So... this means we lose 4-0 a the weekend.

But remember one goal from us and they need 4. They need 2 as it is to merely force extra time.

And tonight they DID go all out but our tactics stopped them. As I knew they could if we got said tactics right.

We are playing Inter, and they are not exactly the most threatening team right now, and they are playing tomorrow. (I am mildly optimistic on this one.)

not sure about the Allegri love on here all of a sudden! there is only 1 way to play against Barca some times it works ie tonight and Chelsea last year, sometimes it doesn't ie nearly every other game this season.

Yes, Chelsea won, Inter won, and a few other teams did too. But the difference is, in every case - except tonight - Barcelona still had chances, but luck, goalkeeping brilliance or a foolish mistake made Barcelona's downfall possible. Tonight we completely stopped them. No chances, no real threads, just pure possession.

Love it.

Anyone got the match stats? I don't remember Abbiati making any saves apart from the routine ones. Barca really did nothing.

All Credit to Allegri

No NDJ
No Flams
No Robinho
No Noce
No Balotelli

Played the so-called "best team evar" and fucked them anally
Didn't even have half the squad quality as Chel$ki

Grazie Mister
drucurl 2013-02-20 bookmark it now

Ambro did precisely what I said he had to.

Basically, Allegri listened to every word I said and set out the plan.

I should manage Milan.

The players tonight have once again made me proud of being a fan of this great club. Forget the BS we've been through, the performances of some of the players seriously made me feel that emotion that I haven't felt in a while for this team.

Abate, Mexes, Ambro, Monto, Prince, SES, Pazzini. These guys especially worked their @sses of all game long. It was just amazing to watch them give everything for the shirt and I seriously hope that they carry this onto the rest of the season

And he did it again. That's why we keep him, that's why we should next year as well. Captained this match through like in the old days, when Rino, Andy and him were a unit.

Praise for all our guys out tonight, and especially Allegri. When he concentrates, he can make a good tactical gameplan.

Now once again the big question pops up - has he learned something from last year? Milan under Allegri have a nasty habit of preemptively starting to feel cosy and drop guard. Just remember Arsenal. This is Barcelona and we'll be more concentrated, sure. But we need a new tactical gameplan and strategy for Camp Nou. Hopefully Allegri makes the second step forward. Hopefully.

Agreed. There's a saying that 2-0 is a dangerous lead, because it's difficult to know how to play. I really hope we can put Barca out, the team will have such belief in themselves.

OMFG!!! I can't believe we won! I'm still incredulous about it. We completely shut them down, they had all the possession but 0 shots on target! Never seen such a ridiculous Barcelona in ages, and all the merit goes to our boys. They fought like lions, never backing down for the whole 90 minutes. Allegri completely owned their coach. We did a Chelsea on them, but like 10 times better. Everyone was amazing, even frigging Muntari got his sh!t together in the second half. Montolivo and Boateng stepped up and played like world-class players. Ambro once again proved me wrong and repeated last season's performance. Mexes was a rock in defense, and Abate proved wrong everyone who don't rate him enough. El Shaarawy was rather shaky, but his defensive work was immense and he gave the assist for the second. Two goals is a huge advantage, and hopefully we don't throw it away in the 2nd leg.

I'm so happy right now! FORZA MILAN!!!

Wise words from the captain.

I feel amazing right now. All of us including the fans, players and staff deserve this victory for all the $hit we went through this season. But as Ambro said, the game is not over.

Love it.

How often do Barca lose and create so few attempts? It's very rare. We scored as many goals as they had shots on target, incredible.

Celebrating 4 minutes before the final whistle though, it's quite naive, and wrong.

Muntari : " Allegri created the perfect plan. We followed it and it went well. He was the best player for us"

Allegri: 'Nobody else believed...'

Wednesday February 20 2013




Massimiliano Allegri praised his players for beating Barcelona 2-0 and revealed it was “a victory I believed in and nobody else did.”

Barcelona hadn’t lost a Champions League game by two clear goals since April 2010, which was also at San Siro when they fell 3-1 to Jose Mourinho’s Inter.

“The lads played well in defensive terms and didn’t let them near our penalty area. We knew Barcelona kept possession for about 65 per cent of the time, but we had five or six very favourable situations where we got the final pass wrong,” Allegri told Mediaset.

“They didn’t lose heart, even when Barcelona kept possession like that. My players all deserved this evening, as did the club and the President.

“Now we have to think about the Derby, which is another important test we must overcome. We can put this result aside now, knowing the second leg will be very difficult and we must try to get another goal with a little more sharpness. We could’ve scored a third tonight, though it might’ve been excessive.”

Kevin-Prince Boateng and Sulley Ali Muntari scored the goals, but Christian Abbiati barely touched the ball.

“The players did well in intercepting passes and staying tight. We limited Leo Messi and above all did very well to stop the balls that they tend to put behind the midfielders.

“At the moment this result is not enough to qualify us, so we hope to get a positive result at the Camp Nou too.

“We’re not facing a different Barcelona in Spain, as this is their approach and they always play the same way. We used the ball well, though every now and then we make life difficult for ourselves and that is something we must improve on.

“In order to win these games, you need everyone to sacrifice themselves and work hard. We kept Barcelona out of our penalty area and they didn’t have a single real shot on goal.

“The players deserved this victory without question. Perhaps we were lucky with the ricochet on the first goal, but these things happen during a game.”

The Rossoneri now turn their attention towards taking on Inter in the Derby della Madonnina on Sunday night.

“We need to stay relaxed. We won an important game against Barcelona, which I believed in and nobody else did. We have three days to recharge our batteries and prepare for the Derby, I see my team in good shape.”

