AC Milan vs FC Barcelona (1st leg CL)

Let's face it, everybody was shat. Messi, though triple marked, could have made better decisions. Cesc did jack shit. our defence wasn't bad at the beginning and for most of the match. However, we got caught on the break way too often for my liking.

If Milan play like today in the Camp Nou, I don't see us going through.

Barcelona played like Roma Under Enrique

Handball goal, Messi team marked, bad defense, even worse midfield, Iniesta useless on the wing, again. That's pretty much sums the game.

They shut down Messi, they shut down Barcelona. Pretty much sums up today.


While it does show our dependence on Messi, it also shows how great of a player he really is. I mean, it required the whole team on Messi to resolve anything.

Respect to all Barca fans that showed class and real sportsmanship... congrats for the spirit...

Epoto wrote: Barcelona played like Roma Under Enrique

Which is still better than Roma under Zeman, what say?

i just got home

can someone please explain to me as to what the *bleep* happened?

CBarca wrote:i just got home

can someone please explain to me as to what the *bleep* happened?

Worst Barca display since Guardiola took over

only one shot on target and that was a hopeful shot by Xavi from 25 yards out..

ZERO PENETRATION, zero chances.

and no GOAT freekick taker like Bale to bail them out CSpurs

shinigami99 wrote:They shut down Messi, they shut down Barcelona.

I don't really agree with that. Try this. Have five players mark Messi but leave both Xavi and Iniesta without a marker and then see how much trouble we will still cause the opposition team.

Question- I couldn't watch the game obviously.

Right now I feel like murdering an entire village.

Do I watch the game anyway? Or do I spare myself the shame, anger and depression?

I'm a bit glad I wasn't able to watch the game. From the sounds of it, I would have broken things. Still possible.

CBarca wrote:i just got home

can someone please explain to me as to what the *bleep* happened?

Muntari happened brah

I mentioned that our five year long UCL semi final reaching streak will end.

There are three other streaks which will also end. All these are four year streaks.

1. Messi being top scorer in UCL.
2. Messi winning the Ballon D'or
3. Both Xavi and Iniesta placing among the top four players in the world.

Can't say I was surprised by the result. I kinda knew that whoever was in charge of Barca tonight would imitate Guardiola's tactics to the letter. Surely by now, the Barca management should be well aware that their style of play does not work on defensive minded teams? How can someone be this stubborn and think that one style conquers all?

As they say, if you keep doing the same thing, you will keep getting the same results.

horrible tactics and managing, i for sure didnt see any total football tonight, no one was switching positions like they usually do, no hardcore pressing. hell even milan at one point did some impressive pressing. i also thought that we'd have learned something from playing italian teams these past 3 years that its not worth the risk to go all out attacking when playing away since they always and i mean always play catenaccio with fast counters.

The other problem was that the pitch wasnt really groomed for possession football as it was really dry and uneven. I remember last year arsenal had the same problems because of the pitch, except we had it better off than they did.

now we go into the 2nd leg 2 goals down, no away goal and a pretty damn solid italian defence before us. we need to get a goal in before half time and god forbid they they score because then its really over, we would need to score 4 to progress.

messixaviesta wrote:

shinigami99 wrote:They shut down Messi, they shut down Barcelona.

I don't really agree with that. Try this. Have five players mark Messi but leave both Xavi and Iniesta without a marker and then see how much trouble we will still cause the opposition team.

He is correct. Take away Messi, you take away Barca offensive threat. Without Messi, Barca is toothless.

What can you do when you play with 9 players the entire game?

I mean, Cesc and Pedro werent playing where they?

We really dont learn from the failures of the past do we....you cant beat a team who put all 11 behind the ball without forwards on the pitch.

Messi was crap...but of course he was crap, he had noone to pass it to..noone to pass it to against a team with that many men behind the ball, you turn him into a 1 dimensional dribbler with no space to operate.

And superb subs Roura....Tello sitting on the bench the entire game, Thiago never introduced....pathetic.

And yes, its over. I am sure we will put up some kind of fight and we might even score once...but this is done. Rare you see me call it, but I am.

And I finally want to add, this is why you give effort in league games...so you actually have momentuum..so you how sharp you are..you feel in top shape...struggling against fodders because you dont put in effort is no way to go into any big game.

I wont blame it all on Cesc, it clearly aint his fault alone...but I am sick of his face..the very sight of him infuriates me.

Don't even know what to write,there was too many things wrong with our performance today that I would be here 20 minutes explaining it.

Why don't we *bleep* rotate our players when the league is already wrapped up? We looked dead out there.

spanky wrote: i also thought that we'd have learned something from playing italian teams these past 3 years that its not worth the risk to go all out attacking when playing away since they always and i mean always play catenaccio with fast counters.

An excellent point. Only once have we handled this intelligently and that was in the first leg of the UCL semi final of 2010-11 against Real Madrid where we sent them a clear message that if you don't come out and play neither will we. Let us both just do time pass. Doing this tonight would have been so much better than what we actually did.

