diego limits milan damage in bremen published: wednesday 18 february 2009, 23.20cet werder bremen 1-1 ac milan diego struck late to deny carlo ancelotti's side a first-leg lead after filippo ınzaghi's 36th-minute opener looked to have won it for the serie a outfit.
diego denied ac milan victory in the away leg of their uefa cup round of 32 tie against werder bremen, but they could feel satisfied at having earned a 1-1 draw after filippo ınzaghi handed them a 36th-minute lead.
weakened side milan were without a number of top players including kaká, gennaro gattuso and alessandro nesta while on-loan david beckham started the game on the bench. ınzaghi nonetheless opened the scoring for the ıtalian visitors, with diego finally equalising in the 84th minute after bremen had created several great chances.
early skirmishes alexandros tziolis and hugo almeida both had early sights of goal for the bundesliga club, while clarence seedorf raced through for milan but was denied as bremen keeper tim wiese sprang off his line to claim the ball. wiese was in action again after 15 minutes, saving from mathieu flamini, while dida was also busy at the other end to keep out a blast from clemens fritz.
milan opener milan grabbed the initiative nine minutes before half-time as flamini picked out ınzaghi who finished at the second attempt. bremen pushed forward and almeida sent a free-kick just wide while dida made a fine stop to keep out diego's dangerous low shot. almeida also directed a header centimetres wide of the left post.
diego leveller carlo ancelotti's men stood up well in defence and looked dangerous on the counterattack, with ınzaghi threatening a second in the 66th minute when his strike from the right beat wiese but came back off the crossbar. bremen's efforts were rewarded, though, with an equaliser six minutes from time as a high ball into the box was nodded on by almeida for diego to chest down before beating dida with a shot into the bottom right-hand corner. thomas schaaf's side almost snatched a winner at the death when massimo ambrosini's headed against his own crossbar under pressure.
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