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00:00 When Milan played in Siena, it was never a trivial match.
00:05 Siena, crucial stop. Siena, topical moment. Siena, inevitable cross.
00:11 20 years ago, in April 2004, Milan played in Siena, a match that would have been easily avoided.
00:18 Sure, just like that. If it had been possible, Milan would never have played on the road again.
00:24 Never again in its history. Never again in its life.
00:27 Because the last away game before Siena 2004 was against Coruña 2004.
00:33 Always 20 years ago, but a cruel, hard, painful away game.
00:38 Milan, against Deportivo La Coruña in the Champions League quarter-finals,
00:42 could have scored 7, even 8 goals. But instead, they only scored 4.
00:47 And on the return, Depor scored his 4 not 1, but 0 against Milan.
00:52 And he went to the semi-final.
00:54 The Rossoneri had only regrets, only disappointment, only anger, even anger.
01:01 So much so that after La Coruña's defeat, on the Saturday of Easter, April 2004,
01:06 Milan only managed, in the final, only with great effort,
01:10 to beat on penalty, on measure, 1-0, an Empoli that was falling back,
01:15 in a match dominated by anguish for the elimination of La Coruña,
01:19 on which, 20 years ago, Adriano Gagliani was still complaining,
01:23 despite the Scudetto was already on the way.
01:26 In terms of Scudetto, the elimination is an advantage.
01:29 We would have certainly preferred to get tired and move on,
01:32 but in terms of Scudetto alone, it is evident that the team now has 4 weeks ahead of 8 days.
01:39 Now the next game we play in 8 days, so it is very important to recover the energy and the psychophysical.
01:44 That in Galicia was a game far from San Siro.
01:47 It was a transfer, it was a whole world that had turned against the colours of Rossoneri,
01:51 against the shirt and against the history of Milan.
01:54 But sooner or later we had to go back to the transfer.
01:57 Here's what happens, inevitably, 10 days after the football drama of La Coruña.
02:02 Here is Milan against Siena, just in time.
02:05 In Siena, Rossoneri were in advantage in the Scudetto duel with Roma,
02:08 but we had to get past Siena, we had to do well in Siena.
02:12 A stadium, the Franchi di Siena, which Milan was also curious to experience
02:16 and to explore.
02:17 A stadium in close contact with the Senese contracts.
02:20 A stadium with the windows of the suites of a large historic city hotel
02:23 that faced directly on the pitch.
02:26 The game starts well for Milan, which is in advantage,
02:28 but then Enrico Chiesa, Paris for Siena.
02:31 And for Milan it becomes very hard to return to measure up with a contrariety in the transfer.
02:36 Mental load.
02:38 Because he inevitably returns in those moments to make himself feel the complex of La Coruña.
02:43 And a few minutes from the end, the result is still 1-1.
02:46 A result that would have kept Milan in the Scudetto race,
02:49 but not with that reassuring advantage that Milan needed after La Coruña.
02:55 Minutes of waiting in Siena, minutes in suspense.
02:58 When it arrives, in the final minutes, finally, the goal in cohabitation.
03:02 That same goal that a year earlier they had scored together,
03:06 in combination, in Zaghi and Thomasson against Ajax.
03:09 In Siena, the same thing was done by Kaká and Borriello.
03:13 2-1 for Milan now.
03:15 The Scudetto match with Roma in San Siro would have had a whole different taste.
03:19 But those would have been the stories of May, the stories of the Red-Black titles.
03:24 Let's stay in Siena, let's stay in April.
03:27 Because if 20 years ago, in April 2004, Milan won the Scudetto 2-1 match in Siena,
03:32 even before that with Roma,
03:34 the following year, in 2005, always in Siena and always in April,
03:37 the first page is filled with controversy, protests, poisons.
03:41 Milan lost 2-1.
03:43 Yes, they had scored in the second half with Hernán Crespo,
03:46 but then the Tuscan team managed to come back and win.
03:49 First with the usual goal of the usual Enrico Chiesa,
03:52 then with the 2-1 of Ciccio Cozza.
03:54 And Milan left Siena complaining.
03:57 A goal cancelled, a penalty not allowed,
03:59 many controversies already in that post-match in Senese.
04:02 Controversies that would have been understood,
04:04 the meaning and the significance a year later,
04:07 in the incredible summer of the Calcioppoli scandal.
04:10 Six months after which, the Milan in the Milanists enjoyed the post-Siena voice
04:14 of Ronaldo the Phenomenon,
04:16 whom they had to give up for the short times of the market at the end of August 2006,
04:21 but who managed to hold on in January 2007.
04:25 A Ronaldo, on the ball, with the great challenge of his return.
