PBP: UEFA CL 1/4 1st Leg | AC Milan v FC Barcelona | 28 March 2012 [R]

I would hope the focus is on Tuesday, but I have a hard time seeing that (especially if the whores happen to drop points since they play first). Would actually be great to piss off Messi and rest him over the weekend so that he is fresh and angry for the CL tie.

If by "2" you mean "3", then yes.

Kidding aside, 0-0 goes to ET, any other tie to Milan (outright winner advances).

Some comments about the pitch:

Guardiola: "Pitch? Don't know, it was slippery, at half-time, we told the players to be careful not to get injured." #fcblive

Guardiola: "It's a great stadium, but it's quite closed and the pitch can't breathe. It's always bad., but it is what it is." #fcblive #ucl

Puyol: "What was going on with the pitch? Was dry, not flat, ball didn't roll well. But we're getting used to that." #fcblive #ucl

Maybe that's why Pep took out Iniesta.

No. It means we have to score 3.

I want to shoot the person who first said "away goals count double," for all the people they've misled over the years.

The commentators on the game I watched I think were quite trite. They acted as if it was basically gonna be a Barca guaranteed win. I haven't watched a ton of Italian football but the stuff I have watched makes me think AC Milan will be one of the toughest teams to beat. They seem to know defense.
Also, anything can happen in just one game, thus that opinion doesn't give credit to the Barca team's success.

Math majors correct me, but they count for 1.0 0 0... repeating ...1
Right?

The away goals advantage only comes into play if the overall goal count is equalized. If the goal count in both legs is in our favor we'll pass.

Barca looked very cautious - maybe Milan's energy in the first few minutes worried them slightly. Couldn't understand Keita's selection... they seemed to lack directness, would have been worth putting Cesc on - he's the type of player that tends to give Milan trouble, especially with Seedorf and Ambrosini needing to avoid a second yellow.

Very disappointing second half. We had our chances in the first half but couldn't capitalize if you think about the Alves chance, Xavi and so on. They had a couple really good chances, but they played defense like they did against us in the first leg.

Messi didn't seem to be as sharp either and that may have been a problem. Iniesta needs to play in his natural position. Pique, Puyol and Masch had monster matches. The pitch was atrocious, but they at least cleared up those two huge strips of dirt that were there towards the touchlines against Arsenal. The pitch hindered us more than them obviously, but they played well so we have to give them credit. I noticed there was barely anyone making forward runs in the second half, maybe it was instruction to ensure no one got injured, but the team was definitely lethargic in the second half.

The second leg will be tense. If you consider that Arsenal tore them up 3-0 when they didn't have any real hope to advance and it doesn't seem so bad. Or the fact that the last time we played them at home we should have had five or six easily.

Looking at the league Bilbao have been floundering, but I suspect we will play a strong team on the weekend.

They are playing Europa cup tomorrow and next week. Could really help us. I think they will concentrated on that instead of La Liga.

The Brit media is still somewhat sour grapes over the Arsenal tie and think that we're undeserving or at least "unqualified" to lick Barca's boots.

The Arsenal away game we lost 3-0 was embarrassing granted, but it was also an aberration in the context of what Milan has been consistently producing this season i.e. smart effective football. Not to mention we were missing like 6 key players to a point where Allegri actually had to bring in an extra keeper just to fill in the bench.

the referee helped an awful milan over the line versus arsenal. yesterday, milan played like total cowards. the occasional long balll to an offside zlatan, and 90 minutes of relentless barca passing. well done to milan for not capitalting, but 11 behind the ball at home in the first leg, you'd think they might as well go for it at some point, but i guess they are prepared to be ko'd without trying, just to save another multigoal humiliation. champions of italy means nothing.

I'm usually pretty cautious about making bold predictions for games, even ones where Barca are overwhelming favourites. But I genuinely believe we will beat this Milan side by 3 or 4 goals in the return leg. They clearly played for a 0-0 (although if I was being honest they had the 2 best chances of the night) and are probably hoping they can sneak an away goal. But they are a slow side with little or no pace, the fact that the pitch at the San Siro is a joke also hepled them out, it won't be the same at the Nou Camp. So overall I thought a draw was a fair result, we didn't create anything in the second half. Personally I'm glad we didn't get those penalties, even those the first one in particular was a stonewall pen, because it proves there are no conspiracies to ensure Barca get to the final, despite what a whinging Portugese fella in Madrid keeps proclaiming.

