MILAN, Italy - AC Milan midfielder Clarence Seedorf admitted fortune favoured the Italian giants in Tuesday's 2-0 home win over PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final.
Milan took a giant step towards their second final in three seasons thanks to goals from Andriy Shevchenko and Jon Dahl Tomasson, but they were lucky to survive a second-half onslaught from the recently-crowned Dutch champions.
"We had a bit of luck, but without luck you will never go far," Seedorf said.
"In the return leg we will have to play much better. It's going to be tough in Holland as they will have the crowd behind them, but we have put ourselves in a strong position."
Paolo Maldini believes PSV will use a direct approach to goal in the second leg rather than play the neat one-touch football that exposed the normally solid Milan defence time after time at the San Siro.
"They are a well organised team that defend as a team and attack as a team, but I think they will play differently in the return match," said the Milan captain.
"I expect them to play with one tall centre-forward and I think they will use plenty of long balls."
Milan are currently joint top of Serie A together with Juventus and Maldini sees no reason why his side can't win the Scudetto and the Champions League.
"We are in great shape. This is a squad that can win everything and these final steps will be the most difficult," he said.
PSV Eindhoven coach Guus Hiddink was left to rue his team's poor finishing with Park Ji-Sung, Jefferson Farfan and Mark van Bommel all spurning gilt-edged opportunities.
"We created six or seven chances against one of the best organised defences in the world," said the former Real Madrid and Dutch national team coach, who led South Korea to the semi-finals of the 2002 World Cup in Asia where they beat Italy in round two.
"We controlled the second half but we didn't punish them and they were more clinical in front of goal - that was the difference between the two sides.
"We were up against one of the powerhouses of European football and if they had dominated from start to finish the result would have been easier to take.
"That wasn't the case, so obviously we're disappointed. However, we are not surrending that easily - we owe it to our loyal supporters and to Dutch football."

04/27/2005 10:01 GMT