Resurgent AC Milan host Real Madrid in the Champions League later having beaten the Galacticos 3-2 at the Bernabeu two weeks ago.

Meanwhile Inter Milan are seven points clear in Serie A after just 11 games. All would seem to be rosy in one of Europe’s greatest soccer cities, but in reality Italian football is in the doldrums.

Mark Meadows discusses.

David Beckham will tread a familiar path once the MLS season is over, joining AC Milan on loan again for a five-month loan spell from January.

Milan have just announced the deal on their website (just in Italian for now), meaning any lingering hopes Premier League clubs had of changing the England midfielder’s mind have finally been dashed.

Milan sound thrilled:

“We are very happy to David Beckham in the red and black shirt again after the splendid experience of last season,” Milan chief executive Adriano Galliani told www.acmilan.com.

“We are sure that this period in Europe will help the player to take part in the next World Cup and then to continue his career at Los Angeles Galaxy, whom we thank for their help.”

Beckham’s main target is obviously the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, as the Milan chief hints. Wonder if he’ll be on the plane…

PHOTO: Los Angeles Galaxy’s David Beckham walks on the field during Game 1 of their MLS Cup western conference semifinal soccer playoff series against Chivas USA in Carson, California, November 1, 2009. REUTERS/Danny Moloshok

A memorable 3-2 victory for AC Milan at Real Madrid on Wednesday as much for the goalkeeping howlers as great play.

When Milan keeper Dida produced an all too frequent error to give Raul the chance to equal Gerd Mueller’s record of 66 goals in the three main European club competitions, it looked like a familiar story for a struggling Milan this season under new coach Leonardo.

It has been labelled a “Didaster” by Italian media but thanks to a stoming second-half performance, Milan pulled off a result even their most hardened of fans cannot have expected given their shaky start to the campaign.

But is it just papering over the cracks and were Real just too bad? Alexandre Pato scored twice, the first aided by Iker Casillas’s rush of blood, but otherwise laboured. Ronaldinho had another quiet evening on his return to Spain.

What the win did show is that Milan are at least finding a bit more grit and determination. They also conceded first in last weekend’s 2-1 win over AS Roma and fought back.

Milan’s problems are not fixed but Leonardo can dine out on the Bernabeu victory for a while.

PHOTO: AC Milan’s Alexandre Pato (2nd R) celebrates with team mates Ronaldinho (80) and Clarence Seedorf (R), as Real Madrid’s Marcelo watches, after Pato scored his 2nd goal during their Champions League match at Bernabeu Oct. 21, 2009. REUTERS/Juan Medina

Italian soccer club AC Milan played the famous music from the Champions League in their dressing room on Sunday to try to motivate the players. The only thing was they weren't playing in the Champions League -- it was a domestic match at home to Bologna.

Milan have stuttered in Italy for a few years now but they won the Champions League, Europe's top club trophy, in 2007 and had produced a good performance to beat Olympique Marseille in the same competition the previous week.

Club bosses decided that making the players hear the Champions League music even for a domestic game would give them the same battling mentality they show in Europe. They won 1-0.

What other strange motivational tunes are played in dressing rooms across the sporting world?

Unconventional English soccer club Wimbledon, known as the 'Crazy Gang', used to play heavy metal before matches in the late 1980s and early 90s.

The English cricket team run out to the hymn Jerusalem when playing at home while when David Lloyd was coach at the end of the last decade, he made the players listen to Winston Churchill speeches to gee them up. It didn't always work.

NFL's Cincinnati Bengals often play Guns n Roses' 'Welcome to the Jungle' in the stadium to get the crowd excited.

Of course there are lots of tunes especially used at sports stadiums, like Queen's 'We are the Champions' and Blur's 'Song 2'. What's your favourite?

PHOTO: Clarence Seedorf celebrates after scoring in AC Milan's 1-0 home win over Bologna in Serie A, Sept. 20 The hosts had listened to the Champions League tune to motivate themselves ahead of the match. REUTERS/Stefano Rellandini

The Champions League is back and our reporters are currently wringing out their wet things (Mitch Phillips at Chelsea)/basking in the evening sunshine by the River Manzanares (Iain Rogers at Atletico) and undergoing all climactic variations in between.

