AC Milan vs FC Barcelona - aftermath

The truth is Barcelona could've won this game had they bothered to put any serious effort into it, they got frustrated too easily, lost concentration and eventually lost the game.

Hearing rumours that some players dont agree on tactics from Roura. Hope this doesnt escalate and tears our team apart, like it did at RM earlier this season. Hoping Roura steps up his game and brings better tactics.

Forza Rossoneri wrote:This was not parking the bus. Parking the bus is becoming this slanderous term cooked up by possession based sides in a feeble attempt to exonerate themselves from the result of the game... "we lost, but they parked the bus".

The fact is that you would be stupid not to get the whole team behind the ball in many situations against a possession based side! However, we did not play some kind of unsophisticated tactical stopgap which consisted of a defensive blockade and long balls to a target man. No, we played good football. We attacked well and we defended well. We got more shots and made the better chances than Barcelona. And that is no crime. Far from it. Milan were exemplary.

Good point.That's what Chelsea done last year and they fluked a victory,thanks to our ineptness in front of goal and two moments of poor defending.Chelsea just put bodys behind the ball and hoped for the best,when Italian teams defend it is an art.Serie A teams have a much better understanding of space on average than any other league and always have done.Against a team like Barca this works perfectly,but against other teams this Catenaccio doesn't work quite as well as the other team can bypass the midfield and defense with long balls/crosses.

Rossoneri Ninja wrote:The truth is Barcelona could've won this game had they bothered to put any serious effort into it, they got frustrated too easily, lost concentration and eventually lost the game.

Like I already said, against a parked bus, you need luck and if you don't have luck you will most likely lose, especially if its the other team who get's the lucky break. None of that would have change if the players put more effort into it..

If you're playing like Barca, you make the opponent "park the bus", as you chose to call it.

When you lose possession that little, there is just no point to leave a lot of players in your half to lurk for counter attacks, also, Barcas incredible focus on keeping possession, even ahead of creating chances, means that more often than not it's easy for your opponents to bring all 10 outfield players behind the ball after they fail in an attack, simply because you tend to not move the ball forward that fast.

Everything about Barcas tactic makes it a) easy and b) smart to move all field players in a defensive position. It doesn't even mean they need to be positioned overly defensive, but while your midfield casually tiki-takas over hte pitch, I would sure as f*ck run back to cover my back four as well if I was a midfielder playing against Barca.

Forget the handball, even though it could be the key moment to qualify. We deserved to get both goals. We created 0 chances. We did not deserve to win whatsoever. Milan may have parked the buss, but they were the one who were creating chances and being dangerous and they got the result they deserved.

Inter, Chelsea have done it among others. But on these games luck played a role. Here, Milan left no room for luck. They totally shut Barca down. I have never seen such a poor display from us (at least not since Pep took the team), and this is because Milan played great. That is why i do not even feel angry about the handball. With or without it, a team that has no clear chance does deserve to get calls go against it, no matter the tactics employed.

harhar11 wrote:

Forza Rossoneri wrote:This was not parking the bus. Parking the bus is becoming this slanderous term cooked up by possession based sides in a feeble attempt to exonerate themselves from the result of the game... "we lost, but they parked the bus".

The fact is that you would be stupid not to get the whole team behind the ball in many situations against a possession based side! However, we did not play some kind of unsophisticated tactical stopgap which consisted of a defensive blockade and long balls to a target man. No, we played good football. We attacked well and we defended well. We got more shots and made the better chances than Barcelona. And that is no crime. Far from it. Milan were exemplary.

No one here is saying that Barca were the better side nor are we saying that its a crime to park the bus. We are just laughing at those picture. And yes, you got more shots but that's because when you attacked you had to face 3 defenders, while we had to face... [picture of bus] ...big difference, no?

You say that it's not a crime to park the bus, yet within that rhetorical question at the end (whether you realised it or not as you wrote it) was exactly the kind of excuse I am talking about. Our tactics are being used an excuse for Barca not getting more shots than Milan in your question. The whole paradigm has to change. Getting men behind the ball is not an ugly thing and it is not 'parking the bus' if it is done with technique and tactical nous.

Inter didn't get lucky though...

