[Champions League] Barcelona vs AC Milan

Mascherano had a great game! Do you guys think he can be our full time center back

The Franchise wrote:

I just cant understand the logic behind not using one of Pedro, Cuenca or Tello from the start in favour of Keita and Iniesta with the added bonus of Puyol at leftback/leftcenterback.

I think Pep Started Keita over the others in this line up for a supposed expectation that Milan would play more open attacking play, and are in need of being controlled by holding their play-making, if so, well granted... but during the match we can see that AC took a much more defensive attitude, even if they are Italian champions and at home, most teams use defensive tac's when facing Barca these days, nothing new.

Putting also in mind how big AC's attack / midfield is this year, and also how we did taste some of their poison in the group stage, FCB coaching staff played the less risky method, but as you said, neglected the fact that when we need to organize a wave of attack Keita can be as useful as tits on a bull.

Apart from that fact, the changes made to the formation during the match were minimal.. but had Iniesta been on minty form and Messi been more alert things could have been way more velvety.

i don't care what anybody says, Alexis hasn't proved to have warranted the price we paid for him nor to be Barca "level".

his direct style, bad ball control and bad decision making is not what Barca needs from some one up front. Also he has that Ronaldo attitude that's "going down and dive with any touch and yell foul" attitude. Last night was a clear PK on clear contact, and he decided to still dive and thus is probably why he got nothing

What would alexis do for it to not be a dive in your opinion windkick and Free?

From what I see, alexis leg gets caught by the keeper and when you are running that fast and unbalance and then get your leg caught you fall like that..

Your right he hasnt i love him as a player but he hasnt shone anyway near what hes capable of it hasnt helped Pep keeps playing him as CF but......

Even when hes played outright hes been meh he hasnt tried to dribble anyway he hasnt cut inside and tried to play someone through or any of the abilities hes well capable of bringing to the side.

I dont know if theres anything tactically which is bringing his overall game down but ones thing for sure this isnt the Alexis Sanchez i saw at Udinese or for Chile.

And its such a shame because who didnt watch him before Barca will think he's meh because they will rate him on his Barca's performances alone which admittedly have been well sub par.

I hope he picks it up and shows what hes capable of because it hurts me to see some of the comments about him i dont blame them because they didnt see him much before Barca.

But i hope he picks it up because he is capable of everything i said he is he just isnt showing it for some reason.

What adjustments in line-up would you do in second leg? For me absolute must is Iniesta in the midfield with Busi and Xavi and not wasted on the wing. If Don plays as a winger again, I will be very disappointed. Then, the second priority - Mr Humility on the bench. Iniesta place in the attack from the first leg should be replaced by one of Cesc/Cuenca/Pedro/Tello and we will have a chance to win. Keita in the starting line-up with Iniesta as a winger = another draw IMO.

Adjustments are easy.


Cuenca or Pedro, whichever, for Keita. Iniesta to midfield.


As for Sanchez, I dont disagree with Mole. He can do more.

However, let us not all go too far because he has still provided goals when we have been in great absence of them.

I too want to see the Chile Alexis...we need Bielsa to come and school Pep a little.

But seriously, I have seen this story before. I think, history shows that given time (not just 1 or 2 seasons) players of his age (and even older) can put it all together and show all they have at the biggest level.

I will point to Alex Song, I will point to Koscienly (allbeit faster), I will point to Kompany, I will point to Coloccini, I will point to Benzema and Higuain, I could go on and on....

All these players were "meh" or worse in their first years and all of sudden, put it all together and start playing to a great level...its about not 1, 2 seasons...its about consistent time.

And whats more, Alexis is playing better/giving more than all of these players were in their early years.

I keep hearing Pep is happy with him, so I hope thats true because I buy into his ability.

Dani to be clear i meant in general play, you cant ignore the goals he has scored kept Barca in some games with some key goals.

Also yes he will improve given the time so iam happy Pep is happy with him because like yourself i also buy into his ability.

On another note.. Tello was awesome.. I have a soft spot for this kid, I hope he keeps playing like this.

Giggity5313 wrote:On another note.. Tello was awesome.. I have a soft spot for this kid, I hope he keeps playing like this.

Of course!...The flash is the perfect guy to come on to rape tired full backs with ease. If he develops well, I'm sure he can start as well but right now he is the supersub we have ALL been waiting for. I've never seen the concept of a supersub working so well as the flash has demonstrated on many occasions.

