The Tipster: Crunch time

Prepare to go out with a bang as the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League Fantasy Football season draws to a close this week with the semi-final second-leg matches.

Considerable pressure
Apply all the lessons learned since September, and your team should do well. Remember as always to make any changes to your team before the deadline, which is Tuesday at 19:30CET.

Close result
Last week's 0-0 stalemate provides few clues as to which way Tuesday's match between Internazionale FC and AC Milan will go, but an event of this magnitude is likely to produce another close result. A final look at this season's statistics shows that Milan players consistently score more Fantasy Football points than Inter players.

Defensive strength
Further forward, Milan trio Paolo Maldini, Alessandro Nesta and Kakha Kaladze are all in the top five of the defenders' table. However, both Milanese clubs are poorly represented in the game's midfield player table, even if Rui Costa comes in fourth, well ahead of Inter's top midfielder Luigi Di Biagio in eleventh position. In attack, Filippo Inzaghi takes third place and Hernán Crespo fifth.

Resilience tells
Tipster feels that these statistics reflect Milan's more impressive start to the competition, when coach Carlo Ancelotti's troops were sweeping aside the likes of FC Bayern München and RC Deportivo La Coruña. Inter, however, have since shown that resilience can go a long way to compensating for greater panache.  If Tuesday's result reflects this season's statistics, Milan will go through. Tipster, however, recommends that statistical concerns should not necessarily cause a rethink, and that Inter fans should stick to their guns.

Vieri absent
When it comes to injuries, Inter certainly have had some problems of late compared to their rivals. Christian Vieri is now certain to miss the second leg, so Mohamed Kallon may be a good bet. The striker has just returned to fitness, playing the last 20 minutes of the first leg and scoring Inter's goal in the 1-1 draw with Parma AC on Saturday.

Still open
Last week's 2-1 victory for Real Madrid CF against Juventus FC, who wrapped up the Serie A title this weekend, leaves the door wide open for either team to progress from Wednesday's match in Turin.  The fact that Juventus have thirteen players scoring more that 25 points, and Madrid only nine, may go to show that the Italians have a more balanced team.

Madrid woe
The chances of a Juventus win have been improved with the news that the prospect of Ronaldo recovering from his calf strain in time to feature in the game have been described as "almost impossible". Zinedine Zidane is suffering from back pain and Luis Figo has a minor groin strain while Raúl González is still recovering from an appendix operation. To make matters worse, midfield man Claude Makelele is out for two weeks after injuring a thigh muscle on Saturday.

Suspended players
Juventus pair Ciro Ferrara and Mark Iuliano are the only two players suspended for this week's action after both were booked in Madrid last time out. They will now serve one-match suspensions but the Italian side will be able to call on Edgar Davids, Paolo Montero and Alessio Tacchinardi who return from similar bans.

Click here to pick your team.