghi was inches away from converting another devillish cross from the former Manchester United and Real Madrid midfielder.

Goals from Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Luis Figo and Dejan Stankovic gave Inter only their third win in six games since the resumption of Serie A following the winter break.

Even so, Inter coach Jose Mourinho was furious by what he thought was yet another penalty decision going against his team when Ibrahimovic was booked for diving after going down in the box.

"I got banned for using the word fear so I won't use it again," said Mourinho, referring to the one-match touchline ban he was given for asking referee Domenico Celi if he was afraid of giving a decision to Inter in their 1-0 victory against Sampdoria last month.

"My Italian is only so-so, so this time I'll use the word strange. It was very strange what happened to Adriano (who was banned for three-matches on video evidence for punching an opponent against Sampdoria) and this penalty decision was strange too.

"It could have been decisive because at the time it was 1-0. Ibra got booked and certainly with this yellow card, later on he will get suspended (players get suspended after receiving five yellow cards)."

It was Sweden forward Ibrahimovic who gave the visitors the lead on 12 minutes as he controlled a pass from Cambiasso on the edge of the area and then ripped a right-foot shot past Francesco Benussi in the Lecce goal.

Figo settled the affair in a most unusual fashion 19 minutes from time, ghosting between Lecce's centre-backs to glance home a header from teenage left-back Davide Santon's cross.

Things started turning into a rout eight minutes from time when Stankovic timed his run perfectly to head home a free-kick from Maicon.