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AC Milan keeper injured by thrown flare
Italian police braced for crowd trouble all week. They weren't expecting it to flare up in Milan.
AC Milan was leading crosstown rival Inter Milan 1-0 and 3-0 on aggregate in a quarterfinal match Tuesday when the game was stopped because AC goalkeeper Dida was injured by a burning flare thrown from the stands.
"Tonight's episode doesn't just hurt Inter, but the entire city of Milan," AC coach Carlo Ancelotti said. "I've played and coached in Milan for 10 years and I've never seen anything like it."
Security is expected to be tight for Wednesday's Champions League quarterfinal between Juventus and Liverpool in Turin, but few were expecting the trouble to begin 24 hours earlier.
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.
Inter fans started the trouble after a goal by Esteban Cambiasso was ruled out for a foul in the 71st minute.
Dida was hit on the left shoulder in the 73rd and 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 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 AC to the last four and in search of its seventh European Cup title.
"After the goal was annulled, the fans' anger was understandable, although the reaction of throwing objects onto the field is not justified," Inter defender Ivan Cordoba said.
Dida, who played superbly before he was struck by the flare, was replaced by Christian Abbiati for the brief restart.
Andriy Shevchenko gave AC the lead in the 30th minute, blasting a shot from the edge of the area for his fifth goal in this season's Champions League.
In 2003, AC 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.
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