Milan v Barca

Amirani

v

19:45 - Stadio Giuseppe Meazza, Milan


Two undoubted heavyweights of European football playing each other tonight in what should be a great game.

The clubs played each other 3 times in Europe last season, drawing one and Barca winning the others.

Both teams come into this on the back of very different league campaigns. Barca have steamrolled the La Liga this year while Milan have struggled for a lot of the Serie A season, though have improved to now find themselves in third.

Facts:

AC Milan have won the European Cup or Champions League seven times - in 1963, 1969, 1989, 1990, 1994, 2003 and 2007.
Only Real Madrid, with nine triumphs, have won it more times than Milan.
Striker Filippo Inzaghi scored twice the last time they won a final, beating Liverpool 2-1 in Athens.
Barcelona have won the competition four times - in 1992, 2006, 2009 and 2011.
Their last triumph was also against English opposition, with a 3-1 victory over Manchester United at Wembley.


Head to Head:

Played
15
Milan wins
4
Barca wins
6
Draws
5


Likely lineups:
Milan: Abbiati; Abate, Zapata, Mexes, Constant; Muntari, Nocerino, Montolivo; Niang, Prince-Boateng, El Shaarawy.

Barca: Valdes; Alves, Pique, Puyol, Alba; Busquets, Xavi, Fabregas; Pedro, Messi, Iniesta.


Betting Odds:
Milan: 5/1
Draw: 16/5
Barca: 8/15

Rekop dog

Niang aint playing, neither is Nocerino. Ambro and Pazo will be starting.

Kylo Ren

Balotelli to score 3 and eat Messi in celebration.

Rekop dog

Keno 92 wrote: »

Balotelli to score 3 and eat Messi in celebration.

Cup tied

Pinturicchio

Rekop dog wrote: »

Niang aint playing, neither is Nocerino. Ambro and Pazo will be starting.

Is Niang injured? If not, starting Pazzini instead of him is a mistake IMO.

Rekop dog

Pinturicchio wrote: »

Is Niang injured? If not, starting Pazzini instead of him is a mistake IMO.

Nope, tweeted last night that he isn't starting. I agree but its much of a muchness because we will more than likely be spanked over the tie in any case.

Seaneh

I think not starting Niang is a massive mistake unless they plan on lumping balls at Pazzo or something. Niang's pace would scare the ****e out of the barca centre backs and he would absolutely burn Alba or Alves for pace on the wing and he can cross the ball. I'd have him on the right ahead of Boateng, or maybe play Bao back in midfield.

prettyboy81

Barca comfortably tonight like Zzzz mighty Germans last night!

The_Kew_Tour

Got Milan just under 7/1 on exchanges have bit of that to lay off of they take lead.

Seaneh

Starting lineups:

Milan (4-3-3): Abbiati; Abate, Mexes, Zapata, Constant; Ambrosini, Montolivo, Muntari; Boateng, Pazzini, El Shaarawy
Milan bench: Amelia, Yepes, De Sciglio, Cristante, Traoré, Bojan, Niang

Barcelona (4-3-3): Victor Valdes; Dani Alves, Piqué, Puyol, Jordi Alba; Xavi, Busquets, Fabregas; Pedro, Messi, Iniesta
Barcelona bench: Pinto, Montoya, Mascherano, Song, Thiago Alcantara, Sanchez, Tello



Really surprised to see Bryan Cristante on the bench... random...

Quazzie

The_Kew_Tour wrote: »

Got Milan just under 7/1 on exchanges have bit of that to lay off of they take lead.

That's a mental price against Barcelona who never really excel on away European nights.

Francie Barrett

Valdes; Alves, Pique, Puyol, Alba; Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta; Fabregas, Messi, Pedro.

Abbiati,Abate, Mexes, Zapata, Constant, Ambrosini, Montolivo, Muntari, El Shaarawy, Pazzini, Boateng

Teams from Twitter.

Rekop dog

Lads analysis of Milan is lol, no mention to some of the most exciting young players in Europe coming through, it's all about building to the future. Jamie pronunciation of El Shaarawy was also shocking.

Francie Barrett

Ambrosini to be shown a card @ 5/4 - thank you very much

Paco Rodriguez

Jeez they are such hypocrites at Sky. Milan were too old a couple of years ago...and now they are bemoaning the lack of experience.
And we are selling clubs that havent bought any top players. Balotelli!

ahnowbrowncow

Paco Rodriguez wrote: »

And we are selling clubs that havent bought any top players. Balotelli!

They said top players...

:pac:

Francie Barrett

Paco Rodriguez wrote: »

Jeez they are such hypocrites at Sky. Milan were too old a couple of years ago...and now they are bemoaning the lack of experience.
And we are selling clubs that havent bought any top players. Balotelli!

British pundits are clueless when it comes to Italian football these days.

Blatter

Francie Barrett wrote: »

British pundits are clueless when it comes to football these days.