I still think that Muntari is one of the most frustrating players ever. He makes some of the most mind bogglingly stupid passes but his finish on the volley was excellent.

what a wonderful day.

i have one request. can we please have the milan commentator's reactions.

Possession was 35% for Milan and 65% for Barcelona. Didn't watch the game as I passed out early, but the feedback I got was that we were very organized defensively, worked on the counter ... Yet Barcelona did not play well is where our luck was at.

The return leg will be difficult (i) camp nou has a bigger pitch, hence more effort from our players to close down space (ii) Barcelona will be gunning it from the start as opposed to the way they approached the 1st leg.


With all that said ... Forza Milan !

http://youtu.be/-V8T89R7k4U

Btw max, don't know if you've checked again but the game is uploaded in nearly every language on soccershouts

Btw max, don't know if you've checked again but the game is uploaded in nearly every language on soccershouts

Including Maltese?

How bigger is the Nou Camp pitch than the San Siro one in reality?

I know when you go for example to Chelsea at the bridge and then the Nou Camp you'd feel the huge difference but is there that much difference when it comes to the San Siro?

I also reado someone here saying that the players should put that Arsenal game last season to the back of their minds. I say Allegri should make them watch that over and over again. He has to make them see what going out with a bad mindset will do. And how it would mean throwing away all that hard work we did in the first leg

I'm 100% sure that we can get a draw off them or even score a goal in the case of a loss just like the 2 times we went there last season as well as the 2 times we played them at home.

And I really hate how some people are making it out to be like Barca had a bad game. Barca played like they always do. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, etc, etc. We simply stopped them from getting in behind us like they do to other teams and that was why they looked bad. Simply because WE made them look bad

And I really hate how some people are making it out to be like Barca had a bad game. Barca played like they always do. Pass, pass, pass, pass, pass, etc, etc. We simply stopped them from getting in behind us like they do to other teams and that was why they looked bad. Simply because WE made them look bad

I like you optimism han, but I would very much take this game as an isolated one and compliment the coach and players for a marvelous result!

On aggregate we have a 2-0 lead going into the return leg. As a result, it seems like we have an advantage, but on the field of play we had only 35% ball possession in our own stadium. We defended well and depended on the counter.

I did not expect us to draw, let alone to win with a 2 goal margin ... But I'll take it

Oh and you are not allowed to open the return leg thread .... dst is doing that!

Looks like it wasn't a handball at all:

For a moment I thought that was you.

Hah, now would you look at that!

EDIT: Doesn't the ball actually hit Alba on his left hand?

I like you optimism han, but I would very much take this game as an isolated one and compliment the coach and players for a marvelous result!

On aggregate we have a 2-0 lead going into the return leg. As a result, it seems like we have an advantage, but on the field of play we had only 35% ball possession in our own stadium. We defended well and depended on the counter.

I did not expect us to draw, let alone to win with a 2 goal margin ... But I'll take it

Oh and you are not allowed to open the return leg thread .... dst is doing that!

Everyone and their mother know how beating Barca is done.

OMFG!!! I can't believe we won! I'm still incredulous about it. We completely shut them down, they had all the possession but 0 shots on target! Never seen such a ridiculous Barcelona in ages, and all the merit goes to our boys. They fought like lions, never backing down for the whole 90 minutes. Allegri completely owned their coach. We did a Chelsea on them, but like 10 times better. Everyone was amazing, even frigging Muntari got his sh!t together in the second half. Montolivo and Boateng stepped up and played like world-class players. Ambro once again proved me wrong and repeated last season's performance. Mexes was a rock in defense, and Abate proved wrong everyone who don't rate him enough. El Shaarawy was rather shaky, but his defensive work was immense and he gave the assist for the second. Two goals is a huge advantage, and hopefully we don't throw it away in the 2nd leg.

I'm so happy right now! FORZA MILAN!!!

Celebrating 4 minutes before the final whistle though, it's quite naive, and wrong.

Possession counts for nothing here.

Mourinho, [...] dopo essersi qualificato al Camp Nou ci regalò una delle sue classiche perle a domanda specifica nella conferenza stampa post-match: "Ora, se vogliono, se la possono pure portare a casa la palla".

[...] Everyone and their mother know how beating Barca is done. Playing them at their own game is simply playing into their hands and giving them what they want. Asside from useless possession, the stats speak for themselves. It was a great game and a tactical masterclass from Allegri but it's not something we haven't don before under this coach against Barca.

Last season we drew twice and lost twice against them. Fair enough. When we lost at the San Siro Allegri tried a more attacking approach and we conceeded 3 goals but also hit them twice fair and square. When he took a more defensive approach in the Nou Camp in the KO round we still lost thanks to 2 ridiculous penalty calls, yet we still managed to score a goal against them.

I don't think it's being overly optimistic, I'm looking at our performances in general against them in these last few months and we've basically done well in every fixture we played against them. Simply because their style suites us. I'd be a lot more afraid if we were to play Bayern or Real for example as they play a far more direct and fast paced style which we could never keep up with

Looks like it wasn't a handball at all:

Fillipo?

Possession was 35% for Milan and 65% for Barcelona. Didn't watch the game as I passed out early, but the feedback I got was that we were very organized defensively, worked on the counter ... Yet Barcelona did not play well is where our luck was at.

The return leg will be difficult (i) camp nou has a bigger pitch, hence more effort from our players to close down space (ii) Barcelona will be gunning it from the start as opposed to the way they approached the 1st leg.


With all that said ... Forza Milan !