Unlike Pippo

By: Penny | July 12th, 2008

this blog is known for its altruism, so in response to overwhelming public demand, here are five of Pippo’s Champions League goals for Milan, in no particular order.

We begin with a goal which, officially, isn’t even Inzaghi’s, against Ajax in 2003. It was actually given to Tomasson, as the last player to touch the ball, but we all know who really scored it. Milan were a matter of minutes of going out of the Champions League at the quarter final stage when this happened. There’s a quick flash of Zlatan at the beginning, for those of you who like him.

Next, Inzaghi’s first Champions League final goal. In my partisan way I insist that he did score this intentionally. I cite the movement of his shoulder, the fact he has scored in similar ways previously and the fact that the British press were adamant that it was sheer luck, and they are almost invariably wrong.

Inzaghi’s goals against Bayern, so much choice, but the last one here from 2007, has to be one of the best. Without even being fit, he just came on, scored this sublime chip, and then went off. No wonder Kahn said that one of the things that he was looking forward to when he retired was not playing against Inzaghi any more.

Fourth is Inzaghi’s 63rd goal in Europe, beating Gerd Muller’s record after 30 odd years. You can also practice your Italian, if you can understand Inzaghi’s machine gun delivery.

My own favourite, however, is Inzaghi’s second goal against Lyon in the campaign of 2006. I watched this in a bar in New York. thousands of miles from home, really badly homesick, with just me and one other Milan fan in the midst of a crowd of American Lyon fans, one of whom insisted on having shouted conversations on his mobile on how Lyon were only minutes away from knocking Milan out. Obviously Inzaghi has lost his nerve as he got older, as he scored this in the 88th rather than the 90th minute. It’s very possibly one of the ugliest goals you will ever see in your life, but it was so beautiful to me that I cried.

This is the most Inzaghi of all Inzaghi goals, it got him an almost unheard of 9 from the gazzetta, and a call up for the World Cup. After the match Ally McCoist, no poor scorer himself, said that everyone around the goal area knew that the ball was coming back off the post, but only Inzaghi knew at what angle. I don’t know whether it is instinct or experience that told him that, or just his ability to read the game faster than any other player than I have ever come across. I will never understand why he doesn’t get the recognition as a great player that he deserves, but perhaps I’m a little biased.

Here are all the goals, including Inzaghi apparently metamorphosing into Kaka at 3 minutes in. You can’t help but feel sympathy for Lyon, being on the wrong end of a triumphant comeback is a real bitch.