Former Manchester United captain Wayne Rooney, reveals how Sir Alex Ferguson used Ji Sung-Park to neutralize Pirlo’s passing prowess when United played against AC Milan in a champions league round of 16 clash in 2010.
“I remember Fergie’s team talk before playing AC Milan. He literally said to Park: ‘Your job today is not about touching the ball, it’s not about making passes, your job is Pirlo. That’s all: Pirlo.
At the time Andrea Pirlo was averaging 110 passes per game, something stupid like that, and out of those, about 60-70 were forward passes, passes that could hurt you. He had this trick: when the ball came to him from the full-back, he would play it first time over your center-back’s head, for Andriy Shevchenko or Kaka to run through. Pirlo was the best I’ve seen at that pass.”
So Fergie said to Park: ‘He cannot be allowed that pass. You cannot be one yard or one second late.’ And I think Pirlo barely had 40 passes in that game, and 95 percent were backward because Park was so unbelievable at carrying out his orders. The rest of us appreciated that, physically and mentally, what Park managed to do that night was so difficult.”
Ji Sung-Park limited Andrea Pirlo’s passes to a handful in both legs. Manchester United defeated AC Milan 3-2 at San Siro before trashing the Italian giants 4-0 in the return fixture at Old Trafford, to advance to the quarter-final.
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