It was pure domination.
It was classy and stylish.
It was championship-style football.
AC Milan dominated from start to finish in their Round 33 match with Sampdoria at the San Siro on Saturday night, beating the Blucerchiati 3-0.
The win moves Milan to 71 points, six ahead of second-place Napoli who play on Sunday. Parma defeated Inter Milan on Saturday 2-0 to move clear of the drop zone and push the Nerazzurri eight points back of their city rivals with only five games remaining.
The closer the season gets to ending, the better Milan look and the more likely it appears that they will end their seven-year drought and finally reclaim the Italian Serie A.
Milan now look to Wednesday and a date with Palermo in the first leg of the Coppa Italia Semifinals. The Rossoneri will be looking for revenge after losing to Palermo in the league a couple weeks ago.
After that, Brescia, Bologna, Roma, Cagliari, and Udinese are all that stand between Milan, and Scudetto No. 18.
From the start, Milan attacked early and often. Alberto Cavasin's men did an excellent job repelling the early onslaught.
Twenty minutes in, Clarence Seedorf's brilliantly placed free kick found the far lower corner to beat Gianluca Curci and put Milan out in front. From that point on, Milan were in command.
There were a couple scary moments minutes apart however. Just before Seedorf's goal, Massimiliano Allegri was forced to replace Christian Abbiati, who hardly had any work to do, but tweaked something in his leg.
Marco Amelia came on and as he normally does, performed excellently in place of the starter, keeping the clean sheet. Shortly afterward, Pato injured his hamstring and was replaced by former Sampdoria man Antonio Cassano.
Cassano had arguably his best performance in a red and black shirt since joining from the Genoa-based side in the winter.
Seeming in a very good mood after becoming a father only days ago, Cassano was menacing all night and was rewarded with a chance to convert a penalty after a hand ball in the box by Massimo Volta. The little Italian rocketed it home past Curci in the 51st minute.
Cassano would set up another goal 13 minutes later. This time, it was Robinho, back in the lineup with Zlatan Ibrahimovic beginning a three-match league ban, who headed home the chip from Cassano, which came in from the corner of the six-yard box.
It was a stroke of class and genius that put the finishing touches on this match with a half hour left to play.
With the lead safely in hand, Allegri made a final substitution, the only non-injury sub of the night. This time, it was to allow for the long-awaited return of Andrea Pirlo, who had not seen the field for Milan since October. He replaced Mark Van Bommel in the 73rd.
All in all, this was a brilliant performance once again from Milan, who have now dominated for all but maybe 10 to 20 of the last 180 minutes they have played. They controlled Inter from the word go.
They outclassed Fiorentina for all but the last 10 minutes, and despite not getting anything productive until the 20th on Saturday, they controlled the game from the start against Sampdoria.
Milan are truly playing like champions, even without Ibrahimovic, their leading scorer and when they are forced to remove their best goalkeeper and arguably best front-man due to injury.
Milan proved that they have a deep enough team to compensate for lost players. With Alessandro Nesta out, Mario Yepes once again performed brilliantly.
Despite critics questioning the signing of the 34-year old Colombian in the summer, Yepes has had a fantastic season. Cassano once again was flawless.
Amelia played brilliantly. Robinho found the net. This is a team that can compensate for lost starters due to injury or suspension.
With only five league games and up to three cup games remaining, things are looking incredibly good for Milan.
Having watched Milan since the last time they won the league, I have never felt this good about the club's chance to bring home the Scudetto once again. That seven-year drought may be over in about a month.
Stacy Keibler Rihanna America Ferrera Haylie Duff Talisa Soto
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