Tonight’s first tranche of eight matches includes a repeat of the very first Champions League final, with AC Milan visiting Marseille, plus the European debut of Cristiano Ronaldo and Kaka for Real Madrid, with the Spaniards visiting Zurich.

We also have Manchester United at Besiktas, Wolfsburg hosting CSKA, Atletico at home to APOEL, Bayern Munich visiting Maccabi Haifa and Juventus against Bordeaux.

We’ll have every goal as they go in here, plus a few bits of commentary from me, and our reporters if the comms hold up, along the way.

I really appreciate comments, so please give your views in the comment section below. And can you name the player in the photo…?

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FC Zurich 2 Real Madrid 5: Cristiano Ronaldo responded to some less than flattering chants among the home fans by scoring from a free kick from the edge of the area. 1-0 in the 27th minute and Real Madrid are on their way to, well, Madrid. Seven minutes later and it’s 2-0 Real. This time Raul, who tapped in Gonzalo Higuain’s shot and is closing in on that record for goals in the European Cup. Let me have a rifle through the stats book… But in the mean time, Higuain has bagged the third himself. Too easy for Real… or is it?

The crowd livens up again with a 64th minute penalty from Xavier Margairaz and a minute later Silvan Aegerter makes it 2-3. Game on? Well, it got nervy for Real bu another free kick from Ronaldo sealed matters, with Guti’s effort in the 95th minute the cake icing.

Marseille 1 Milan 2: First goal of the 2009-10 edition of the Champions League goes to Milan, and Filippo Inzaghi. A superb cross from Seedorf for Inzaghi, left unmarked at far post, and he taps in from close range. 1-0 to the Italians in the 27th minute. Marseille level four minutes after the restart through the former Manchester United and Real Madrid defender Gabriel Heinze, who heads home a Benoit Cheyrou free kick. 2-1 to Milan with another Inzaghi goal with 16 minutes left on the clock.

Wolfsburg 3 CSKA 1: Wolfsburg have taken to the Champions League like a duck to water. The Brazilian Grafite, a much underrated player I remember well from my time in Germany, scored the first two goals, the first after 35 minutes, the second a penalty five minutes later. Alan Dzagoev pulls one back with 13 minutes to go. But Grafite completes his hat-trick three minutes from time and surely this is over now!

Chelsea 1 Porto 0: Don’t know what happened to my earlier udpate. Chelsea are ahead in the second half after Nicoals Anelka saw his first effort stopepd and then managed to fire on from a tricky angle.

Juventus 1 Bordeaux 1: Vincenzo Iaquinta puts Juventus up in the 63rd minute but Jaroslav Plasil evens things up with 15 minutes to go.

Maccabi Haifa 0 Bayern Munich 3: It’s raining goals now. The Germans are away thanks to a goal from Daniel van Buyten. Most of these matches going to form now and Bayern duly wrap up the win with two late goals from Thomas Mueller. Not a bad week for Mueller, who also scored two as Bayern beat Dortmund 5-1 in the Bundesliga on Saturday.

Besiktas 0 Manchester United 1. United are finally awake. It was a powerful shot by Nani that led to the goal in the 77th minute. The keeper parried it and Paul Scholes nodded in off the post, from a reasonable way out. Good header that.

The only match to finish goalless is Atletico Madrid v APOEL.

PHOTO: A mystery Chelsea player at training in Cobham, south of London, September 14, 2009. REUTERS/Eddie Keogh

After putting Leonardo in charge of AC Milan, owner Silvio Berlusconi has been trying to help the novice coach get to grips with the job with advice on how to tease the best from Ronaldinho.

The Italian premier, who has again denied he is considering selling a stake in the club, thinks Ronaldinho can be Milan’s “Usain Bolt” and fill the gap left by his Brazilian compatriot Kaka if he is used as a second striker rather than an playmaker.

Although Berlusconi has been careful with his transfer spending, and Milan could struggle again this term judging by the 4-0 derby hammering by Inter, he knows a thing or two about soccer and might have a point about Ronaldinho.

Leonardo is using his fellow Brazilian in the hole behind two strikers, probably his best position if he were in peak condition as it exploits his ability to conjure up chances for others and gives him room for his individual charges towards goal.

But he has not looked 100 percent fit for some time, so those wonderful runs are thin on the ground and the midfielders are having to do overtime because he does not chase back.

