Deportivo La Coruña 0 - AC Milan 4

Deportivo: Juanmi; Scaloni, Naybet, César, Romero; Mauro Silva (Donato 79'), Toro Acuña (Duscher 64'); Víctor, Sergio, Fran (Diego Tristán 64'); Makaay. 4-2-3-1.
Milan: Dida; Simic, Nesta, Maldini, Kaladze; Gattuso, Pirlo (Ambrosini 65'), Seedorf, Rivaldo, Rui Costa (Dalla Bona 85'); Inzaghi (Tomasson 80'). 4-3-2-1.

Goals:
0-1. 17. Seedorf. Took pass from Rui Costa and ran on to shoot wide of Juanmi.
0-2. 33. Inzaghi. Beat keeper at second attempt after Simic cross not cleared.
0-3. 56. Inzaghi. Controlled pass from Rui Costa and shot wide of Juanmi.
0-4. 63. Inzaghi. Ran on to long ball to shoot into bottom corner of net.

Deportivo La Coruña were completely outclassed by an AC Milan side who gave the Gallicians a thrashing in their own Riazor stadium. It was a complete turnaround from last week's victory at Bayern Munich, and leaves the "group of death" wide open once again. The man who did the damage was Italian striker Inzaghi, who scored a hat-trick without any apparent opposition from a defence in complete disarray.

Seedorf set the scene though with the opening goal with a quarter of an hour gone, taking a pass from Rui Costa and running past Rivaldo's dummy to fire a shot wide of Juanmi. Inzaghi made it two before the break after an attempt by Acuña to cut out Simic's cross left the ball at his feet, the centre forward tucking the ball away at the second attempt after Juanmi blocked his first effort.

Deportivo were sorely missing their midfield star Valerón, who will be out for two months after breaking his leg last Saturday, and although his replacement Sergio put in an enthusiastic performance, he was lacking the class to find a way through a defence marshalled by living legends Maldini and Nesta. The midfielder shot wildly over the bar on two occasions after making himself space, and Scaloni also squandered a good chance before the break when given time to pick his spot.

Early in the second half a lapse of concentration by Dida gave away an indirect free kick on the edge of the box, but Fran's shot was blocked. That was the end of Depor's challenge, and Inzaghi scored twice more in a seven minute period, both from precision passes by Rui Costa, to complete his hat-trick.

Irureta belatedly brought on Diego Tristán together with Duscher, and the striker felt he should have had a penalty a few minutes later. However the Spaniards were taking risks, and Inzaghi should have had a second hat-trick had he converted all the chances which came his way, in particular an open goal from two yards out which he amazingly fired at the crossbar.

Even when he went off his substitute Tomasson should have added another, and a quiet Rivaldo (who was whistled at every time he touched the ball) brought a last minute save out of Juanmi. A match to forget for Deportivo, but with Lens and Bayern Munich only drawing they are still second in the table. They do need to find a solution to the Valerón problem for next week's game against Lens though, or they can wave goodbye to the second stage. How things can change in six days.