With the season coming to a climax, we all start salivating like Pavlov dogs, the Champions League with teams like Bayern, Milan, Barcelona, Real Madrid and Chelsea still in the mix we cant wait to see who will be in the final. Add the Premier League tussle between Manchester City and Manchester United and the Euros in Poland and Ukraine this summer and throw in the added bumper side dish of the Europa league you can see what I am getting at.
The most anticipated match of the quarter-finals was the Milan V Barca match, the two already met earlier in the group stages, with Milan drawing 2-2 at the Nou Camp and losing 3-2 to Barca at San Siro, but this time it was different.
Though Barca did not exactly struggle, Milan played a disciplined and tactical game crowding on Messi with three to four players when he wanted to make his runs and also fouling him when need be as Nesta did and actually seemed to tell the referee "I had no choice".
Barca were not in the flowing football selves and the pitch did not help and Guardiola showed his frustration many times and it was not just because (sometimes) the players were slipping on the pitch. Ibramovic's lack of mobility and appearing almost always off-side actually helped Milan! Though his on the ball movement was limited the fact that his mere presence kept Pique and Puyol's marauding attacking runs to the minimum, Busquets was also called in to peg down further, Ibra is really an awkward customer and he loves his balls served in the air (did that sound vulgar?).
Milan manager Allegri was the master fox in this match planning it well and Milan's midfield and attack are not exactly chicken chops, they have Seedorf, Ambrosini, Robinho,Ibramovic, Kevin Prince-Boateng and others in the fold. Though Nocerino and Emanuelson did not have the best of the matches. They however did not have Thiago Silva and Pato and that said a lot about Milan despite having only 38 percent of the possession and Barca 62. Though Barca did not have David Villa it should not have an impact on how they perform as Villa is only a recent addition to last season and Barca are more than capable of winning this match with their power-packed signings and home-grown players in the fold. This 0-0 will mean that Barca will be under pressure when they play the second-leg match at Nou Camp all Milan need is to score a away goal first and the smell of this will be blood for the Italians.
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