AC Milan vs. Barca (1/2 CL, 1st leg)

I missed the game and left my office in the morning to play a lovely game of golf.
Milan lost huh??? Well I'll probably miss the away leg as well. I think no matter what the adversity this team encounters, I'm alwys proud of them. A title??? Perhaps not this year but this Milan Club always delivers on the goods sometime or another. That's the beutiful thing about a tomorrow, next week, next year, or next season. There is always something to look forward to. I'm not worried at all... title or not.

Well it could of been 1-0 or 3-0 to us if that first goal had gone in. Maybe 3-1 as many as said, I would of being happy ith 1-1 to be honest and estatic if was 2-1 in the end. It could of also being 2-0 to Barcelona if Ronny had of just being a tad more accurate.

IF IF IF IF.... lots of them. Now of no consequence. A 1-0 loss everyone should know is the best loss. Almost any win at the Nou Camp means we are going to Paris.

Has our goals or our ability to get a result changed? Absoultely not. Just means I'd say we have 30% now of qualifying. Maybe this time we beat the odds for once in a while.

Inzaghi should be back and but so will Deco for them. We will have a full strength side they won't still but it will in front of their home supporters. Then again Milan will have million of supporters in front of their TV supporting them. Milan players know this they will try till the end.

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

anyway, here's my formation for Camp Nou:

Serginho-Stam-Nesta-Cafu

Ambrosini - Pirlo - Seedorf

Kaka

Pippo - Sheva




I havent given up hope just yet.

Ambrosini is not fit yet...didnt you notice? I still think that Gattuso for Ambro was a mistake...I d play the same first team as we had on San Siro with only one change: Inzaghi for Gila:

---------Dida--------
Stam--Nesta--Kala--Serginho
Gattuso--Pirlo--Seedorf
---------Kaka---------
Sheva----------Pippo---

Originally Posted by Kui

I missed the game and left my office in the morning to play a lovely game of golf.
Milan lost huh??? Well I'll probably miss the away leg as well. I think no matter what the adversity this team encounters, I'm alwys proud of them. A title??? Perhaps not this year but this Milan Club always delivers on the goods sometime or another. That's the beutiful thing about a tomorrow, next week, next year, or next season. There is always something to look forward to. I'm not worried at all... title or not.

This post seems very careless...Dont be offended..I just dont understand how can you support Milan and not be worried for such a big game as 2 leg of CL semi-finals...Also from your post seemed like you havent followed yesterday how Milan was doing, though you probably didnt have internet there...

No doubt, i agree with Egoistka, it is a rather careless response. Especially with everyone feeling absolutely heart broken by the result.

I was devastated when Giuly slotted home, as it was completely out of the general run of play. Well we all saw the class of Dinho there, that was a cracker of a ball off a step, can't fault that class. Dida should have gone though would have cut the angle and honestly think at best would have hit the woodwork.

All uphill now, but we played solidly in all areas and just could not take out chances. You can only wonder had those chances fallen to Sheva or Pippo what the result would have been. Well Barca basically pulled out a Milan game, managed to absorb all the pressure and then come out and score a goal.

One thing I think seriously needs to be addressed is Pirlo deep in the Milan defensive half, I mean i know he can hit one of those defence splitting balls but theres no way you can just play with the ball when you hav severe pressure coming from the opposition. Fortunately it didn't amount to anything, but he's done it again and again in recent CL games and it does concern me.

No doubt we now are the underdogs, but if we take our chances we could smash Barca at the Nou Camp. They had nothing when Kaka' ran at the defense, if Sheva and Pippo get that half chance, Valdes will be get beaten this time. Cafu and Serginho definitely need to be starters for the 2nd leg, i'm just not in favour of stam at the minute.

Can't think of anything else to say LOL, but that it is gonna be an anxious 8 days, and that hopefully our league form continues. My guess is Sheva and Gila will start and hopefully both score just for some form before the clash.

FORZA MILAN!! BARCA 1-2 MILAN

BTW, whats Fanta Sheva and Curve Nord mean in english? What is the Curve Nord all about?

Originally Posted by ukrainian_CA

Devoted,
I agree with you and disagree with Egoistka about her sister scoring with the left if she was at Gila's position

Egoistka, the more you bite Gila the more "venomous" ... and inconsistent You become. Not many strikers can pull off the spin and a getaway from the 2 defenders, not to say that it is not that easy to hit the target coming out of that twist dance. If you think differently, explain why.
Plus, the game is unpredictable, always. Sheva misses from 2 meters when the whole net is wide open at 118th minute ... it HAPPENS.
The most embarrasing missed oportunity to me was a wide open Ambros. rushing his shot.