FYP

Turtwig

Really looking forward to this. Real shame about Balotelli. In my opinion this will be the game that tells us how good Barca really are this season. I guess another real shame football wise is that they didn't get to keep Tito all season. It only really became in apparent in Nov how he was changing the team. They are A LOT more direct this year. As such though they're more vulnerable to the counter attack but the results haven't really reflected that. Barca's biggest weakest though isn't their defence. It's Alexis Sanchez misfiring in front of goal. It's so bad that a team could basically go "Let's focus on Messi, Iniesta, Cesc and Pedro and tempt them to pass to Sanchez, shur, the bloke's not going to score anyway. No matter how many guilt edged opportunities we hand out!" I'd imagine most of Barca's supporters are thrilled he's not in the starting XI. This is the same Barca line-up that was utterly awesome against Malaga in Malaga. It's also a much better and in-form Milan. So, how good are Barca? Time to find out.
(Read that last line in Optimus Prime's voice. )

That Barcelona shirt is a crime against humanity. They should have warned viewers to wear sunglasses. Who on earth designed it?

klose

Boentengs hair is ****e

Quazzie

Deleted User wrote: »

That Barcelona shirt is a crime against humanity. They should have warned viewers to wear sunglasses. Who on earth designed it?

It looks like a pint of sex on the beach.

Will I Amnt

tipp_Gunner wrote: »

That Barcelona shirt is a crime against humanity. They should have warned viewers to wear sunglasses. Who on earth designed it?

klose wrote: »

Boentengs hair is ****e

Ah lads, take it to the fashion forum :pac:

Liam O

cambo2008 wrote: »

Ah lads, take it to the fashion forum :pac:

Really is hard to watch a group of footballers at the top level wear something that looks like that though. Really distracting me from the game.

RandolphEsq

Messi is just phenomenal. Panic defending again.

TheMilkyPirate

Liam O wrote: »

Really is hard to watch a group of footballers at the top level wear something that looks like that though. Really distracting me from the game.

I love it.

RandolphEsq

Soft free on Kevin.

Nalz

lol Conor Sammon touch!

Liam O

Jaysis, could have scored both times there.

Rekop dog

Some lovely flicks by KPB so far, seems to love a big occasion.

Nuri Sahin

cambo2008 wrote: »

Ah lads, take it to the fashion forum :pac:

Eden Hazard likes this

RandolphEsq

Milan seemed to completely open up in the centre of midfield twice in the last minute.

revz

Milan have set up really well, just need to cut out the stupid errors (Muntari this is mainly directed towards you)

RandolphEsq

Barca now getting more and more possession in the Milan half. A goal coming?

Rekop dog

El Shaarawy has been poor since Balotelli signed. Needs to get back to top form to have any chance.

RandolphEsq

Muntari is extremely sluggish, big awkward touches.

quarryman

How has fabregas been for barca since joining? He looks out of place out there.

DerekDGoldfish

revz wrote: »

Milan have set up really well, just need to cut out the stupid errors (Muntari this is mainly directed towards you)

He might be reading this forum, certinaly not watching the game

Liam O

Rekop dog wrote: »

El Shaarawy has been poor since Balotelli signed. Needs to get back to top form to have any chance.

He's only 20, something a lot of people don't seem to realise is that young players across most sports like this tail off towards the end of the season. In the NBA they have a term for it, the 'rookie wall' not to say all players suffer from it but it is a process conditioning a player to go 30, 40 and 50 games in a season.

Seaneh

Pazzo might as well be on the pitch. Switch him for Niang at half time for the love of god.

RandolphEsq

Barca hold the ball, Milan retreat. Eventually Milan get it back and then lump it forward. Still a gripping game though.

RandolphEsq

The crowd are creating a funeral atmosphere.

klose

That was extremely boring

mitosis

Rekop dog wrote: »

El Shaarawy has been poor since Balotelli signed. Needs to get back to top form to have any chance.

He's been nursing an injury.

Rekop dog

Barca 1 shot on target and that was a speculative long range effort. Great job lads, keep it up.

Pazzo needs to come off though, game is perfectly set up for Niang, offers far greater counter attacking potential.

Andersonisgod

Barca's possession has been good, the passing crisp and they've identified a couple of weaknesses in the Milan back line without yet punishing them. 0-0 is a fine result for Barcelona anyway, taking it back to the Camp Nou level they would be very confident.

Seaneh

Niangs pace would pull those two cbs all over the place. He'd make bits of them.

Jimmy Iovine

How are Barca looking to score two goals and keep a clean sheet?

This chap has them in a promotional bet from Coral. He has already guessed six of the scores. If the Shalke match stays the same and the Barca one finishes 2-0, then he wins a cool 1 million pounds. Not bad for a free bet.

Seans_Username

Seaneh wrote: »

Niangs pace would pull those two cbs all over the place. He'd make bits of them.

If they keep playing the way they do then Niang's pace would be a perfect fit for the couter attacks. As much as I love Pazzini, they'd have a better chance of scoring with Niang and SES blistering forward

pappyodaniel

Sounds like George Hamilton has a cold (sniff sniff), blow your nose FFS!

klose

Fabregas for villa, push iniesta into midfield maybe?