Golden Oldies of Milan

The Milan team that runs out tonight at Fratton Park will probably look very different to the one that beat Liverpool in the Champions League final in Athens last year. Stars like Andrea Pirlo, Gennaro Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, Alessandro Nesta and Paolo Maldini will probably not feature. But the Portsmouth faithful should not be under any illusion that they are witnessing some kind of revolution at the club. That is not the Milan way.

In March, after they were eliminated from the Champions League by Arsenal, the smart money was on coach Carlo Ancelotti getting fired if the team failed to qualify for this season's competition. Football aristocrats like the Brazilian Kaka were fully expected to flee to Real Madrid or Chelsea rather than having to slum it in the Uefa Cup on cold November nights at grounds like Fratton Park, and midfield enforcer Gattuso was making noises about "the challenge of staying motivated after years at one club". With the then 39-year-old Maldini having announced he would retire at the end of the season, wisdom had it that the team was ready for a major revamp, starting with a brutal cull of the remaining thirtysomethings.

Milan duly failed to qualify for the Champions League, finishing fifth in Serie A, and giving teams like Portsmouth a rare opportunity to take on one of European football's elite. But the short odds did not pay out. Ancelotti is still there, now in his eighth season at the club. Kaka and Gattuso are still there and so are the rest of the old guard. Even Maldini, now 40, decided that he could not face retirement just yet. Since Silvio Berlusconi bought Milan in 1986, continuity has been the foundation of the club's success. In those 22 years the club has won two European Cups, three Champions League titles and seven league titles. But unlike most of the businessmen that followed him into calcio, he realised early on that in order to be successful a club needs stability and a long-term plan. Never was this more in evidence than in his decision to hold on to Ancelotti after a season which everybody at the club considered to be a failure.

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The reaction to that failure was typical of a club where results are expected to go hand in hand with entertainment: the signing of 28-year-old Ronaldinho from Barcelona for €18.5m (£15.7m). With Arsenal's impressive performance against Milan in the Champions League having left a profound mark on the club's hierarchy, French midfielder Mathieu Flamini was promptly snapped up on a free transfer and was later joined by defender Philippe Senderos on a season-long loan from Arsenal.

The return of misfiring Ukrainian striker Andrei Shevchenko from exile in west London did little to appease fans, while David Beckham's imminent arrival on a three-month loan is not widely expected to yield rewards on the pitch. Two games into the new season – a 2-1 home defeat to Bologna and a 2-0 defeat away at Genoa – and the end-of-an-era theorists were looking smug. But since then the team is unbeaten in 15 games in the league and the Uefa Cup, racking up 12 wins and three draws. The recovery began with a 4-1 victory over high-flying Lazio and included a morale-boosting 1-0 victory over Jose Mourinho's Internazionale. Milan currently lie second in Serie A, three points behind Inter.

The Arsenal contingent has yet to make its mark. Flamini has started just seven of 13 league games and will find it even harder to pin down a starting role with the return of Pirlo from injury. Along with a plainly unfit Ronaldinho, and Shevchenko, he was substituted in the poor performance against Genoa and then dropped for the Lazio game. A back injury and a dislocated toe for the error-prone Senderos have so far restricted the player to just one appearance for the Rossoneri.

Seedorf has been impressed with Flamini but warned that he will have to adapt to Italian refereeing. "In the first days that he was here I took him under my wing a bit. He's a very smart guy. He will definitely add value to the team. He's a really hard worker and we are really happy with him. The referees in Italy are very different to the ones in England – that's one of the things he has to work most on, otherwise he will be seeing a lot of yellow cards." Having trained so little with Senderos, Seedorf was more reticent about him. "I imagine he is a hard worker because of his mentality." Early doubts about Ronaldinho have quickly evaporated.

As well as notching match-winning goals against Inter and Napoli, his all-round contribution has steadily improved as he has adapted to sharing the billing in the fantasy stakes with fellow Brazilians Kaka and Alexandre Pato. The club considers him to be only 60 per cent fit and does not expect to see the best of him until next year but the fans have already been won over by his trademark tricks and toothy grin.

Inter's 1-0 victory over Juventus last week confirmed Mourinho's side as favourites to retain the title and for most commentators Juve's limitations suggest that Milan is the team best equipped to provide a challenge.

Former Milan and Italy coach Arrigo Sacchi is not convinced, however, that bags of Brazilian fantasy are enough in modern football. His assessment of the Milan side should provide optimism that Portsmouth's aggression and direct approach could cause an upset tonight.

"The team has great technique and a brilliant ability to move the ball around and keep possession but sometimes they put technique ahead of other factors," Sacchi said. "They don't always play with the same level of desire. Only in the top games do Milan really play total football."