Another situtation I wanted to discuss here is my seeing of Kaka's pass to Gila at 2 on 1.
Gila was offside at the moment of the cross to Kaka from the right (again), but it was a passive offside, since he was moving away from the goals and Kaka did beat the offside trap.
However, if Gila remembered (or knew) the passive/active offside rule he should not have been going to get open since he immediately became active in the play and the offside should have been called. Do you follow my logic? Gila should not have gone back to the goals because he started to interfere with the play, becoming active, with the offside should have been called. Should Gila have stopped Kaka would have had to shoot on the target..

Zlatanov, do you disagree? Watch 51m Gila's shot wide....

About "not many strikers can....": maybe not many strikers in Russian football can do it...here we talk about Milan, they have some minimal standards for their performance and it is applicable to all the players. I am not being inconsistent, oppositely, being very consistent. Gila ran away from 2 defenders (once, when he missed, although should have scored..all the rest of the time he lost the ball in the same situations)...so now he is a hero coz of that?! Sheva, Kaka, Inzaghi, Serginho, Maldini, Gattuso etc also can do thatand do that...why dont you praise them for doing that? From your words it seems like only Gila in the whole world can do it...He can do it..but not very often and not that brilliant. Kaka "coming out of that twist dance" can not only hit the target, but also score...and not CAN..but DOES most of the time. And at Gila I was pissed off not only coz of that miss...about whole his performance during the match. He lost the ball after great passes; even if that moment was offside Gila still should have scored there, and he put the ball much higher to the sky (that points at his abilities and skills very much); he was mad and said swaring words all the time..who was he mad with? Ref, Barca??? He should have been more attantive to his own performance....I really hope that Pippo will be fine for the second leg and we wont have to have this conversation anymore, coz Pippo will score...That is my opinion for you.
About Sheva missed....Sheva havent miss...just shot the ball towards the goalkeeper. Yes it wasnt brilliant as well, but Sheva have done a lot of good job in the middle of the field and Sheva started some attackes, passing to Gila (and Gila lost the ball many times).
Stop blaming Ambro for that miss...It is not his fault..it is basically ancelotti's fault. Ambro havent play the whole season, how can you expect from him to play good? Kaka didnt have his best match... that is true...but Kaka does his job and does it good at least in Serie A (while Gila is quite consistant, showing the same performance in serie A and CL...smth like yesterday is his standard).

Look at the bright side. For the record Milan has not lost semi finals.
A lot has been said by most of the posters here so I dont wanna repeat them. If Milan can raised their game at Nou camp with Pirlo finding his form again....I think we can caused an upset.

It's ain't over till the fat lady sings!

Originally Posted by ukrainian_CA

Devoted,
I agree with you and disagree with Egoistka about her sister scoring with the left if she was at Gila's position

Egoistka, the more you bite Gila the more "venomous" ... and inconsistent You become. Not many strikers can pull off the spin and a getaway from the 2 defenders, not to say that it is not that easy to hit the target coming out of that twist dance. If you think differently, explain why.
Plus, the game is unpredictable, always. Sheva misses from 2 meters when the whole net is wide open at 118th minute ... it HAPPENS.
The most embarrasing missed oportunity to me was a wide open Ambros. rushing his shot.

Another situtation I wanted to discuss here is my seeing of Kaka's pass to Gila at 2 on 1.
Gila was offside at the moment of the cross to Kaka from the right (again), but it was a passive offside, since he was moving away from the goals and Kaka did beat the offside trap.
However, if Gila remembered (or knew) the passive/active offside rule he should not have been going to get open since he immediately became active in the play and the offside should have been called. Do you follow my logic? Gila should not have gone back to the goals because he started to interfere with the play, becoming active, with the offside should have been called. Should Gila have stopped Kaka would have had to shoot on the target..

Zlatanov, do you disagree? Watch 51m Gila's shot wide....

No, I agree on virtually anything you said. I saw the offside during the game replay and that's exactly what I thought when Kaka passed the ball to Gila - that the ref would call an offside, but he didn't and it went into the books as a wasted chance. Still, such situations are sometimes called offside and sometimes they aren't. Chances are that most strikers, including Pippo, would have done what Gila did following their "predatory" instincts.
Actually, I am more angry with Kaka for that situation for he should have taken that shot rather than pass the responsibility to a player, who could have compromised the situation but above all a player who was fully covered by a Barca player.
Kaka had all the time and space in the world to take that shot, while Gila although closer to the goal, was under intense pressure from Edmilson, I think (could be wrong though)

Originally Posted by Egoistka

About "not many strikers can....": maybe not many strikers in Russian football can do it...here we talk about Milan, ... Gila ran away from 2 defenders (once, when he missed, although should have scored..all the rest of the time he lost the ball in the same situations)....
About Sheva missed....Sheva havent miss...just shot the ball towards the goalkeeper. Yes it wasnt brilliant as well, but Sheva have done a lot of good job in the middle of the field and Sheva started some attackes, passing to Gila (and Gila lost the ball many times).
Stop blaming Ambro for that miss...It is not his fault..it is basically ancelotti's fault. ....

