Milan hold slender one-goal lead

AC Milan 1 Red Star Belgrade 0

AC Milan will take a 1-0 lead into the second leg of their Champions League third-round qualifier with Red Star Belgrade but still have some work to do if they are to book what would be a controversial place in the competition proper.

Filippo Inzaghi struck the only goal of the first leg match for the Rossoneri after 22 minutes but the hosts were unable to add to that tally at the San Siro with the Serbs defending stoutly.

It means Red Star still can hope to deny Milan a place in the competition that originally they had been banned from by Italian football chiefs because of the recent match-fixing scandal.

They won their appeal and UEFA duly allowed them to compete albeit with a stern reprimand for the team whose six victories in the competition is bettered only by Real Madrid with nine.

Red Star were quickly on the offensive and Dida had to make a good save to deny Blagoy Georgiev with only two minutes on the clock.

That spurred Milan into life and Clarence Seedorf shot wide after good work from Serginho before Cafu’s excellent cross just eluded Alberto Gilardino.

Gilardino thought he had scored after 11 minutes but his header from point-blank range was well saved by Ivan Randjelovic in the Red Star goal.

Milan were beginning to click and after 22 minutes their early pressure paid off as they took the lead.

Kaka split the Red Star defence with a trademark pass and Inzaghi raced clear to score against the 1991 European and world champions.

Inzaghi, celebrating his 33rd birthday and a member of Italy’s World Cup winning squad, had another chance 11 minutes later but Randjelovic saved well to deny the hitman.

The interval duly arrived with the Rossoneri holding a single-goal lead over the team that won its single European Cup at a time when Yugoslavia was a multi-ethnic nation of Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, Slovenians, Macedonians and Montenegrins.

When the game resumed in the second half it was once more Milan who made the running as they looked to increase their margin for error ahead of the second leg match in Serbia.

A free-kick from another World Cup hero Andrea Pirlo forced Randjelovic into prompt action.

The Red Star goalkeeper made another fine stop on the hour mark to foil Gilardino.

Red Star were defending stoutly and Carlo Ancelotti was forced to make changes after the break in a match attended by 55,000 supporters.

Massimo Ambrosini relieved Gilardino while Pirlo departed to be replaced by Yoann Gourcuff, the French prodigy who Milan signed from Rennes during the season.

Gourcuff was unable to conjure up the dream goal on his debut and Milan will take a slender 1-0 lead to Serbia in a fortnight.