Barca dominate hahahaha Nice nice...all you live i dream U think that are playing woth Getafe or Osasuna...but Milan is so stronger than you dude... Forza Milan... Real Madrid the bestttt
i dont know that barcelona could dominate osasuna, they have some quality, against a sh¡t team like real though, we would whoop a$s.
Actually I wouldn't read too much into the loss...it really, by all accounts, should have been at least a draw, if not a deserved win. If those 2 one on ones, with the keeper beaten, hadnt hit the crossbar, we'd all be singing a different tune. Anyone who didn't see Barca's dominance all game long (except first couple of minutes of each half), wasn't paying attention (i'll remain polite for now). Yeah, we ran out of ideas at times when in Milan's penalty area, but this is A.C Milan after all, you can't expect to bombard them every time down the field. This is perhaps as dominant as you can get in the San Siro, and to be fair, we created alot of good chances. I thought Marquez had an excellent game, he was always in the right place at the right time. Milan did little really all game long. Down 1-0, it's expected that we leave some spaces in the back, but even then, we dealt extremely well with the counters. Oleguer, Puyol, Gio, Belletti...they all had a great game (except on that one chance, one goal). I absolutely don't foresee any dark novemeber or anything even close. We will remain unbeaten in the league, we'll have some fun in the cup, and just wait for 14 days to pass by until we meet again with Milan. Oh, it will be a very different story there...
Very well said Mr. J.M Batlle: http://www.sport.es/default.asp?idpublicacio_PK=33&idnoticia_PK=157322&idseccio_PK=631 http://www.freetranslation.com
this is why i'm worried about november: http://www.fcbarcelona.com/eng/noticias/noticias/n04102104.shtml i agree that barca deserved at least a draw, and it seemed to me like the only reason they weren't able to make that final push was because too many key players were a little tired, especially the ones who had been involved in WC qualifiers (deco was quiet, dinho disappeared in periods, as did xavi and larsson, and eto'o and gio also didn't look 100%). if you look at that fixture list, they've got three days, or at most four days, between matches.
I am blown away by these comments. Ronaldinho was Barcelona's best player BY FAR in this game. He took a little while to get going but from the middle of the first half on, he played very well. He needs to work on his finishing but he was the only player consistently causing danger for Milan's defense. Deco, Eto and Larson were completely useless. I actually think Ronnie has been off to a slightly disappointing start this season. This was, considering the quality of the opponent, probably his best game of the season so far. And he is actually much better when drifting to the left-wing where he has space to operate. In the middle he sometimes gets bottled up. It is funny but in Brasil, people are talking about how they wish he would drift to the left wing like he does for Barca. And you guys are talking about how he should play more in the middle. I guess the moral of the story is that soccer fans are always complaining.
I read all post here but no one told what was wrong, why we lost and where was the difference? So, I will try to do that. Those who said that we dominated San Siro dont know much about Milan and italian football at all. For them arent important impressions, how does team perform like in Spain, it is important that team wins a match. Milan scored a goal, covered all empty places and the resoult was 1-0 for Milan. As Barcelona fan I can say it was horrible, we recieved a stupid goal and were twice unlucky. As neutral viewer I could say that Milan won the match becouse they had more disposed players and were tacticly better. Far by far, in other galaxie was Jaap Stam. Man of the match without doubt. A classy performance from him, he didnt do a mistake at all. Next one who made the difference was Andrea Pirlo. He dominated infrond of Milan back four line. Whenever we came to 20-25 meters he was there, always on the right place and doing right thing. Class performance. And the third one who made the difference was Shevchenko. He was in the mood last night and even Puyol couldnt completly stop him. By all great goal, without doubt. Milan were doing what they are the best in - defending. Back line of Maldini-Stam-Nesta-Cafu and infrond of them Pirlo-Gattuso, this is just the best defence you can get right now. Can not be better. We didnt look sharp at all against them. OK, we had a clear better ball possession but in the end counts only resout. I doubt that there is any team in the world that could gave a goal to Milan last night without being lucky. I tought Barca could do it but we werent lucky in the end. What can we expect from game in two weaks time? I think we will watch same Milan as last night. Defensive with counter attacks. If they scored first again I am 99.9% sure we will LOST. It just the thing that you cant score a goal against so good organizired team. Perhaps I am wrong, we will see. We will need a quick goal to beat them. What to say about Barca. We played our own match and didnt deserved to lose, but this is sport. Once you win once you lose. There was nothink wrong in our game. We were twice unlucky and did one mistake which was enough for Milan to win the match. I think, perhaps it sounds little strange, but this team doesnt have enough expiriences for such games. Also Rijkaard should consider a different approach to this game. He should know that it will be very hard to score a goal against well positioned Milan defence. The only way you can score a goal against Milan is with counter attack or by amazing