"Parking the bus" under any other name would still be just as boring

Still, credit where credit is due

Fair point Har

I was merely pointing to the fact that Barcelona hardly sped up their play in the second half. The tempo was relatively slow , Xavi was hardly incisive with his passing nor willing to advance higher up he pitch. I hardly believe Barca gave everything on the pitch, sometimes when you work very hard you tend to get lucky.

With that said, i expect Barca to be a much more potent force in the second leg.

Forza Rossoneri wrote:

harhar11 wrote:

Forza Rossoneri wrote:This was not parking the bus. Parking the bus is becoming this slanderous term cooked up by possession based sides in a feeble attempt to exonerate themselves from the result of the game... "we lost, but they parked the bus".

The fact is that you would be stupid not to get the whole team behind the ball in many situations against a possession based side! However, we did not play some kind of unsophisticated tactical stopgap which consisted of a defensive blockade and long balls to a target man. No, we played good football. We attacked well and we defended well. We got more shots and made the better chances than Barcelona. And that is no crime. Far from it. Milan were exemplary.

No one here is saying that Barca were the better side nor are we saying that its a crime to park the bus. We are just laughing at those picture. And yes, you got more shots but that's because when you attacked you had to face 3 defenders, while we had to face... [picture of bus] ...big difference, no?

You say that it's not a crime to park the bus, yet within that rhetorical question at the end (whether you realised it or not as you wrote it) was exactly the kind of excuse I am talking about. Our tactics are being used an excuse for Barca not getting more shots than Milan in your question. The whole paradigm has to change. Getting men behind the ball is not an ugly thing and it is not 'parking the bus' if it is done with technique and tactical nous.

I only used that picture to show just why it was harder for Barca to create chances/shots than it was for Milan, not to say that those tactics are a crime..

Rossoneri Ninja wrote:Fair point Har

I was merely pointing to the fact that Barcelona hardly sped up their play in the second half. The tempo was relatively slow , Xavi was hardly incisive with his passing nor willing to advance higher up he pitch. I hardly believe Barca gave everything on the pitch, sometimes when you work very hard you tend to get lucky.

With that said, i expect Barca to be a much more potent force in the second leg.

Xavi has been like that for a while now, although every now and then he will turn back the years like against Italy at EURO's. But, I myself was a annoyed with that last night.

Maybe if Barca tried to get shots outside the box, they could have got a goal..
They had the same problem last year against Chelsea, always trying to pass the ball to death, which results in no chances at all against any good defense. This tiki taka style f*cked up their mind, seriously, can't do anything else.

worms wrote:Inter didn't get lucky though...

Excatly, Chelsea got lucky last year while Milan and Inter deserved their win..

dronte wrote:Maybe if Barca tried to get shots outside the box, they could have got a goal..
They had the same problem last year against Chelsea, always trying to pass the ball to death, which results in no chances at all against any good defense. This tiki taka style f*cked up their mind, seriously, can't do anything else.

Or maybe if they tried to shoot outside the box, one of the 10 defenders would block the shot and resulting in a counter for Milan?
To much passes is not good, but taking stupid shots without any chance of getting past the first defender is even worse...

Don't know why you use Chelsea seeing as last season we created lots of chances, including 4 shots on the post..

harhar11 wrote:

worms wrote:Inter didn't get lucky though...

Excatly, Chelsea got lucky last year while Milan and Inter deserved their win..

Agreed. Even I cringe when Chelsea fans act like their win was a tactical masterplan or a defensive masterpiece. It was the luckiest match I've ever seen lol

Se7en wrote:

harhar11 wrote:

worms wrote:Inter didn't get lucky though...

Excatly, Chelsea got lucky last year while Milan and Inter deserved their win..

Agreed. Even I cringe when Chelsea fans act like their win was a tactical masterplan or a defensive masterpiece. It was the luckiest match I've ever seen lol

It was not just that game, they were lucky the entire campaign! They were outplayed in almost all the games in the knock-out stages!

dronte wrote:Maybe if Barca tried to get shots outside the box, they could have got a goal..
They had the same problem last year against Chelsea, always trying to pass the ball to death, which results in no chances at all against any good defense. This tiki taka style f*cked up their mind, seriously, can't do anything else.

Not really.....

Against Chelsea and Inter they created chances especially against Chelsea when they probably created more than 15 chances over the two legs.