Using Ronaldinho as a striker might restore the team’s balance and lower the physical demands on him, simply because he would be nearer to goal and have less galloping to do. Being closer to the danger zone could lead to more goals too, which would bolster his fragile confidence.

Leonardo could pair him with powerful centre forward Marco Borriello or a goal poacher such as Filippo Inzaghi or Klaas-Jan Huntelaar. Alternatively he could make up a front line with in-form Alexandre Pato — a partnership that would be potentially unmarkable.

The advice might be good but if Leonardo takes it, he risks looking like the owner’s puppet. So next time Berlusconi has some tips, he might be better whispering into his coach’s ear instead of yelling them via the media.

PHOTO: AC Milan’s coach Leonardo (R) walks with Ronaldinho at a practice session before their World Football Challenge match against Inter Milan on Sunday in Foxborough, Massachusetts July 25, 2009. REUTERS/Adam Hunger

It is a bit early to be making judgements on the new Inter Milan (especially after a lacklustre first league game) but the 4-0 thrashing of AC Milan at the weekend suggests the Samuel Eto’o-Zlatan Ibrahimovic swap could completely change their way of playing.

Ibrahimovic, who scored on his Barcelona debut in Monday’s 3-0 win over Sporting Gijon, was everything to Inter. He was the target man, the talisman, the go-to man when a flash of inspiration or a goal was needed.

Inter’s over-reliance on the tall Swede was only exposed in Europe when better defences than in Serie A shut him out and nullified Inter’s occasional long ball approach.

In Saturday’s derby, Inter passed the ball more than I remember them doing under Jose Mourinho last season. Thiago Motta, a midfielder with attacking instincts which they lacked last term, scored a wonderful opening goal following a flurry of quick passes.

Forward Diego Milito, also a new signing from Genoa, then blasted in a penalty. Eto’o had taken the spotkick in the previous weekend’s 1-1 draw with Bari but he was quite happy to share the duties with his strike partner.

Inter suddenly looked like a collective group far more than they had in the four years of Ibra.

Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, however. Milan were awful and Gennaro Gattuso’s dismissal, after he had asked to come off with an injury but couldn’t because substitute Clarence Seedorf wasn’t ready, summed up their display.

Inter need to prove again and again that they are now more pleasing on the eye, especially in Europe…

PHOTO: Inter Milan’s Samuel Eto’o celebrates their win at the end of the Italian serie A soccer match against AC Milan at the San Siro stadium in Milan August 29, 2009. REUTERS/Alessandro Garofalo

The draw for the group phase of the 2009-10 Champions League has just finished in Monaco and it’s thrown up a couple of groups to savour especially.

Real Madrid getting drawn in Group C means they will face AC Milan … and that means a return to the San Siro for Kaka, who made the switch over the close season. Likewise, Barcelona’s big signing Zlatan ibrahimovic will be on his way back to Milan, after Inter joined the holders in Group F.

Plenty of other intriguing match-ups … Any of them catch your eye?

Group A: Bayern Munich, Juventus, Girondins Bordeaux, Maccabi Haifa

Group B: Manchester United, CSKA Moscow, Besiktas, VfL Wolfsburg

Group C: AC Milan, Real Madrid, Olympique Marseille, FC Zurich

Group D: Chelsea, Porto, Atletico Madrid, APOEL

Group E: Liverpool, Olympique Lyon, Fiorentina, Debrecen

Group F: Barcelona, Inter Milan, Dynamo Kiev, Rubin Kazan

Group G: Sevilla, Rangers, VfB Stuttgart, Unirea Urziceni

Group H: Arsenal, AZ Alkmaar, Olympiakos, Standard Liege

PHOTO: Barcelona’s Andres Iniesta holds the trophy after their Champions League final soccer match victory against Manchester United at the Olympic Stadium in Rome, May 27, 2009. REUTERS/Darren Staples

He was supposed to be the man who would take soccer in the United States to the next level yet David Beckham is in danger of becoming an embarrassing liability to the game in the country.

On a weekend when 65,000 people turned out for a friendly match in Seattle, 82,000 watched a Gold Cup game in Dallas and the U.S. national team continued their impressive form with another victory, the soccer news was all about Beckham being booed by his own fans.

The fans wrote their own headlines — “Go Home Fraud” read one bluntly worded banner draped over a section of the Galaxy stadium while another made the point in a more eloquent manner: “Hey Becks, here before you, here after you, here despite you”.

