Italian police braced for crowd trouble all week, but they weren't expecting it to erupt in Milan.
Security is expected to be tight for today's Champions League quarterfinal between Juventus and Liverpool in Turin, but few were expecting the trouble to happen 24 hours earlier.
On Tuesday, AC Milan was leading crosstown rival Inter Milan 1-0 and 3-0 on aggregate in another quarterfinal when the match was stopped because AC Milan goalkeeper Dida was injured by a flare thrown from the crowd.
The six-time European champions were awarded a 1-0 win, but UEFA's disciplinary committee could make the final 3-0 after an investigation.
In the other quarterfinal, Chelsea lost to Bayern Munich 3-2 but still advanced with a 6-5 aggregate win.
The scene at San Siro stadium followed one of the worst violence-marred weekends in Italian league play this season, when scores of fans were arrested due to confrontations with police and racial slogans.
"Tonight's episode doesn't just hurt Inter, but the entire city of Milan," AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "I've played and coached in Milan for 10 years and I've never seen anything like it."
Inter fans started the trouble after a 71st-minute goal by Esteban Cambiasso was ruled out for a foul.
Dida was hit on the left shoulder in the 73rd and was treated at midfield. Both teams were escorted off the field about 10 minutes later.
"He's OK, although he does have some pain where he was hit," AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf said of Dida. "The government, the entire country, has to understand that something must be done."
After 10 more minutes passed, German referee Markus Merk tried to restart play, but more flares were thrown onto the field and UEFA officials quickly abandoned the match in the 75th, sending Milan to the last four and in search of its seventh European Cup title.
"After the goal was annulled, the fans' anger was understandable," Inter defender Ivan Cordoba said. "Although the reaction of throwing objects onto the field is not justified."
Dida, who played superbly before he was struck by the flare, was replaced by Christian Abbiati for the brief restart.
Andriy Shevchenko gave AC Milan the lead in the 30th minute, blasting in a shot from the edge of the area for his fifth goal in this season's Champions League.
In 2003, AC Milan eliminated Inter from the semifinals and went on to win its sixth Champions Cup title.
On Wednesday, Liverpool takes a 2-1 lead to Stadio delle Alpi.
Last week's first leg was the first meeting between the clubs since the Heysel Stadium tragedy in which 39 fans were crushed to death in rioting before the 1985 European Cup final in Brussels, Belgium.
Hundreds of riot police are expected to be deployed around the stadium and in downtown Turin after Italian extremists threatened English fans on the Internet.
About 3,000 Liverpool fans were expected to travel to Italy, and English officials warned them to avoid singing and chanting.
Police said about 1,000 tickets reserved for Liverpool fans were not sold because of security fears.
In Munich, Frank Lampard scored the first goal in the 30th minute, his third against Bayern in the two-leg series. Claudio Pizarro leveled in the 65th, but Didier Drogba reclaimed the lead for Chelsea with a header in the 80th. Paolo Guerreo then scored in the 90th, and Mehmet Scholl added the winner in injury time.
Chelsea was playing without manager Jose Mourinho on the bench for the second straight Champions League match. The Portuguese coach was banned last week after UEFA found him guilty of bringing the game into disrepute and ``making false declarations.''
He originally took his seat away from the field at Munich's Olympiastadion, but soon left and reportedly watched the match at the team's hotel.
Mourinho, who won the European title last season with FC Porto, will be back for the semifinals.
"We missed the manager tonight. You miss his presence in the changing room," Lampard said.
Also Wednesday, PSV Eindhoven hosts Lyon after a 1-1 draw in the first leg.
In the semifinals, Chelsea will face either Liverpool or Juventus, while Milan challenges PSV or Lyon.
The semifinals are scheduled for April 26-27 and May 3-4, with the final set for May 25 in Istanbul, Turkey.
Stuart Duff's eighth-minute goal produced the biggest upset of the Scottish soccer season Tuesday as last-place Dundee United won 1-0 at leader Glasgow Rangers.
Alex McLeish's Rangers were expected to move four points clear of defending champion Celtic in the title race by winning at Ibrox. After Duff's early strike, however, Rangers missed chance after chance.
Celtic can regain top place in the standings if it wins at Livingston on Wednesday.
Rangers have 78 points, while Celtic has 77 and has played one game fewer. The two teams meet at Ibrox Park April 24 in their final meeting of the season.
The 49,302 crowd was stunned when Dundee United, which beat Hibernian on Saturday to set up a Scottish Cup final against Celtic, took the lead.
Duff met a cross from Jim McIntyre and, although his first header struck goalkeeper Ronald Waterreus, he nodded the rebound into the net.
Nacho Novo, Fernando Ricksen and Dado Prso missed chances to equalize before halftime, and Novo and Shota Arveladze squandered openings after the break.
Dundee United held on for three points to move off the bottom of the standings, leaving Livingston in last place.
Inverness edged Motherwell 1-0 in Tuesday's other Premier League game.
Bologna on Thursday advanced past Empoli to reach their first Coppa Italia final in more than half a century. Thijs Dallinga’s 87th-minute header earned Bologna a 2-1 win and his side advanced 5-1 on aggregate. Giovanni Fabbian opened the scoring for Bologna with a header seven minutes in. Then Viktor Kovalenko equalized for Empoli in the 30th minute by turning in a rebound to finish off a counterattack. Bologna won the first leg 3-0. In the May 14 final in Rome, Bologna are to face AC Milan, who eliminated city rivals Inter 4-1 on aggregate following a 3-0 win on Wednesday. Bologna last reached the
If the Wild finally break through and win their first playoff series in a decade, Minnesota’s top line likely will be the reason. They were all over the Golden Knights through the first two games of their NHL Western Conference quarter-finals series, which was 1-1 going back to Minnesota for Game 3 today. The Wild tied the series with a 5-2 win on Tuesday. Matt Boldy had three goals and an assist in the first two games, while Kirill Kaprizov produced two goals and three assists. Joel Eriksson Ek, who centers the line, has yet to get on the scoresheet. “I think the biggest
The Minnesota Timberwolves, with so many promising performances spoiled by late mistakes fresh in their memory bank, sure timed this strong finish well. Jaden McDaniels scored a career playoff-high 30 points and spearheaded Minnesota’s stifling defense on an ailing Luka Doncic, and the Timberwolves beat the Los Angeles Lakers 116-104 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven Western Conference first-round series in Minneapolis, Minnesota, on Friday night. “Jaden never looks tired. He looks like he could play 48 minutes,” said teammate Anthony Edwards, who had 29 points, eight rebounds and eight assists. Julius Randle added 22 points for the Wolves, who outscored
From a commemorative jersey to a stadium in his name, Argentine soccer organizers are planning a slew of tributes to their late “Captain” Pope Francis, eulogized as the ultimate team player. Tributes to the Argentine pontiff, a lifelong lover of the game, who died on Monday at the age of 88, have been peppered with soccer metaphors in his homeland. “Francisco. What a player,” the Argentine Football Federation (AFA) said, describing the first pope from Latin America and the southern hemisphere as a generational talent who “never hogged the ball” and who showed the world “the importance of having an Argentine captain,
RSS