Miss Anne Thrope

Brilliant defensive performance by Meelan to neutralise a very off-colour Barca who, unbelievably, barely had a decent chance all match. Totally different to clinging on with fingers crossed (except Czech's) a la Chelsea.

Bot goals scored by former scummers: Kevin Ponce Boateng and the weirdo Muntari (both Ghanaians now that I think of it)

scrubbedexpat141

Great result, lovely to see Barca are still beatable.

Opens up the comp if they get knocked out, just gutted it came from two skate bastards.

Miss Anne Thrope

Thought you'd bite, just disappointed it took 9 mins! Out for a fag?

scrubbedexpat141

Re-wrote it twice. Accidentally got casually racist in my first response. Shameful.

Muntari and Kevin Prince-Helmet are both such shamefully average players it kills me that they play champions league footie.

Still, fair play to the other 9 players, holding Barca to zilch isn't simple.

norsk

There is a common recipe to keeping Barca at bay and all teams to beat them in the last few years (perhaps with the exception of Real Madrid) follow it ==> Crowd them out in the middle and keep many players behind the ball...

As to whether AC did a better job than Chelsea it is inconsequential. Same tactics were employed by both teams with equally good results.

scrubbedexpat141

Oh, also, look at the stats.

AC Milan had 33ish% poss. BUT created the same amount of shots (+/-1) and were more accurate with them (getting them on target).

Not just defend and counter but they had good chances. Fair play.

norsk

Yep. You got to take your chances..It's the only way to win.

Barcelona don't like having to play the way they were forced to yesterday. They whinge and complain and typically get a bit sloppy.

I forgot to say that Mascherano is still a massive prick as well. Yes he was fouled by Traore, but when he didn't immediately get something he looked shocked for a second and then proceeded to roll around like he'd been shot. Should have had Oscar P available...he would have sorted him out...

co durham boy

Barcelona were out muscled last night . Tough place to get a result when playing in a full howling San Siro .

I expect more of them when at the Nou Camp in a few weeks but you have to fancy The Rossoneri to play their ideal Italian counter attacking game .


My big money is on Bayern .

scrubbedexpat141

Yeah. I put him in a bracket with Busquets. Probably the worst footballer I've ever seen. Dani Alves too

Miss Anne Thrope

All the Milan chances were real chances. I can only recall one approaching decent half-chance Barca had which was Puyol's header from a corner near the end.

Milan contained Barca completely even more than Inter did in 2010. The Barca players were restricted to pinging the ball impotently around midfield without any real penetration and were clearly on an off night. Against Chelsea last year in Stamford Bridge, Barca had chance after chance that they missed due to their own profligacy and Cech's excellent goalkeeping. Chelsea got one chance that they were fortunate to convert. If that game were played 10 times, Barca would have won 8 of them. By contrast, Milan always looked in control last night and were very deserved winners like Inter in 2010 (though Barca had then just arrived after a very lengthy bus-trip thanks to the ash cloud). Sorry, that was just not the case with Chelsea versus Barca - good for them that they won but it was more on luck than merit. In football, as in life, the significance of luck and chance is consistently underestimated. But Milan did not have to rely on fate this time.

scrubbedexpat141

The highlights I watched in bed this morning completely disagreed with the possession stats I read afterwards.

Barca are absolute masters of passing the ball around the opposition box.

Miss Anne Thrope

That's because almost none of the Barca possession could be termed a highlight in any sense of the word.

scrubbedexpat141

Yeah, it's like watching training.

norsk

That's actually how I feel about watching any Barca game in general. Boring to the point of turning me off football...

norsk

I don't disagree with you mate. Chelsea were insanely lucky to win last year, but you have to be capable of riding your luck. If you look a bit further back, to 2009 and the infamous game with the Norwegian referee (the shame...), Chelsea were unable to ride their luck and despite having Barcelona firmly in their pocket the whole game Iniesta broke our hearts with a strike in stoppage time.