freekick. More than 95% of goals that Milan gets are those two kinds. So I will say, Ancelotti won the tactical war. I a also think that playing with 3 strikers from beginning in San Siro is very risky. I think Larrson or Etoo should be sub and Iniesta should get a chance in starting 11 from the start. In the end FR didnt have a stikers to replace dissapointing Etoo. But also injuries made its part. In such important matches also squad deep made the difference. How did Barca players played? That how El mundo rate them (5 is the higher): Valdés (2); Belletti (3), Puyol (3), Oleguer (2), Van Bronckhorst (2); Deco (3), Márquez (3), Xavi (3); Eto'o (1), Larsson (2) y Ronaldinho (3) I think our best player was Xavi, same level Puyol and perhaps Deco. Ronnie was dissapointing in my eyes. He couldnt make the differences and for majority of the game he wasnt seen at all. Also Etoo, Milan defence covered him excelent. Belletti, hm I think he is rated to high by EMD. Its true that he has a lot ball posetion. But his crosses were useless and didnt do anythink useful at all. Cafu for instance had a great cross for goal and this make him great. Belletti simply wasnt at high level last night. By all the space he had on the right he should have done more. All others were solid but no one was special. There simply wasnt any magic to make the difference. But it was one mistake and we lost. That how football is played in Italy. In the end no one asking how the team played but what the score was. After some time is only the score important. In the end, this defeat is not a tragedy. We still have 3 games to play in CL. Also I think the motivation for a game in Nou Camp will be even higher. We can expect even better game in two weaks and I hope with better resout for Barca. FORZA BARCA
What players said after the match (from barca site): MÁRQUEZ "We had chances to equalize" "In the second half we had them on the back foot" "It was difficult to penetrate their area but in the end we had some good chances" "I thought Iniesta's shot would go in" "We put in a good performance and gave a good account of ourselves" "We all know we did a good job" "If we carry on this way we won't lose many matches" PUYOL "Milan plays very well as a team" "Barca had a good game. We moved the ball about well" "They closed things down in their area and it was difficult for us to penetrate. Even so we created chances" "They like to move the ball around but they weren't able to do it so much against us. Perhaps because of the pressure we put on them" "We were well-positioned for their goal but Shevchenko out jumped us" "Nobody likes to lose" "I think Milan is one of the best teams in Europe" "We played well and gave a good account of ourselves" "Now I have to continue my recovery from the knee injury" ETO'O "The coach had to make a change and he chose to put someone in midfield" "The change came off well but we were unlucky in front of goal" "I don't think this result will harm us as we put in a good performance" "We deserved more" INIESTA Iniesta: "I thought my shot was a goal" Iniesta came on in the second half and had one of the best chances of the match just before the final whistle only to see his shot cannon off the woodwork. "I thought my shot was a goal" "It was a pity we didn't get the equalizer" "We dominated nearly all the match" "All the games are important but right now we have to think about the next one against Osasuna"
We needed Giuly. Giuly and Deco together would've found a way. I'm not saying Ronnie is not in their level, because he is. Its just that Giuly has a Heart of Ice and Nerves of Steel. If Giuly was fit, then Eto'o would've sat because he's still recovering from the gastrointestinal virus.
Agree, Giuly was the missing link. This just tell us how realy important player he is for this team. When is he back anyway?!
We will...I promise you, we will!! Again, my final notes on the game: When all is said and done, we played a great game and made enough chances to win the game. Clear cut, 100% chances to win it, we were just two tads unlucky... I wholeheartedly believe we played a better game then A.C, and truth be told, their defense didn't look that comfortable all the time (in retrospect, Numancia's defense was much more solid...yeah, don't laugh!). We opened them up on several occasions and much more dangerously than they did...I still beleive we were the better side defensively (with the exception of that soft goal)...if you take into account the fact that we were 1-0 down and had to come forward in numbers, we did very well at the back. Ronaldinho was quiet in the first half, but simply took over the game in the final 20-25 minutes. Milan had no chance but to foul him almost every time down the field. If there's one disappointing aspect of his game lately, it's been his free kicks... I think Xavi, Deco and Gio should get more chances. I agree with K-man about Belletti, and this is something I mentioned right after the game (you know, the hitting my head with a sledgehammer thingie )...The number of chances he had to put in a good cross was just outstanding, and the number of times he messed it up was even more outstanding. He MUST work on that aspect of his game, if he improves, he can become a monster... Anyways, I know we got 10 games in the next 5 weeks, and that this should be something to worry about...but you know what, I'm not worried...I have too much confidence in this team...it might be illogical, but it's a gut feeling I have, we'll keep on rolling!
There's the game recap: http://www.soccerpulse.com/forum/lofiversion/index.php/t14467.html you'll find it in the top post.
Ronnie has just set the bar so high that nothing short of magic falls into the "been there, done that" or "he was OK" category