Brady2Moss wrote:
He is correct. Take away Messi, you take away Barca offensive threat. Without Messi, Barca is toothless.

As I said before I don't agree. If you leave Xavi and Iniesta free and play a striker like David Villa then we will likely win the game against anyone even if its not in as swashbuckling a manner as we do on a Messi full throttle day. That said lets just agree to disagree on that.

When you don't have strikers on the field, THAT is toothless.

There is a big difference between that and being a one man offense...

The Franchise wrote:What can you do when you play with 9 players the entire game?

I mean, Cesc and Pedro werent playing where they?

We really dont learn from the failures of the past do we....you cant beat a team who put all 11 behind the ball without forwards on the pitch.

Messi was crap...but of course he was crap, he had noone to pass it to..noone to pass it to against a team with that many men behind the ball, you turn him into a 1 dimensional dribbler with no space to operate.

And superb subs Roura....Tello sitting on the bench the entire game, Thiago never introduced....pathetic.

And yes, its over. I am sure we will put up some kind of fight and we might even score once...but this is done. Rare you see me call it, but I am.

And I finally want to add, this is why you give effort in league games...so you actually have momentuum..so you how sharp you are..you feel in top shape...struggling against fodders because you dont put in effort is no way to go into any big game.

I wont blame it all on Cesc, it clearly aint his fault alone...but I am sick of his face..the very sight of him infuriates me.

Tello wouldn't have been a wise idea as Abate eats players of his exact type for breakfast. Someone like Villa would have thrived but unfortunately he has his medical problems as of late. Thiago? I agree as I literally forgot Cesc was playing as the Spaniard surely would have taken more initiative within the match.

Not much to discuss for me until my thoughts cool down from the impact of the shock.

Arq I respectful disagree. Becase Tello can also play on the right...but more importantly, the mere fact Abata has to deal with him is enough. With Iniesta, he is in front of him the entire game its he never gets displaced.

To get to goal, we have to move someone from the back 4 from its position...that happened not once today.

It doesnt matter if Abate shut Tello down or not, the fact Tello forces movement is enough..we had none of that.

The Franchise wrote:Arq I respectful disagree. Becase Tello can also play on the right...but more importantly, the mere fact Abata has to deal with him is enough. With Iniesta, he is in front of him the entire game its he never gets displaced.

To get to goal, we have to move someone from the back 4 from its position...that happened not once today.

It doesnt matter if Abate shut Tello down or not, the fact Tello forces movement is enough..we had none of that.

I'm quite clearly talking out of my ass in the aftermath of such a mental impact on me so forgive me for my previous post.

I completely forgot about Tello being able to play on the right yet that isn't important I guess since I didn't calculate Iniesta's role along with Abate's modified role today.

Thinking in retrospect, Tello's sheer movement alone (as you aptly put) not only would have caused disarray in the wide defensive zones but would have compromised what is a CB line (as the structure of the back line) which is prone to heavy off sets of pacy movement whether on the ball and off. Furthermore, you also are correct because within the 4-3-1-2, players like Tello are bound to exploit (indirectly in most cause) the formation and compromise the integrity of the whole back line.

Forgive my ignorance and know that I acknowledge the difference in their roles but wasn't that why Sanchez out come on? Too draw out defenders and cause a semblance of pace reaction within the core of the defence? Where did he fail? Or was his role different?

I'm really to hurt to discuss this game right now. But to any Milan fans, enjoy it. It was a superb performance.

Really crushed though. Placing blame at the feet of individuals isn't correct, the whole team was poor, the attitude was off and there was no hunger.

It hurts me more because I was sure this was going to be our year.

Villa gets rested for precaution but Xavi doesn't? Xavi played for a full 90 minutes... Why? Thiago is having some of his best days this season outshining Cesc week in, week out yet still doesn't get a run out in the big games especially with Xavi just coming back from injury.
Get rid of the extra midfield and bring on the extra attacker for the sake of being more of a threat in front of goal. No Villa, okay bring on Tello who can add an extra dimension with his pace and skill... His movement will trouble the defense considering that we have none of it with the extra mid. As usual the RB in this case Abate had such a comfortable day.
We can't play the offisde trap and the high defensive line because we simply make too many mistakes leaving opposition attacks with so many opportunities to attack goal.

I still think we can turn this around but if we continue with leaving Villa out for the place of Fab then we are going to get knocked out of CL... Hopefully Madrid get knocked out to just feel a little cheery...

Well sadly, once Alexis come on, we had become desperate and lacked the composure needed.

We no longer pinned you in your defensive third. So we never even got to see if that would of worked anyway.

Him or Tello should of started the game..but instead we are ruining this great team by filling it with midfielders.

Also, he himself struggled merely controlling the ball.

My dissapointment in not bringing Tello on also came in the fact Pedro lasted 90 minutes despite literally nothing. Again, Pedro is untouchable for reasons I cannot figure out.

Busquets or Xavi should of also been sacrificed for Thiago, who could offer some dynamic dribbling or actions.

And no need to apologize Arq, its a small thing to misinterpret and after your win, you must be very happy.