Barcelona -vs- AC Milan (ALL comments)

IMHO, this thread must be kept. It is going to be another classic one.

I just had to sign to this forum, been here for a long time, cos u guys always write good stuff about games and players... hello

Dissapointed about the game, they were sitting and waiting for clock to run out. Almost made it though, but it wasn't fun to watch. Im not that sad since we won in milan (i got there from slovenia to see the match from 12. row) and since we'll surely qualify for the next phase (and barca is damn hot at the moment)

Anyone thought they just wanted for this game to finish, because the'll have roma in a few days? That game will be much more important for us, I hope they get rested enough...

The first 20 minutes were quite exciting and I really loved the crunching tackles made by the Milan defence and Barcelona's superb short-passes. And then, it was mostly in Milan's half with about 60% of the ball possession belonged to the Catalans! Our passes were just terrible, with exception to Pirlo.

I hate to say this but as the game dragged on longer, our defenders seemed to be dreaming every time the ball is passed under their nose. Nesta letting Eto'o cut inside and scored the goal? Ouch! But Ambrosini should have cut out Xavi (?) before he passed the ball to Eto'o. Ronaldinho's goal - magnificent, made our center halves look like dummies. It was obvious throughout the match that our defenders had difficulties to contain technically gifted players like Ronaldinho and Eto'o. Not to mention Xavi had all the time in the world to orchestrate his passes. Giuly made a rewarding return and created some havoc on Kaladze's side. Enough said, Barcelona played with determination and on the night, they were the best team.

As for our beloved Milan: why did we start with Serginho? He was good on the counter attacks but towards the second half of the game, he seemed to be out of it. Kaka was trying with his ball control and passes but this was just not his night. Pirlo, if he had all the support, would have played much better but although he made some fine passes, he was closed down immediately. Ambrosini? Why oh why? Kaladze - was he trying to be a defender, winger, wing-back, etc. all at once? He needed at least two or three of his team mates to be within the radius of three meters before he can do something with the ball.

Yes, I was disappointed because we did not play as well as we could have. But at the same time, I am not too overly disappointed by losing to last night's Barcelona. They played well, good football.

Originally Posted by Bayman

Pirlos first half performance was mediocre, second half good. But this was Atalanta for God's sake. He is relatively good vs. all smaller teams, but name me ONE big game where he played top class?
And these kind of long passes (1-0) only work against mediocre opponents, not vs. Real, Barca, Juve.

And here is Kris's reply for me:

Originally Posted by Kris

Pirlo created the goal (against Barca, yes it's Barca)

It's not so much about the players; its more about Ancelotti's negative approach to the game. We had better players like Rui Costa and Seedorf on the bench, it was Ancelotti who chose not to play them. Ancelotti was never really interested in getting Milan to play good football in this match.

Even when Rui Costa came in too late, it wasn't for the mediocre Ambrosini, but for Kaka; senseless tactics. Gattuso isnt anything special at passing but he helps Milan with his hardwork. But you can only use one bad passer. If you combine Gattuso, with crappy passers like Ambrosini and Serginho, you have a midfield that can't even hold the ball and that just passes it to the opposing team.

Why Ancelotti kept Ambrosini on for the whole match, and Serginho for most of the match is bewildering.........Real Madrid loses a lot but at least they dont use these kinds of disgusting negative tactics. Our tactics were: stay in our own half, pass the ball to Barca players and foul Ronaldinho. It was the tactics a team from the bottom of the Brazilian league might tryto employ against a top European team.

When Ronaldinho scored it was like the triumph of beautiful football over ugly negativity. The goal of someone trying to create against players not interested in playing but in fouling

okok...lets start your criticism / flaming / fingers-pointing in this thread..just because we lost doesnt mean we dun practice our usual procedure?


Milan i must say played an ultra defensive football on matchday 4 against a highly-motivated and suprmeme (for now) side where passing were pin-point, jabbing runs down the flank were threatening and beautiful pieces of skills were illustrated..all the while @ our own half!!!

Originally Posted by Nata

OmG...Im ashamed. 63% - 37%

Milan were soaking the relentless attacks of the Catalans as tho they were soaking the sun ..but they were too naive...to be defending for almost the whole of 90 mins will bound to make a vital mistake that would just finish us off. (take a look @ Italy @ Euro 2000 Finals)...n tts exactly what happened. E'to (the anoymonous in San Siro) took advantage of our 1 man down (cafu) and punished us. Dinho then gave the final blow which even
Nesta have no answer to.

