TIME MACHINE: BOLOGNA v AC MILAN

Rome, Florence, now Bologna. The tour of great parts of our country and football heritage continues at the Dall'Ara on matchday 9 of Serie A. A fixture that has often come in the first half of the season: this year, like last, but also in 2004/05. With the Time Machine, we'll be heading back to that period to relive the Rossoneri 2-0. 

It was September, the second round and the first away day of the campaign. It was probably the best moment for Ancelotti's AC Milan, reigning Champions of Italy - 17th Scudetto - and backed up in the summer transfer market with the arrivals of Stam and Crespo. The opening game left us with some regrets, a 2-2 draw at home against newly-promoted Livorno. Mazzone's Bologna, as a result, represented an already important test to beat. In the first half, Pagliuca's goal was peppered with shots, luckily for him a Cafu volley smacked the crossbar and a deviation off Kaladze narrowly missed going in, he was excellent at keeping Kaká and Shevchenko out. Not much changed for the duo in the second half, Pagliuca somehow stepped up his game even further to deny Sheva and keep a diagonal grasscutter from Inzaghi out, hitting the near post. 

Pippo, back on the pitch after an operation on his ankle, went close to the goal yet again. It was make or break and the Diavolo managed to sort things out in the 84th minute, Colucci brought Kaká down in the box for a penalty: Shevchenko was icy from the spot to break the deadlock. The hard bit was done, apart from a dangerous shot from Capuano, and the final moments also saw the 90th-minute goal from Kaká thanks to Inzaghi's dirty work. A crucial and deserved win.

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