Crespo back on target
Thursday, 3 March 2005
By Simon Hart and Adrian Harte

His time in English football was deemed a failure but Hernán Crespo showed
the Premiership exactly what it is missing when he scored the only goal as AC
Milan downed Manchester United FC 1-0 in the UEFA Champions League first
knockout round first-leg at Old Trafford last Wednesday.

Milan patience
The Argentinian international capitalised on a Roy Carroll error to give the
Rossoneri a crucial advantage. Crespo says the goal, which came twelve
minutes from time, was the product of Milan's purposefully patient approach.
He told uefa.com: "The key was we stayed patient. We wanted to control the
ball and then wait for the right moment to strike. We did that." He added:
"We have the kind of players who can do that, players like [Andrea] Pirlo, Kak
á and Rui Costa, whose ball control is their biggest asset. It helps us and
we did that well at Old Trafford."

History of goals
Crespo, back in Italy on loan after eleven months with Chelsea FC, is clearly
revelling playing in such company. He certainly has the pedigree to thrive on
the service offered by Kaká et al. Whether in the colours of Parma AC, S.S.
Lazio, FC Internazionale Milano or Milan, Crespo has plundered goals in Serie
A. Indeed his tally now stands at a staggering 116 goals in 181 top-flight
games in Italy.

Most expensive
Add to that his tally of 29 goals in 60 matches in European competition and a
strike rate of 36 goals in 50 internationals and it is not hard to see why
the Florida-born player was once the world's most expensive player and why
over 120m has been paid out in transfer fees to secure his services.

Goal touch returns
This season, despite a slow start, he has gradually returned to his best
form, with his nine goals in Serie A including six since the turn of the year
when he has stepped in to fill the void left by the injured Filippo Inzaghi
and more recently Andriy Shevchenko.

Chelsea perspective
His time at Chelsea would appear to be the one negative on that CV but his
short spell could probably do with some revisionism. While a series of
injuries restricted his appearances and the striker struggled to settle in
London, he still managed to score ten goals in 19 Premiership starts - a
better strike rate than any Chelsea striker this season or last.

Chelsea regret
Although Crespo is expected to move to Italy permanently in the summer when
his season-long loan comes to an end, he spoke before the United match of his
regret that he "never really repaid the confidence [Roman] Abramovich had
shown".

Satisfying goal
Certainly, he showed last week that he has the predatory skills to thrive
anywhere but, speaking after the match, he was in no mood for gloating about
proving a point. He told uefa.com: "I'm really happy because scoring the
decisive goal in a game of such importance is really satisfying. I had a bad
time in England, with a lot of injuries, but now I feel OK and I am relaxed
and happy to have scored that goal."

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