Funny how all the Barca haters only focus on Messi. Not sure if you watched the game or not but did you not see how many men Milan had behind the ball? Its the pure essence of the boring Italian football to defend and see what happens when they get the ball. Barca have more than enough players who can score, Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Puyol are all dangerous in front of goal but there was no space available. Great work on Milan's part.
Chelsea must have done the same boring Italian style last year.
Barca needs to change something and play faster. Yes they are talented but at this CL knockout stage, defense won't let them walk through.
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I don't buy it..Barcelona don't move the ball fast enough to overturn this.
We'll see what happens but I strongly disagree. Barcelona can be dangerous if they find space, which they can do so from the sides or from the middle. The one thing I would love to see differently for Barca's lineup is to leave Pedro out. He's a useless player that stops the flow of the Barcelona play with his poor touch. He has terrible control and almost zero creativity.
Funny how all the Barca haters only focus on Messi. Not sure if you watched the game or not but did you not see how many men Milan had behind the ball? Its the pure essence of the boring Italian football to defend and see what happens when they get the ball. Barca have more than enough players who can score, Iniesta, Xavi, Pique, Puyol are all dangerous in front of goal but there was no space available. Great work on Milan's part.
I clearly stated that I had to use the boxscore. I cant watch Barca for the most part, its far too boring.
As for focusing on Messi when are 'more than enough players who can score' is just an ignorant statement.
Now, lets talk about the guy who has 35 goals compared the combined rest of his team's 42? On a team where the next highest scorer is a full 29 goals behind. Messi scores 45% of Barca's goals, so yeah, he is kind of the focus.
Take Messi out of Barca and they're hot garbage.
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Chelsea must have done the same boring Italian style last year.
Barca needs to change something and play faster. Yes they are talented but at this CL knockout stage, defense won't let them walk through.
They did, if you recall, they were playing under an Italian manager who parked everyone behind the ball and got lucky with the counter attack. It works, I don't like it, but it works.
They did, if you recall, they were playing under an Italian manager who parked everyone behind the ball and got lucky with the counter attack. It works, I don't like it, but it works.
How is the counter attack lucky?
It is a skill to be able to attack with speed, precision, and efficiency on the counter.
Barcelona are actually more effective when they attack on the counter...issue is teams realize this and will let Barca slow the game to a halt and pass the ball around.
Barca is too dangerous when the game is in the open, so sit back and let them slow the game down by looking for the perfect pass.
Last edited by SuperMatt18; 02-20-2013 at 04:30 PM.
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They did, if you recall, they were playing under an Italian manager who parked everyone behind the ball and got lucky with the counter attack. It works, I don't like it, but it works.
I guess but today Milan weren't just counter-attacking, they had the better chances. Barcelona created nothing.
If you watch any highlight package today you'll see 4 Milan highlights.
Muntari shooting over the bar (first half)
Boatang shooting wide (first half)
Boatang scoring
Muntari scoring
I cannot think of a single Barcelona highlight. They could not adapt to Milan's marking. Perhaps they have no coach to make halftime changes. I can't see that changing in the 2nd leg.
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Last edited by GirlySports; 02-20-2013 at 04:30 PM.
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Just finished watching that game. Great job on Milan for parking everyone behind the ball to not give Barca any space to maneuver through. Realistically though this game should have only been 1-nil for Milan. That second goal was a great play but that first goal should have never counted. Horrible non call for the obvious hand ball. Barca can still go through. Milan's hope there for that Egyptian kid is laughable, maybe in a few years when he gains more experience. Barca can easily score 3 or more at home, they have done it before and against even better teams.
Obvious hand-ball involves discretion. The ball was traveling at the net, and the AC player raised his hands out of the way of the original shot. It deflected not 4 yards from him --- far too close and fast for him to have any sort of a reaction.
Consensus I've read (outside of Spain/Italy) is that it was appropriate call.
In fairness to Barce, when they were running their set pieces through the AC backline, they were very threatening. It seems they were sitting back after AC scored that first one, and didn't go back to creating the offense like they were before.
Two things struck me though. Sanchez and Valdez. They need to raise their games.
