Champions League: AC Milan 0-0 Barcelona – Rossoneri Rearguard Keeps Barca Schtum (Photos & Highlights)

Chris Wright

29th, March 2012

13 Comments

By Chris Wright

Not that we wish to brag but, as the prophecy once again foretold, AC Milan’s superb, frenetic and knackering defensive shift ensured that Barcelona were kept schtum in a Champions League tie for the first time in two-and-a-half years and that the Rossoneri upheld their record of having never lost a Champions League quarter-final game at the San Siro.

Robinho should have opened the scoring after two minutes, but the flimsy git wafted a volley over the bar, before Alexis Sanchez seemed to con their entire watching world into thinking he should’ve had a penalty shortly after.

We’ll begrudgingly admit it was debatable, but what we saw was the Chilean do his utmost to just toe-poke it blindly past Cristian Abbiati and then cock a leg into the Milan goalkeeper as he fell. Standard fare. No penalty, yellow card for Sanchez for being such a cynical little scheister.

All and sundry were berating the fifth official for not waving his magic wand. Here’s a thought, maybe he didn’t give it – not because he’s a clueless, non-committal half-wit bottler – but because it wasn’t a penalty?

Anyway, what followed, generally speaking, was 70-odd minutes of Milan defending like war-worn heroes, sweat pooling and pouring from furrowed brows as Ambrosini, Nesta, Bonera and Antonini (who even celebrated a particularly valiant lunge like he’d been told it was chips for tea) continued making block after block after sinew-frazzling block until Barca ran out of ideas.

We reckon you can probably expect to see the same kind of thing in the Nou Camp next Wednesday.

Photos…

Highlights…

Photos: PA

Posted in Barcelona, Champions League, Photos, Serie A, Videos

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13 Comments

  1. Mr Sensible says:

    Good call, I honestly couldn’t see Barca not scoring. There were slight glimpses of the Xavi and Messi magic though but they just weren’t at their best last night. I know 0-0 away isn’t always a great result but it is pretty pathetic that the Italian champions at home played the way they did, I know they got a score draw at the Nou Camp earlier in the season but I really hope Barca spank them, just for the good of football.

    How the 10th official (or whatever he’s called) didn’t see the Sanchez penalty is a joke, what’s the point of him?

  2. Mr Sensible says:

    Also why were Milan wearing their away kit at home? I’m sure there must be some kind of physiological advantage in wearing your home kit, isn’t it all part of the mentality of playing at home, or have I just completely made that up?

  3. Roc says:

    “Barca didn’t play well” is a bs excuse. Ambrosini and co were defensively brilliant. Well played Milan.

  4. Mr. Sparkle says:

    They think their white kit brings luck. Every time they’ve played in the final except for Istanbul and wore their white kit, they ended up succeeding.

  5. ovo says:

    Nice comments,am a baca fan buh am not taken side on my point,the contact made by Milan goalkeeper and my player Sanchez pls what do we call that in football? Lets just be fair to football i understand in football that such a pronouce contact inside the 18yard box should be a penalty but the officials refused to see that. Am a baca fan i aspect defeat when ever am beaten so pls…. We see next week Tuesday then you will have the opportunity to watch a higher definition kind of football played on a Green synthetic soccer pitch. Even the Milan players were lossing their balance on their home soil. I believe in gud football,interesting stylish and motivation football game. Milan is taking not less than 4-5 back to Italy.

  6. Paul Kirkland says:

    Roc I was wondering the same thing. And that’s a good point Mr. Sparkle but they are not in the final yet?

  7. RyanMe says:

    I think it’s pretty hard to score on an eight man defence ;)

  8. Mr. T says:

    @Mr Sensible – the guys conducting the broadcast/analysis for Al Jazeera Sports said that Milan were wearing their alternate Kit because the ECC Rules state that in case of a possible color conflict between the club kits, the home side has to choose another kit.

  9. Alan says:

    Milan played the best way they can.. They know Barca have a great attack and that they can’t really hope to score with a misfiring Robinho (i swear, if he converted about half of the chances he gets, he could be somewhere near the top of the European scoring charts)..
    They played sensible football and now go into the away leg without conceding an away goal..extremely vital..
    Give credit where it is due..They defended well..

    As for Sanchez, it’s debatable really.. Abbiati did make contact but you can also see a little bit of Sanchez’s playacting..best thing do then is waive it off..

  10. Alan says:

    Oh and about the pitch, Barca registered an official complaint..
    Statement on their site :
    “FC Barcelona has presented an official complaint to UEFA about the condition of the pitch at the Giuseppe Meazza for the Champions League match against Milan. They passed the matter over to UEFA delegate Mikalai Varabyov (BUL) at the post-match meeting. Varabyov has included the complaint in his report and UEFA will demand an explanation from the Italian club.”

    Milan replied later :
    “With reference to the protest lodged by FC Barcelona regarding the condition of the pitch at the San Siro, A.C. Milan wishes to communicate that:

    1) The watering of the pitch within an hour before kick-off, as agreed n the organizational meeting yesterday morning was not done due to the already high levels of humidity of the pitch.
    2) The general state of the pitch, which the Barcelona team trained on the previous evening without any problems, was declared to be acceptable by the referees and the UEFA delegates.”

  11. jojo says:

    milan has a kind of magic other clubs don’t have. so majestic and gracious, so resilient and relentless… mix of old legends like nesta and ambrosini with young talent like boateng and thiago silva. pure class.

  12. Bruno says:

    Great article. A couple of notes:

    – Milan management are so superstitious Galliani has alreaddy anounced they will never wear black again (third kit) after Arsenal. Next season will see a return to gold. And yes, white is the ‘winning colour.’

    – If the field was such an issue why did Barca complain after the 0-0, instead of before, as they had been training on it for 2 days.

    – People forget Milan was missing starting backs Thiago, Abate and more importantly Van Bommel in front of the defence. It was also Nesta’s first game coming back from a 2 month injury brake (who cancelled out Messi), and the same goes for Robinho and Boateng, both rushed back from injury stints.

    All things considered this was a massive performance for a team held together by plasters. Not that Silvio was too impressed…

  13. The Ostrich says:

    Did anyone else notice how much they were slipping? Maybe they cut the grass the night before so that they couldnt pass the ball per usual Barca style? I know they keep the grass pretty high for European standards at the Camp Nou. Maybe that was the complaint that they made?

    *On a side note Madrid has also tried this tactic in case anyone remembers. Thats the only other time I can remember Barcelona filing a complaint.

    Thoughts?

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