The Flash

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Your right he hasnt i love him as a player but he hasnt shone anyway near what hes capable of it hasnt helped Pep keeps playing him as CF but......

Even when hes played outright hes been meh he hasnt tried to dribble anyway he hasnt cut inside and tried to play someone through or any of the abilities hes well capable of bringing to the side.

I dont know if theres anything tactically which is bringing his overall game down but ones thing for sure this isnt the Alexis Sanchez i saw at Udinese or for Chile.

And its such a shame because who didnt watch him before Barca will think he's meh because they will rate him on his Barca's performances alone which admittedly have been well sub par.

I hope he picks it up and shows what hes capable of because it hurts me to see some of the comments about him i dont blame them because they didnt see him much before Barca.

But i hope he picks it up because he is capable of everything i said he is he just isnt showing it for some reason.

This coment honours you. It is an exercise of realism and non-bias to admit that Alexis has been average considering how strongly you have defended him before.

I wished most people could show this non bias generally.

free_cat wrote:

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:Your right he hasnt i love him as a player but he hasnt shone anyway near what hes capable of it hasnt helped Pep keeps playing him as CF but......

Even when hes played outright hes been meh he hasnt tried to dribble anyway he hasnt cut inside and tried to play someone through or any of the abilities hes well capable of bringing to the side.

I dont know if theres anything tactically which is bringing his overall game down but ones thing for sure this isnt the Alexis Sanchez i saw at Udinese or for Chile.

And its such a shame because who didnt watch him before Barca will think he's meh because they will rate him on his Barca's performances alone which admittedly have been well sub par.

I hope he picks it up and shows what hes capable of because it hurts me to see some of the comments about him i dont blame them because they didnt see him much before Barca.

But i hope he picks it up because he is capable of everything i said he is he just isnt showing it for some reason.

This coment honours you. It is an exercise of realism and non-bias to admit that Alexis has been average considering how strongly you have defended him before.

I wished most people could show this non bias generally.

This sums up my opinion to some extent. I really liked what I'd seen of Alexis, but I'm Serie A ignorant so I hadn't seen too much of him. I like his style of play, which makes me admire him naturally more than say Pedro, who I love of course, but thats because of what he has done for us and because he's from La Masia, and not because of his style. I also admit he hasn't lived up to the hype some applied to him, though I was never convinced by that hype anyway... so I guess I'm less disappointed.

Im not really happy or disappointed in him. Still has plenty of time to win me over.

From mostof what I Read here I totally agree, conclusion was Pep was too cautious, hence Keita all game. Was meh game as a result frm us. Not too hard for Milan, a bit like Inter when we had Iniesta out and Keita played, nothing frm our left. This time we didnt have Abidal, Adriano would have added a lot, but not Puyol. Tello is overrated at times, he was predictable after he came on.

Milan played well defensively though, credit to them. But we were far from ourselves. Return leg, we play normal and we will win.

Great comment by dani. After reading so many posts, whatever little I wanted to add I found dani had already explained very well. Still I will once again mention those points because I felt they were the key.

I think Keita was played because Pep felt that we needed greater physicality to combat Milan's physical play. Unfortunately the price we had to pay for that was huge. Iniesta supposedly started on the left wing. At times though Keita was pushed to left wing to allow Iniesta to participate in midfield. This however did not produce any benefit. Since Puyol played as left back we had very little in terms of forward movement on the left flank. Keita for his part hardly touched the ball when on the left flank. This meant that Iniesta just couldn't leave the left flank and come into midfield. The right and center worked much better. With Dani Alves doing what only he can do on the right side Xavi had the license to control the game from the center. Even on a pitch that poor the maestro played like only he can play.

Hence the first and foremost change that needs to happen for me even before bringing Iniesta into midfield or putting Keita on the bench is having Adriano play as left back. If we can have Tello, Cuenca or Pedro playing as an extra forward or winger, that makes it even better.

I agree with a comment made by a few people here that we were a bit too conservative. We need to think about this more carefully in a generic sense. Should an away team be conservative in the first leg? Actually the away goals rule of UCL adds a real twist to the usual home/away tale. Simply put it becomes more important for an away side to score a goal and for a home side to keep a clean sheet.