I guess but today Milan weren't just counter-attacking, they had the better chances. Barcelona created nothing.
If you watch any highlight package today you'll see 4 Milan highlights.
Muntari shooting over the bar (first half)
Boatang shooting wide (first half)
Boatang scoring
Muntari scoring
I cannot think of a single Barcelona highlight. They could not adapt to Milan's marking. Perhaps they have no coach to make halftime changes. I can't see that changing in the 2nd leg.
I totally agree with you, Barcelona created no chances because Milan had 9 players behind the ball defending Barca's attack. There was no room to be had for barca, and yes coaching has been a bit of an issue this season for Barca with Tito in New York for cancer treatment the since December. That shouldn't be an excuse and I don't know if it is, who knows what goes on in the dressing room.
Milan played a great game on their part, they attacked more than most teams do against Barca. They played them more in the way that Real Madrid play them
I totally agree with you, Barcelona created no chances because Milan had 9 players behind the ball defending Barca's attack. There was no room to be had for barca, and yes coaching has been a bit of an issue this season for Barca with Tito in New York for cancer treatment the since December. That shouldn't be an excuse and I don't know if it is, who knows what goes on in the dressing room.
Milan played a great game on their part, they attacked more than most teams do against Barca. They played them more in the way that Real Madrid play them
Milan can defend all they want but I believe that's Barcelona's fault, they let Milan dictate because they are too slow. If Milan plays Bayern for example I think Bayern uses much more speed and much more wing-back/full back play on both flanks and tear Milan apart.
Milan might still be able to handle the Bayern pace but it would take much more work than it took today. Plus when Bayern fire balls into the box there might be headers, defensive turnovers, defensive mistakes that lead to penalty kicks. Barcelona didn't create any of this.
The Milan right-back Abate hardly had to defend today, there were no Barcelona attacks down the left.
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Last edited by GirlySports; 02-20-2013 at 04:51 PM.
Obvious hand-ball involves discretion. The ball was traveling at the net, and the AC player raised his hands out of the way of the original shot. It deflected not 4 yards from him --- far too close and fast for him to have any sort of a reaction.
Consensus I've read (outside of Spain/Italy) is that it was appropriate call.
In fairness to Barce, when they were running their set pieces through the AC backline, they were very threatening. It seems they were sitting back after AC scored that first one, and didn't go back to creating the offense like they were before.
Two things struck me though. Sanchez and Valdez. They need to raise their games.
I've seen penalties called using that same logic. Even in accidental cases, what it comes down to, with most refs is the intention to have your arms out in a compromising way. If your arms are next to your body and the ball hits your arms, 9 times out of 10 the refs will not call anything. It's when your arms leave your body and make contact with the ball that the refs will most likely make that call. The AC milan player had no reason to have his arms because the ball was no where near him to begin with so he didn't need to be protecting or moving away from anything.
As for Valdez and Sanches. 100% correct. Sanches has 1 goal all season and has even failed to score while 1 on 1 with the keeper all season. As for Valdez, chances are that he will not be back for Barca next season. If Barca do in fact plan to bring Neymar earlier than planned then Alexis will be the most likely player to leave the club...though I hope it's Pedro.
Barcelona is extremely dangerous when the game opens up. When they don't open it up then they are 'easy' to defend. Park everyone in your own half and Barcelona cannot penetrate the box, at all. They have all the talent in the world but they are poor at penetrating the box
The hand ball seems to be a 50/50 call and not wrong either way. The way Craig Forrest explained it using the rules it seemed like the right call was made but we have all seen similar plays called penalties when defenders do it in the box.
Sounds like by the letter of the rules it was legit but maybe in practice could have easily been called.
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Yes but Juve get goals from midfielders as Celtic and Chelsea found out. Plus with Buffon and the entire Italian back three, they're tough to break down.
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Didn't Arsenal know it's best not to have a Pole guarding your goal when you're playing the Germans?
I've always found Szczesny to be over rated. Arsenal is obsessed with Polish goalies though.
Awesome to see Milan win. I might have a hate boner for Barca.
