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Friday December 7, 4:15 PM AC Milan see Club World Cup as season's goal Photo: AFP Click to enlarge YOKOHAMA, Japan (AFP) - AC Milan insisted Friday the Club World Cup was as important to them as the Champions League, and winning it was their major goal of the season. "We have prepared for months to compete in the Club World Cup. We feel as tense as in the Champions League final and we think this is equally important," vice president Adriano Galliani said. With the Serie-A looking more and more like a two-horse race between Inter Milan and AS Roma, he added that winning the Club World Cup was crucial. "We have a whole week to get rid of the jet-lag and we will make every effort to win this demanding event," he said. "We regard this as the biggest goal of the season." The tournament of continental champions was to kick off in Tokyo Friday evening with a preliminary play-off between Iran's Sepahan and Waitakere United of New Zealand. Milan arrived Thursday and went straight into a light workout, just two days after beating Celtic 1-0 in a Champions League game with striker Filippo Inzaghi scoring a record-breaking 63rd goal in European competition. It was a surprisingly early arrival for the Champions League and Super Cup winners, who have a bye into the semi-finals on Thursday next week. The other semi-final seeds, South American champions Boca Juniors of Argentina, arrived early Friday. In the past European clubs, busy at the height of Champions League and domestic action, have usually arrived just days before their first match. South American clubs have traditionally been more enthusiastic about the three-year-old Club World Cup and its predecessor the Intercontinental Cup, contested between the champions of Europe and South America. "The tough schedule has made European players ill-prepared and allowed South Americans to win more times," Galliani said. "We have brought here about 70 percent of the team and we want to put on Milan's best show." Brazilian clubs have dominated the last two editions of the tournament with Sao Paulo beating Liverpool 1-0 in 2005 and Internacional whipping Barcelona by the same score last year. Milan said they were hungry to avenge Boca, who beat them on penalties in the 2003 Intercontinental Cup final. Each club won the Intercontinental Cup three times. "We reached the final but could not beat them last time. We could not help it as luck played a part," said Milan captain and defender Paolo Maldini. "We want to win this time and even the score." Milan coach Carlo Ancelotti said he was taking nothing for granted against Boca or any other opponents. Japan's Urawa Reds will face on Monday the winners of the Sepahan-Waitakere play-off on Milan's side of the tournament. Boca will take on the winners of Sunday's quarter-final between Tunisia's Etoile Sehal and Pachuca of Mexico. "I have studied each team and I will see them play in the coming few days. So I'm not worried about mapping out our strategy," said Ancelotti. "But there's Boca and other teams who are formidable." He noted that Urawa Reds, who won their first AFC Champions League title this year but lost their J-League crown, had a fine coach in German Holger Osieck and a dangerous Brazilian defender in Marcus Tulio Tanaka. "They are a team to be reckoned with," Ancelotti said.