Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan vs Pep Guardiola's Barcelona

Head-to-heads and key battles

Victor Valdes is by no means a perfect goalkeeper, but he is superior to Milan's weak link - Italy's 1986 World Cup flop Giovanni Galli, who never convinced. Dani Alves is better than Tassotti going forward, but as an all-round full back the Italian wins. Franco Baresi is arguably the best centre-back of all time (certainly at his peak, which he was in 1989 and 1990), while Alessandro Costacurta was part of an Italian golden era of stoppers and forged a telepathic partnership with his captain. Barcelona's weakest area is at left-back, and none of their options come close to the indomitable Paolo Maldini. As a unit, Sacchi's Milan are regarded as the greatest club defence of all time. They conceded just 14 league goals in their Scudetto winning-campaign of 1987-88, and just one goal from the quarter-finals onwards in the European Cup success a year later. In 89-90, the San Siro giants let in just three goals in nine matches.

Barcelona shipped 14 in 08-09 and nine in 10-11, although they did play six and four more games respectively. With modern defences probably the weakest they have been for 50 years, there is no doubt that Barcelona – despite a whopping 99 Champions League goals in the Guardiola era - will never have faced a defence even close to as good as Sacchi's Milan, and Messi will never have encountered a marker quite like Baresi. Gullit and Van Basten, on the other hand, would have overcome defences superior to Barcelona's in Serie A, and would fancy their chances against Gerard Pique and Javier Mascherano or Carles Puyol, if isolated.

But in midfield Barcelona would have the upper hand – which as a result would protect their defence. Xavi is probably the best dictator and dominator there has ever been – his partnership and understanding with Iniesta would ensure that Barcelona controlled much of the possession. If the game was played in 2011, these two creative geniuses would find an opening to unlock the Milan defence. In 1989, Baresi's offside trap would pose the diminutive duo an interesting question.

Milan would contain more width than Barcelona. Donadoni would cause havoc down Barcelona's left side, ably supported by Tassotti, and would do the same along with Maldini when regularly drifting to the left. Barca's full-backs would struggle to penetrate going the other way. Tassotti was by no means the model right-back individually but he would cope with any forward runs from an Abidal, Maxwell or Adriano, while the rampant Dani Alves would not bypass the world's greatest ever left-back in Maldini, a phenomenon from his teenage years.

Barcelona's best offensive weapon would be Messi dropping into the hole to take advantage of the space in front of the Milan back four. While Rijkaard and Ancelotti would both take turns in sitting deep, 20 years ago there wasn't the emphasis there is now on an anchor man. Milan would aim to stop Messi as a team via their pressing system, which as already explained would be infinitely less successful in 2011 than in 1989.

On corners and set-pieces, Milan would be the more equipped. Barcelona have a small side, with only Pique, Abidal, Busquets and Mascherano/Puyol able to seriously challenge on high balls. The entire Milan back four, plus the three Dutchmen were all outstanding in the air, and would expect to threaten the opposition at dead balls. On direct free kicks, neither side possesses a true specialist, while on the counter attack both XIs boast an abundance of pace.

In terms of squad depth, 99 per cent of top clubs have much bigger rosters today than they did two decades ago. Ironically, Barcelona do not, yet they would still have slightly more quality to come off the bench than Milan as they could (in 2011) call on the services of Alexis Sanchez, Thiago Alcantara, Seydou Keita and Ibrahim Afellay among others, whereas Milan (1989) would turn to Daniele Massaro, Pietro Paolo Virdis, Alberigo Evani, Filippo Galli and Roberto Mussi before having to use youngsters.




`Full Article Here: http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/editorial/2011/11/23/2767812/arrigo-sacchis-ac-milan-vs-pep-guardiolas-barcelona-the?utm_source=twitterfeed&utm_medium=twitter

Messiwouldnt be. Problem, Anyone tht watched Sachs Milan would know they were probably the best parsing side in the last 20+ years. They took care of maRadona with their zonal marking. The biggest issue would be the offside rule. barcelona would beat Milan if they played under today's rules simply because of that. The balls are almost completely different, comparing them is just too hard IMO. barca would win under today's rules. They would play the diagonal balls to their forwards like they do because of the change in offside

I don't think it's possible to compare the actual teams given the difference in times, but as far as success goes, Sacchi's team was less succesful than ours, and that's the only objective way of comparing the quality of the teams. That being said, Barca have the benefit of having the best player of their generation, whereas Milan played against him.

Both with best XI and on peak form? Barca would walk it.

peak form for a 2011 side cannot compared to peak form of a 1990 side.
really no valid comparisons can be made.
both amazing teams

Cant compare em! atleast Sacchis Milan were charismatic good looking men muhahahha :dance:

Gulit and Rijkard are not exactly the wet dream of every girl.
Amazing players though

jibers wrote:Messiwouldnt be. Problem, Anyone tht watched Sachs Milan would know they were probably the best parsing side in the last 20+ years. They took care of maRadona with their zonal marking. The biggest issue would be the offside rule. barcelona would beat Milan if they played under today's rules simply because of that. The balls are almost completely different, comparing them is just too hard IMO. barca would win under today's rules. They would play the diagonal balls to their forwards like they do because of the change in offside

There has not been any significant change in offside rule since 1925. In 1990 they only changed that the attacker had to be positioned slightly in front of the second last defender, to allow him to be level to the second last defender. Only inches. Not even something that referees can really notice.

The 1990 change is not even mentioned in FIFA history of rules.

http://www.fifa.com/classicfootball/history/law/summary.html

We would crush 1990 Sachis team easily: pass the ball to Messi in the hole, turn around dribling Ancelotti/Rijkaard, and knock a killer ball to Pedro or Villa coming from deep while Baresi is pushing uselessly forward. Repeat until we are leading by 4-5 goals.

Oh, and some of the man to man comparisons in the article are a joke. Tasotti and Costacurta were never great players. Not in the level of Dani Alves or Pique/Puyol at all. And they don't even compare the attacking positions, where Barça is ahead of Sachi's Milan.

Nowadays I have not been following Goal.com on a regular basis. So thanks to this thread I got to read this article. Some views may be debatable but I do think it's a well pieced out article. My biggest objection actually comes right in the beginning of the article. I don't think we can say by consensus Sacchi's Milan are our greatest challengers. Di Stefano's Real Madrid, Cruyff's Ajax, Pele's Santos and a few others need to be looked at more closely.

At our supreme attacking best,with Xavi controlling the pace of the game and dominating the midfield,with Iniesta going on those mesmerizing runs,with Messi at his lethal unstoppable best I truly believe that no team in history is a match for us.
So at our best I would pick our side to win comfortably.

i m surprised some of u even compare and say ur current team would walk away with easy win against our legendary team.

it is about respecting the legends, just as one day ur current team will be respected as legends in the future. or would anyone of u like to hear something as if, there were to exist even more better team than current barca side and some fans would say our team is better and would win easily against that legendary barca team of 2008-2011..??

u simply cant compare and judge the team that is history, and legendary to the one that is currently the best team in the world now. everyone admits barca is the current best time in the world, what else more do u guys want?

ur team has already been admired, respected as current best, but wanting for more, by comparing current best club, to the previous best team of 1990s milan side is just i dont know what to say, lack of respect....

Yeah...its not disrespectful to say we are better then that Milan team, its an opinion which can be right or wrong. Just because we feel we are better doesnt make it disrespectful at all.

If you want less bias opinion goes to the general section? I have heard it all now lol


Less bias opinions on Barca.....on the general section...my brain cannot fathom the thinking behind that one.

The Franchise wrote:
If you want less bias opinion goes to the general section?