This was different and never happened before as they limited them to no chances.

Against Inter and Chelsea those teams had to rely on a bit of luck now and again and their GK had to come up with outstanding saves during the games.

Abbiati could have sat down got his iphone out and tweeted Boateng that his haircut is gay and still got a cleansheet.

Entirely different.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

dronte wrote:Maybe if Barca tried to get shots outside the box, they could have got a goal..
They had the same problem last year against Chelsea, always trying to pass the ball to death, which results in no chances at all against any good defense. This tiki taka style f*cked up their mind, seriously, can't do anything else.

Not really.....

Against Chelsea and Inter they created chances especially against Chelsea when they probably created more than 15 chances over the two legs.

This was different and never happened before as they limited them to no chances.

Against Inter and Chelsea those teams had to rely on a bit of luck now and again and their GK had to come up with outstanding saves during the games.

Abbiati could have sat down got his iphone out and tweeted Boateng that his haircut is gay and still got a cleansheet.

Entirely different.

Great Leader Sprucenuce wrote:

dronte wrote:Maybe if Barca tried to get shots outside the box, they could have got a goal..
They had the same problem last year against Chelsea, always trying to pass the ball to death, which results in no chances at all against any good defense. This tiki taka style f*cked up their mind, seriously, can't do anything else.

Not really.....

Against Chelsea and Inter they created chances especially against Chelsea when they probably created more than 15 chances over the two legs.

This was different and never happened before as they limited them to no chances.

Against Inter and Chelsea those teams had to rely on a bit of luck now and again and their GK had to come up with outstanding saves during the games.

Abbiati could have sat down got his iphone out and tweeted Boateng that his haircut is gay and still got a cleansheet.

Entirely different.

This!!! Others have done it, but it could have gone either way in those games. Milan has done it perfectly. That is the difference!!!

Collblanc wrote:Hearing rumours that some players dont agree on tactics from Roura.

Good. Hes clueless.

I am never one for club mutinies over a coach, but the level of stupidity required to play the way we have done is outstanding.

SMH at the Barca should shoot more, Barca make teams park the bus yada yada that comes after every lose. These old arguements have already been put to bed long ago.

the thing which will be interesting for me, if milan goes through, i guess no other team will want to play against them. Also interesting will be keeping in mind the game of barca vs milan, what tactics will coaches employ if any team meets ac milan in QF or SF

Barcelona stand-in head coach Jordi Roura is still confident his side will progress to the Champions League quarter-final stage, despite Wednesday's 2-0 defeat to AC Milan.

Although the 45-year-old admitted it was "a bad result", he has no doubt it will be a very different game in the return leg at Camp Nou.

“If any team deserves to have credit, it’s this one [Barcelona]. We can make it through to the next round. These players will get the result,” he told the club's official website.

“We’re convinced that we’ll make it through to the next round in Barcelona. We’re playing at home, the people will support us and the pitch will be in optimal condition."

Roura did, however, feel the result was not a fair reflection of the pattern of the game, and he also spoke of his dissatisfaction with the state of the San Siro pitch.

“It wasn’t our best match. However, seeing how the game played out, the result is a bit excessive," he continued.

"In the first half we controlled most of the play and then they had two chances and scored. The first, taking advantage of a rebound and the second on the counter.

“The pitch was a potato field. It was improper for a match of this nature.”

The second leg takes place on Tuesday, March 12.

A team playing like this doesn't deserve credit.

The reactions from the Barca players were classy. Roura is butthurt his "tactics" were shite.

I blame our lack of girt. We never tried to play a bold pass or a risky drive (other than Messi). As per usual we were searching for the safe pass moving the ball around the box without creating any real chances. One would have thought that after so many games against defensive sides we would have learnt a thing or two by now.

In addition to that and without any intention to take anything from Milan, our players yesterday seemed surprizingly slothful

Interesting bit of info:

In every decade since the 60's, Milan or Juve (or both) have reached the CL final in the year ending in 3 (63, 73, 83, 93, 2003). 2013?

El Shaarawy wrote:Interesting bit of info:

In every decade since the 60's, Milan or Juve (or both) have reached the CL final in the year ending in 3 (63, 73, 83, 93, 2003). 2013?

and the result, i mean how the did in the final? won or lost?