Pirlo did well to set up Shev on a fast break who clinically finished off Valdes in fashion. Kaka also missed out a gr8 chance when a cross by serginho was tapped too lightly and too easy for the keeper to get hold. Cafu also missed a gr8 chance on the right where his thunderous shot near the post was parried out for a corner. Besides these chances...milan was simply losing possession, soaking pressure, losing possession again and soaking pressure thruout the game.

However like what Ancelotti said...to score a goal @ Nou Camp against this fabulous side(@ the moment ) is a consolation to us....but this defeat will def b firmly rooted @ the back of every milan player's mind tt the 1 way to defeat Barca is def not by just sitting back and defend the whole nite long!~

Lets look forward to our next match and put this defeat as a valuable lesson to make us grow into a more wholesome and more formidable force to be reckon with.

Since lot of people already made post-game comments in the game thread I will merge this one there too so we have all post-game comments in one place

Originally Posted by peters

I just had to sign to this forum, been here for a long time, cos u guys always write good stuff about games and players... hello

hey peters, welcome to MilanMania!

as for the game, I didn't see it yet, so I can't comment on the team's display. The result itself wasn't terrible, although I did expect better. Now we are better positioned than Barca to get the group's first place (thanks to our away goal which will allow us to qualify first if we tie at points at the end with Barca)

For what I read in Uefa's minute-by-minute report of the match, DIDA was our hero! he saved almost everything....great for him!....but of course this also means we let them get to us way too many times. I also read our defense was pretty much ok, so I thought our problem today was in midfield....after reading the post-game comments here I can see that's indeed the case....it was a weird lineup, I was expecting to see a 5 man midfield yes, but not the ones we saw, but rather Pirlo, Rino, Seedorf, Kaka and Rui.....anyway, no point in talking about shoulds and woulds...so lets hope we don't repeat this kind of display, whether it was Carlo's or the player's "fault" (or both)......bring on ROMA

thanx for merging it..din know what to do..too confusing seeing only the pre-game comments...

anyway DIDA was gr8 (i 4got to mention)...go n look @ the match n he should deservingly win the MOM...

We will be using this defeat to make Roma suffer!!

An absolute disgrace by Milan... Nuff said!

It's hard being the coach of one of Europe's biggest football clubs... You get crucified for playing a gung-ho offensive style but your team self-destructed. You also get stabbed for playing ultra defensive man behind ball tactics, though you may get results in your favor.

The 4-0 drubbing by Depor last season must be still fresh in the mind of Ancelotti, and I still believe if we played with a team of midfield destroyers against Depor in Spain, we would have gotten the result to send us though.

Clinical finishing by Sheva gave us the lead, though it has to be said the goal came from a counter attack. A laser-perfect lançamento (Haroon called it "grenade launching" but I prefer to use "lançamento" after having learnt my football education from a young age in Brasil . Besides, "grenade launching" is like a "launch and hope" ball, while precision is fundamental in a lançamento) by Pirlo sent Sheva on his way and he powered past Oleguer before side footing the ball into the net.

You can smell that a goal from Barca is on the cards by the way they were dominating in possession (the stats on the screen showed 63 - 37 in Barca's favor but it seemed more like 75-25 to me ) Eto'o duly equalised when he was played in beautifully by Xavi.

Milan were content to play for the draw in the 2nd half and shots rained in on Dida from all angles. A draw is very much on the script with 5 minutes left and one might think that a match like this will be decided on a moment of magic. What a magical moment it was too from possibly the best ever player in the world today.

Ronaldinho received a pass from Eto'o outside the right of Milan's penalty area sandwiched between Nesta and Gattuso. With a flick of his right boot, Ronnie sent the ball rolling to his left and a quick change of accerleration took him past Nesta and he ripped in a stunning left foot rocket into Dida's top right corner, all these in less than 2 seconds! Golazo!! Magnifico!! Absolutely no chance for Dida... The speed of Ronnie is simply unbelievable, his movements looked superfast to me even on slow-mo replay

The better team won and there is no need to press the panic button yet, though a similar performance again against Europe's top guns in the knockout stages will be suicidal.

A disappointing way to celebrate my 2nd anniversary at MM, though I'm glad I witnessed one of best ever goals scored in CL history, the kind of goals which will make fans pay and watch at the stadiums.