04:28 I'm sure that Milan will have all the chances to win, to be great again.
04:35 We have many possibilities ahead.
04:38 The important thing is to find the balance, which is not easy in football.
04:43 Finding the balance to score and always taking very few.
04:47 Ronaldo in Siena. Milan had gone beyond.
04:50 Siena-Milan looked ahead.
04:52 Siena became the city of the "Rockahol".
04:55 Just like that, when in February 2007, Carlo Ancelotti decided to line up all three together.
05:01 Riccardo Kaká, Ronaldo the Phenomenon and Riccardo Oliveira.
05:05 All three Brazilians.
05:06 Besides, it's easy to talk about a trio in the history of the Red-Black.
05:10 After the three Dutch, after the Grenoble.
05:12 And that day in Siena, an incredible game was played,
05:15 in which two of the three Brazilians of the "Rockahol" trio went on goal.
05:19 The first, of course, him.
05:21 The first goal with the Milan shirt, says Ronaldo.
05:24 But Maccarone and Siena were always tied.
05:27 Ronaldo's goal, Siena tied.
05:29 Oliveira's goal, Siena tied.
05:31 Ronaldo's 3-2 goal, Siena tied again.
05:34 3-3, a few minutes from the end.
05:36 And only a 94th minute free-kick by Ambrosini,
05:39 deflected by the Tuscan defenders, brought Milan to victory.
05:42 4-3.
05:43 Things that only happen in Siena.
05:45 Exactly.
05:46 Siena, a boring city, a city where the Red-Black symbolism was nourished year after year.
05:50 As in March 2009, when the whole staff, in the dugout,
05:54 had already prepared the shirt "Inzaghi 300".
05:57 Milan won 5-1 that game in Siena,
05:59 with the double of Filippo Inzaghi,
06:01 who led Super Pippo to score the goal number 300 and the goal number 301 of his career.
06:07 A goal achieved with the speed of the "Rapace",
06:10 as Carlo Ancelotti remembers,
06:12 and with the unbeatability of fate,
06:14 as Chiosa himself, Pippo Inzaghi.
06:17 But no one expected it, he was in a hurry to score those five goals he missed,
06:21 which surprised everyone.
06:23 Fate gave me a special day,
06:25 because if I think that 16 years ago,
06:27 I scored my first goal in the professionals' team in Siena,
06:29 and today, the 300th,
06:31 I'm always in Siena.
06:33 It's a pleasure, I'm happy.
06:35 A few months after those words, Milan would have returned to Siena.
06:38 It was no longer March, it was August, always 2009.
06:41 It was the first game of Milan after Paolo Maldini's "Farewell to Football",
06:45 after Carlo Ancelotti's "Farewell to the bench",
06:47 and after Riccardo Cacca's "Farewell to tears".
06:50 The first game of the season, Siena-Milan, double-double.
06:53 Milan was back in the sixth division.
06:55 Siena, the city where in 2013 something very, very special happened.
07:00 It was the last game of the season,
07:02 and Milan had to win at the Stadio Franchi in Siena
07:05 to qualify for the next edition of the Champions League.
07:08 And it was very hard for Milan,
07:10 who had lost many champions last summer, including Ibra and Tiago Silva.
07:15 However, in May 2013, in Siena,
07:17 the team was still on the run to return to the Champions League,
07:20 its home ground.
07:22 Siena was already behind.
07:24 It seemed easy on paper for Milan.
07:26 Yet, the Tuscan players were so proud to perform on the pitch.
07:31 And in fact, with a goal from Terzi, who was a Red-Black fan in his time,
07:35 he had also participated in a summer tournament with the Milanista team,
07:39 he took Siena to the lead.
07:41 And Milan couldn't react.
07:43 Milan was struggling.
07:44 Milan was in a bad shape.
07:46 Milan was slow, and in the last minutes,
07:48 they were still behind for that goal.
07:50 Ten minutes from the end of Siena-Milan,
07:52 Fiorentina were in the Champions League, and Milan were out.
07:55 Then, a penalty transformed by Mario Balotelli.
07:57 And then again, the invocation of the telechronist,
08:01 who called Claudio Rippi to lend a hand to his team.
08:05 And as soon as the name of the historic Red-Black journalist was given,
08:09 the trajectory began, which would have led to Philippe Mexes
08:12 scoring the 2-1 Champions goal.
08:15 That's what Siena is.
08:16 The Siena of 20 years ago.
08:17 The Siena of the 2004 Scudetto was itself.
08:20 It was Siena.
08:21 Many other times, still.
08:23 (dramatic music)
08:25 [BLANK_AUDIO]