AC Milan world champion

Press, 18 December 1989, Page 33

AC Milan world champion

NZPA-Reuter Tokyo A goal from a free kick by substitute Alberigo Evani in extra time earned AC Milan the world club championship against Colombia’s Atletico Nacional of Medellin, in Tokyo, yesterday. With just three minutes to go in the 30min added for extra time, the Dutch striker, Marco Van Basten, was pulled down just in front of the box. Evani hit a low, pinpoint shot round Nacional’s defensive wall and into the left corner of the net. Played before a sell-out crowd of 62,000 in perfect conditions in Tokyo’s National Stadium, the game between the European and South American champions was dominated by two wellmarshalled defences, both playing offside traps that cramped the match in the middle of the field. The two goalkeepers had little to do, with less than a dozen shots on target in the entire two hours of play. The boisterous and wellbehaved crowd vented its disappointment with a brief spell of whistling in extra time. What few chances there were fell to Van Basten, who three times had a direct view of goal but shot wide each time. Nacional’s elegant forwards were thwarted by an impeccable Milan defence, where the captain, Franco Baresi, was outstanding. Nacional’s stars were also in defence, Geovanni Cassiani and Andres Escobar, while the goalkeeper, Rene Higiutae, delighted the crowd by dribbling the ball outside the penalty area, heading and juggling it.