American soccer fans were not supposed to be following L.A Galaxy despite Beckham — the plan was they would fall in love with the team because of the celebrity midfielder.

A significant section of the L.A. fans have turned against Beckham for one simple reason — he turned his back on them.

Beckham’s decision to spend the Major League Soccer (MLS) off-season, from January to March, playing on loan for AC Milan in Italy, was grudgingly accepted at the time it was announced. When he decided to stay until the end of the Serie A season and so miss the first half of the MLS campaign it was a different matter.

Sports pundit Jay Mariotti, a regular on radio and television sports talk shows, wrote on Monday: “Beckham came here two years ago intending to lift Major League Soccer to unprecedented heights, but when he abruptly abandoned his stated mission in January for more prestigious duty in his native Europe, his purported goal became phony and rather pathetic.”

Perhaps, the 34-year-old could have patched up things with his fans, and other supporters of the game in the U.S, if he had returned and apologised for letting them down.

Instead Beckham, whose professionalism and commitment had been questioned by his team mate Landon Donovan, in a new book, thought that making up with Donovan would be enough of a gesture. It clearly was not.

LOAN DEAL
On his return, Beckham could have told the L.A fans: “I am sorry for letting you and the team down but I really felt I needed to finish the season in Italy. Now though I am back with you and 100 percent committed to this club”.

He could not say that, however, as he is already eyeing another six-month loan deal to Europe, perhaps to Milan, perhaps to an English team.

“At the moment all I’m concentrating on is being part of this team (L.A) and being successful with this team. Once the season is over, then I will decide and decide what I do from then on,” he said last week.

It is hardly the kind of talk to convince fans he really cares about the long-term future of their team.

What is occupying Beckham’s mind is the need to keep himself in the good books of England manager Fabio Capello, who the midfielder says wants to see him playing in Europe before next year’s World Cup in South Africa.

“Leading up to the World Cup, the England manager has made it very clear to me that I need to be playing at a European level,” he told reporters last week. “So I will do everything possible… I’ll always regret it if I didn’t do everything and to give myself a chance to be involved in that.”

The puzzling aspect is why, if Beckham’s number one priority is playing for England in the World Cup, he chose to come and play in Major League Soccer at all?

Perhaps it was the appointment of Capello that changed things — in which case, why has Beckham not sought a permanent transfer away from Galaxy to a club in Europe?

Major League Soccer faces a tough task in establishing its credibility among sports fans in the United States as a serious professional league and Beckham, rather than showing this is a league that attracts quality foreign players, is merely adding to the belief of some that MLS is not something to be taken too seriously.

There was one positive for MLS that came out of Sunday’s anti-Beckham protests: the Galaxy fans showed the world that they are not star-struck kids in awe of the celebrity Beckham but are as passionate, loyal — and as rude — as fans anywhere else in the world.

Fans of Manchester United or Real Madrid would not put up with one of their top players spending half the season with another team in another league and Galaxy supporters showed they do not accept such an arrangement either.

Boos and protests, while headline grabbing, are not good for any team or any league. The question now is how long Beckham, Galaxy and the MLS are prepared to let the situation continue.

While new Real Madrid signing Cristiano Ronaldo was being presented in front of a packed and excited Bernabeu, another great European club was dealing with an influx of fans but for a very different reason.

Hundreds of AC Milan ultras turned up at the first day of pre-season training to protest against the sale of Kaka to Real and the lack of major signings to replace him and Paolo Maldini (whose heir as skipper is Massimo Ambrosini…)

They chanted slogans and unfurled banners calling on owner and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to put his hands in his pockets, one placard even ordered him to sell the club.

Milan hit back by pointing out they have been the most successful club in world football during Berlusconi’s 23-year reign. They said Madrid’s spending in the last month is a freak occurrence which no other club would be able to sustain in current times.

Season ticket sales at Milan have dropped 20 percent for next season given Kaka and David Beckham (for now) have gone, Ronaldinho is nowhere near the player he was and only promising youngsters and Brazilian defender Thiago Silva have been brought in.

Can Milan, third in Serie A last term, really compete this season at home and abroad or will Berlusconi come under even more pressure?

Or are the fans being a little bit harsh on Milan and will Florentino Perez’s new gamble at Real really work?

VIDEO: Ronaldo’s arrival at Madrid