1. I thought your sister could ve scored that one I though you had said.
2. I was talking NOT about Shevas header, but about 118th min's miss in Instanbul following the header from 2 yards. Sheva's header yesterday was a tough cookie to score from.
3. Right, It is not Ambro's fault, right!)))

Originally Posted by ukrainian_CA

3. Right, It is not Ambro's fault, right!)))

Off course it wasn't his fault. it was Carlo's fault that Ambro couldn't hit a 7+ m wide goal from 8 meters out ... come to think of it, famine and wars around the world are also Carlo's fault. Damn, this guy should have been jailed by now.

Originally Posted by zlatanov

Off course it wasn't his fault. it was Carlo's fault that Ambro couldn't hit a 7+ m wide goal from 8 meters out ... come to think of it, famine and wars around the world are also Carlo's fault. Damn, this guy should have been jailed by now.

It is Carlo's fault...Why did he put the guy, who didnt play whole year? He is a tactician, should have guessed that Ambro is not ready yet.

I thought your sister could ve scored that one I though you had said.
2. I was talking NOT about Shevas header, but about 118th min's miss in Instanbul following the header from 2 yards. Sheva's header yesterday was a tough cookie to score from.
3. Right, It is not Ambro's fault, right!)))

My sister would have scored there (from that angle and from that position it had to be a goal)...
Sheva misses sometimes, same as Henry, Van Nistelrooy, Rooney and other great strikers...but he doesnt miss all the opportunities that are given to him...

Ok, a quick assessment of the game before I move on. Tactically, I have little complaints about our side, as we did quite well. Though there were times our players weren't applying enough pressure on Barca.

About the players, I think Pirlo and Gila are getting way too much criticism. Firstly Pirlo didn't have a great or even good game by his standards, but overall he is looking more comfortable of late than he has been. Basically, last night he made one bad mistake (that led to nothing) and that was about it, he did actually make some decent passes. I accept he isn't performing too well lately, but something tells me he is recovering his form.

Gila actually did reasonably well last night considering the lack of support he had at times. He became isolated and didn't have easy opportunities, under great pressure. However, he isn't as sharp as he could be with his finishing and in the end, that sums up what went wrong last night.

Basically, we did well, but lacked a clinical edge we usually have. We dominated the first half and in the second we were only second best for about 15minutes, after Barca scored. There's not much I can say about their goal, Ronaldinho's pass was immense and caused havoc, a sign of a great player.

The ref for me is still the only real catalyst for my anger from last night, as he was VERY poor, but on that issue, I'll stop at that, as I think I made it quite clear what I thought of him last night.

Last night I think we did see the best team in the world, and I sure as hell don't think its Barca.

Its understandable to be upset, but there is no way that people should be giving up. We are at halftime and only need a goal to get back into it. Simply put, all I know is I currently have massive excitement looking ahead to next week, and am still confident in the side.

THIS IS NOT OVER!

FORZA MILAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Originally Posted by ACMILAN1983

Its understandable to be upset, but there is no way that people should be giving up. We are at halftime and only need a goal to get back into it. Simply put, all I know is I currently have massive excitement looking ahead to next week, and am still confident in the side.
THIS IS NOT OVER!
FORZA MILAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dude,
let me know what the outcome of the game will be over the phone on the 26th. Hope to hear a good news from you.
I should be in a transition state somewhere at LAX.

I'm kind of getting annoyed with reading all this negative stuff about Gila. From all the highlights I have seen, he played very well except for the whole finishing part. The 1st shot was really tight, even tho that one should of gone in and the 2nd one u could obviously see that he was getting destroyed from puyol or marquez from behind. He got unlucky that no call was made cuz clearly there was plenty of contact for him to miss an open goal with no1 in front of him and all he had to do was touch it with his toe. He in all, played very well I thought, as did the entire team. Now is when we have to hope and pray for the same Milan down at the Nou in weeks time. If they play like they did tonite, we will end up in Paris. I really do not feel that the 1-0 1st leg is such an advantage as it will surely cause barca to play more defensively and rely on the counter, even tho all the barca players players will say otherwise leading up to the game. This will surely allow Milan even more space to operate and allow us to do what we do, score and WIN!!! We will win next week, I have all the faith in the world in them. ROSSONERI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I agree with you OakAC7, we shouldn't blame Gila. I saw the whole match and IMO he did all he could, he held up the ball, he tackled the opponent, he just lacked the goal, and to some extent he's not as sneaky as Pippo We just need to maintain the same spirit we showed today, and next week we're going to crush them!

FORZA MILAN!!!