Some interesting observations from the game:
It seems to me that the Culés (Barça fans) speak italian.

When Dida went to ground holding his wrist showing signs of pain after being stomped accidentally by Eto'o, the culés, thinking that Dida was playacting, chanted:

"DIDA, DIDA, VAFFANCULO!!!... DIDA, DIDA, VAFFANCULO!!!... DIDA,
DIDA, VAFFANCULO!!!... "

No, I think thats about everything they know. I heard them chanting that in milano too. But instead of dida there was just Milan. And yesterday you could clearly hear them chanting stuffs like that over the tv.

Originally Posted by omer

When Ronaldinho scored it was like the triumph of beautiful football over ugly negativity. The goal of someone trying to create against players not interested in playing but in fouling

So true, this was a day we deserved a 4-0 drubbing for the sake of football. By the way why have we become the symbol of ugly negativity this season. Isnt this supposed to be the attacking Milan side that showed the way t the Italians. Whats changed?!?

I know Nesta could be blaimed for both goals, but honestly he was our best player. If it wasnt for him, it would have been a cricket score. The fact that Barca got past him twice carrys no shame especially when we had no midfield or attack to take the prerssure off him. You cant even compare Puyol to Nesta, but Puyol made it look easy, why-because we hardly put them under pressure while Nesta and Maldini were living on a knife edge for the entire 90 minutes.

Originally Posted by peters

No, I think thats about everything they know. I heard them chanting that in milano too. But instead of dida there was just Milan. And yesterday you could clearly hear them chanting stuffs like that over the tv.

It's ok, I'll return them the favor next May in Istanbul, if they can reach there that is.

And I'll have 6 months to learn Català equilvalent too.

I really had a very terrible day, but actually not quite so terrible. It was terrible because I saw the best team in europe sit back, and defend for almost every minute of the game.

We all know how good this Milan is, but we are all waiting for the day Milan "find their form" as all the players say. Since the first day of the season, all the players have been saying "we are improving", and yet, i've noticed no improvement at all (maybe in defence only).

This Milan side has the capabilities of winning any game, no matter where they play. This milan side is certainly capable of beating this magnificent Barca if they played their own game, but still, Ancelotti opted to start with SERGINHO and AMBROSINI! Seedorf is one of the key players in the Milan possession-keeping system, he keeps the ball and passes it so well, and he always acts well when under pressure. But still, Ancelotti opted for a ball-winning midfielder like Ambro who apparently doesn't know how to pass a ball! and Serginho! he might have speed and skill, but if he assisted and scored in the last 2 games doesnt mean hes gonna score a hatrick today! it doesnt mean hes going play brilliantly today! Since last season Serginho hasn't been able to do anything good, and all of sudden in 2 games he does 2 good things, and now Ancelotti opts to start him instead players like Rui, Crespo and JDT! Ancelotti is thinking of Serginho the same way an english person thinking of Rooney!

We just let Barca attack us all the time, and when we had the ball once or twice at their half, we just simply returned the ball back to Barca cuz we felt like we're doing something wrong! That's just ridiculous! Barca absolutely RAPED us! Thats what bothers me, a Milan side so ambitious as this, being SLAUGHTED by Barca. Even if Barca are in top form and Milan are not, the way we played can never be a way a champions team can play. If Milan were to win this Champs League (which I started doubting from today), everyone would recall this game and say how Barca raped Milan.

The good thing is that, even thought this Barca is on hot form, Milan did actually beat this Barca side at San Siro, but Barca still were the better side in San Siro as well . Well at least losing 2-1 is better than losing 1-0. Now if we draw with Barca with points, we get to be first place as we have a better head-to-head record (not sure, some1 plz confirm this).

This Milan still needs to improve (as all the players have been saying they will since the start of the season, and yet, nothing). I hope they start doing it as soon as possible. And I hope Ancelotti doesn't put in any more defensive formations like both the ones against Barca.

Forever and always, Forza Rossoneri!

Originally Posted by hitmannq8

The good thing is that, even thought this Barca is on hot form, Milan did actually beat this Barca side at San Siro, but Barca still were the better side in San Siro as well . Well at least losing 2-1 is better than losing 1-0. Now if we draw with Barca with points, we get to be first place as we have a better head-to-head record (not sure, some1 plz confirm this).

Yup. Head-to-head results will determine who tops the group if Milan & Barca finish level on points after 6 games in the group stages. If that happens, Milan will finish top by virtue of an away goal scored.