Soccer Uefa Champions League:If you want to make AC Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti smile, just tell him the reigning European champions look to have an ageing, perhaps too old squad and one which has not really been adequately strengthened this summer, writes Paddy Agnew.

As the Champions League holders prepare the defence of their title with a home game tonight against Benfica, Ancelotti is looking and sounding ominously confident. Talking to The Irish Times last week at Milan's legendary lair, the Milanello training centre, Ancelotti put it this way: "The mistake everyone makes is to think this is an old team, but I say perhaps we haven't even reached full maturity yet. I am happy that people think that.

"We have players like Oddo and Jankulovski who were in their first European season last year and then we have a backbone to the team, guys like Gattuso and Pirlo, who are just now at their full maturity. When I look forward to this season, I get a distinctly positive feeling. Our win in the Champions League was a huge stimulus, it does so much for us."

Ancelotti and AC Milan are no strangers to international success. Yet the bad news for rivals all across Europe is the seven-times Champions Cup/Champions League winners have not finished yet, at least according to their coach: "We start off every season wanting to win everything but the Champions League is something special, it's part of our DNA."

Ancelotti is the first to admit this time 12 months ago, things were not looking good. Injuries, the negative fallout from the "calciopoli" match-fixing scandal, post-World Cup blues for key players and the sale of talisman Andriy Shevchenko to Chelsea all left their mark. Milan struggled in Serie A and wound up their Champions League group with two defeats, being beaten 1-0 by AEK Athens in Athens and 2-0 by French side Lille at the San Siro.

"It's always our hope to win the Champions League but last season we pulled it off in the midst of many difficulties. At one stage, there was the risk this Milan might have finished its cycle but the players came good. The turning point was undoubtedly the second leg against Bayern (2-0 quarter-final away win for Milan). For me this was the most difficult Champions League campaign of all but for that reason the most satisfying, the best win of my career."

If the return game against Bayern was the turning point, the 3-0 semi-final second-leg win against Manchester United was probably Milan's best performance of the season, says Ancelotti. Victories against United and against Liverpool in the final went some way to laying the ghost of one of the most embarrassing defeats Milan ever suffered - that 2006 Champions League final against Liverpool in Istanbul. Ancelotti does not deny this but curiously recalls the Istanbul final as "one of the best games ever played" by his Milan. Except for the result, of course.

As Milan prepare for the season, there are those only too willing to predict the European champions will fall flat on their faces. Critics point to the Milan attack and predict serious problems - Ronaldo is injured and could be out for some while; Gilardino is sorely out of form; and even Pippo Inzaghi cannot keep going for ever.

Ancelotti does not seem worried, pointing out he has the club's one significant signing of the summer, Brazilian 18-year-old Pato (bought from Internacional Porto Alegre for €22 million) up his sleeve: "Ronaldo's problems are a short-term thing. As for Gilardino and Inzaghi, I'm more than happy with them. Remember too that from January on we'll have Pato, a player who represents an investment for the future."

One player missing tonight will be 39-year-old Paolo Maldini, who is injured. He will be back before long says Ancelotti, adding Maldini gets his team place "because he deserves it". Milan will line up tonight with Oddo, Nesta,Kaladze and Jankulovski forming the back four. The familiar trio of Pirlo, Gattuso and Ambrosini make up midfield. Kaka and Clarence Seedorf play behind Inzaghi in attack.

Familiar names with a familiar man in charge. Ancelotti is heading into his seventh season at Milan. In Serie A, that is a seriously long tenure. To what does he owe this longevity? "I have been lucky to work with clubs that gave me time, Parma, Juventus and Milan. But then, the results help too."

Sure, one league title and two Champions League trophies in the last five seasons are bound to help.

Group D AC Milan v Benfica Venue: San Siro Kick-off: 7.45pm