As of now I will confess to you all that I am really worried. 0-0 is just not the result I wanted. 1-2 in our favor or even a 1-1 would have been so much better. Yes some of you will say that we are playing at home and will likely win but consider this. We will be playing needing a win against a team that only needs a draw. Our defense at the moment is not convincing me so much that it can prevent us from conceding a goal for any length of time. Hence all Milan needs to do is sneak a goal and then shut up shop after that. On Tuesday night at the end of this game our season could be effectively over. Not sure how many of you agree with me but I think the danger is very real.

That said we can of course win and will still be considered favorites to win by most. What's crucial is that we don't play a single card wrong. It's quite clearly our most important match of the season so far, a red letter moment. I can barely get that thought out of my head and that's been the case during the last few days as well. What makes it worse for me is that the other three quarter final favorites are all in a much better position than us. While Real Madrid, Bayern Munich and Chelsea fans can comparatively relax, we Barcelona fans are holding our hearts.

If Milan get the 1st goal, it becomes 2 years ago vs Inter all over again stylistically....and I am pretty sure the result will be the same.

A valient effort but we go out.

The 1st leg was wasted.

I think Pep has been effected by the 3-1 Inter game and is scared of such a situation again...so he went our version of defensive and we suffered because of it.

Away goals are so important and we got none.


For me, Puyol should again start at leftback. The reason being, when he have the ball we play 3 at the back so if they counter directly we have numerical superority...leaving it 2 v 2 (3 v 3 counting Busquets and Boateng) we will get scored on. If we are going to do this tactic again, and we should, may aswell play Puyol over Adriano.

If we need something later, that sub can be made.

Further forward, our wider pitch will help, not to mention better surface..however, the biggest thing that needs to happen is Pedro/Cuenca starting.

I would actually play Sanchez left, Pedro right...I think both are better with the ball on that side.

I will settle for Sanchez right, Pedro left or Pedro out and Cuenca in.

With Juventus winning at home tonight against Napoli, bianconeri are now only two points behind AC Milan in their chase for the title. This can become a mental (and tactical) disadvantage for Milan when they go out to play in Camp Nou in a couple of days.

not really.....

I don't like the fact if Puyol starts again at left back. We need the attacking options and Adriano is one of those options. I wouldn't be surprised if Cesc will get the bench and play for another 20 minutes though match fitness is everything. With the performance that Inestia showed on the weekend, its clear that his presence in the midfield is essential for the win so having him on that left flank because of the presence of Fabregas will not achieve the result that Pep would want. Bring him on and lets see another scanerio of the Madrid 3-2 win early this season when Fabregas made an instant impact off the bench. I think Pedro will score with 2 goals from Messi. An assist for Fabregas (if he plays). Valdes, Alves, Pique, Puyol, Adriano, Busquests, Xavi, Inestia, Sanchez, Messi and Pedro though we may see Mascherano at centre back with Puyol shifted at left back or Fabregas in the middle with Inestia shifting towards the left with with Pedro or Sanchez rested.

I see what you mean, but I think Barcelona need to be more cautious and not go all-out attack from the start . Remember, if Barcelona concede a goal, their task of qualifying will be twice as hard.

Barcelona need to score an early goal. That will really open up the game for both sides. One goal will not be enough for Barcelona to go through though, seeing Milan can score out of nothing so I can see Barcelona seeking more than one goal in this match. I don't think Milan will have a different approach to the game than the previous match apart from perhaps not pressuring Barcelona so far up the pitch. Maybe they will implement the same strategy as their away game in Camp Nou during group stages; defend and try punishing Barcelona on counters and set-pieces.

All in all, it should be a tough match for both teams and a blast for neutral spectators.

Some rumours regarding Xavi picking up a knock and not being able to train with the rest of the team.

I expect to see this line-up:


Would be a bit disappointed if it wasn't this, though I'd be happy to see Cuenca (or maybe even Thiago) start as a winger. Never been a fan of Puyol as a fullback this year and if Adriano feels good he should play. He's our first choice left-back now so we have to trust him. I thought we didn't exploit the flanks enough last game either.

danyjr wrote:Some rumours regarding Xavi picking up a knock and not being able to train with the rest of the team.

yes i have also seen these rumors, i hope its not true, but then again it could be a good thing if fabregas takes his place in midfield, we will have more width that way.

Missing Xavi can never be a good thing...

Since when does Cesc offer width?.....

Le Samourai wrote:Since when does Cesc offer width?.....

would you rather cesc play in midfield or on the wing

Xavi was your best player(after messi) vs us in the 3 times we have faced each other.Cesc was pretty meh in the other hand