By the way, does anyone know what the bloke standing to the left of the goal with a flag is supposed to be doing.

Don't know about Pedro starting in the home leg, but Fabregas should certainly be in. The mighty Masch was outstanding.

Agree, but personally I would put Fabregas in the side and then bring on Pedro as a sub. I think because of the pitch at the San Siro the game was played at a pace that Milan could cope with. They really can't deal wth pace and it will be a different matter at the Nou Camp.

Anyone who can answer my question about the jokes who stand behind the goal with a wand in their hands, what do they do?

The Pedro of last season would, but the Pedro we've been seeing this season adds absolutly nothing to barca's game. If barca needs width, then Cuenca and Tello are more reliable choices imo.
And Cesc needs to play.
Milan played how they could play imo, they couldn't do anything more than what they did. They took their chances (and they had very clear cut chances in the 1st half) when they had them, they were never going to have more possession than Barca and they new it.
Iniesta had a bad match on the left, the only reason i can understand Iniesta playing on the left is if Cesc is playing, which means they'll rotate alot.

Can someone tell me what the heck the goal referees do?

They don't have flags, they don't call the ball out of bounds, they don't call penalties...

They just stand there and see if a ball crosses the line or not???

Come on FIFA lets get with the times please..

On another note I don't understand why they don't reset cards for the semis at least, the whole cards thing is lame as well.

http://www.sport.es/es/noticias/barca/uefa-pedira-explicaciones-milan-por-estado-del-cesped-1599461

Milan will have to give explanations to UEFA about the horrible pitch.

Just look at this pic how the grass teared up:



AC Milan have officially admitted they unilaterally broke the agreement to water the pitch ahead of last night's CL game. #fcblive #ucl

What exactly is Barca's management expecting making an official complaint about the pitch? Do they think UEFA is going to give them a free win or something?

Of course Barca should make a complaint about it.

It's not acceptable to play on a pitch looking more like a potato farm than a football pitch at this level.

UEFA has to take action against so that it doesn't happen again. Otherwise everyone can have pitches like that when the play against more skillful teams.

I agree but would watering the pitch have helped not make the pitch cut up like it did?
I have mixed feelings about this complaint. On the surface it sounds like Barca are trying to make excuses and all that does is feed the zahzahs of the world who are obsessed with pointing out all the favorable decisions Pep's team receives while ignoring any justified penalty claims that weren't given.
But if Milan had agreed to water the pitch before kickoff and took it upon themselves not to, they should be held accountable. But I would only foresee a small fine as punishment.
With that said, I'm all about home field advantage so I don't understand why Milan needs an agreement from whoever on the state of their pitch. Mourinho's Chelsea had Stamford Bridge officials leave the pitch looking ridiculously like a beach when Barca visited in '06 but I don't recall if Chelsea received any type of punishment for it.

I don't think Barcelona care that much about Milan's possible punishment.

It's more a thing of principle, it's completely unacceptable to have a pitch in that condition at this level. I would understand if it was the first round of the Copa del Rey against a 3rd division side or something like that, but not a quarterfinal in the Champions League.

They should have watered it liked they had agreed to do, but I don't think that would have helped that much. The grass was in really bad shape in general and they have had problems with it for years, but I never seen it this bad in such a important game.

I'm really not trying to make excuses for the draw or anything like that. I just think it's really really bad to see a game getting affected so much by the field at this level.

UEFA should look into this and make sure it doesn't happen again.

Galliani said something about them having plans to install a kind of artificial pitch (mixed with normal grass).

With all due respect that's what it sounds like.

I'm biased but I completely agree with this article.

http://www.goal.com/en/news/1717/ed...must-start-behaving-like-real-champions-after

If the pitch was that bad why didn't they say anything when they trained on it the night before? Back in the fall when they scored three in the San Siro there was not a peep about the pitch.

Of course it only becomes an issue when they don't win.