I have to say (esp. William405)...that I give Allegri a lot of credit for this match.

Usually I rate him as a pure tactician, but today he finally seemed to show that he had the psyche of the team down too.

I know sometimes me and Filippo seem to be the only ones, but really I'd eyes-shut put our old guard in for the big CL nights. They will almost always show up. Seedorf lives for nights like this...and as for DM, if MvB is a weasel, then Ambro is a snake. He is our insurance against Barca's sometimes diving, sometimes rough-housing attitude. He will know when to take a fall, and when to land a crunching tackle. After Nesta and Pirlo, probably THE master of the tactical foul.

As for the complaints about Zee and 90 mins. Of course he doesn't have 90 mins..and it has nothing to do with his age. But the fact that he was injured and he hasn't played for sometime now. It's not just Seedorf, even Boateng, Robinho and Aquilani don't have 90 mins in their legs. Match-fitness affects everybody and is not just agecentric.

Finally a word about Max. I give him credit. I would have been pissed if any of the following had happened:

- We got humiliated like against Arsenal
- We played like whining pussies or like thugs
- We parked the bus but didn't even bother to attack

None of these happened. It was a brilliant (albeit defensive) tactical preparation. We did not whine..chase the ref waving cards (go f@ck yourself Barca) or make cheap tackles and sly punches (ala Madrid). We were defensive but we had two clear-cut goalscoring opportunities with the goalkeeper at our mercy, that our two top forwards messed up. That sucked, it was like they were surprised they had an opportunity to score.

But this isn't Allegri's fault at all. He can only prepare the team, not make them play.

And as for the defensiveness, what could he have done, when all his substitutions were basically forced by injuries. We had to make our first sub at the 50th minute.

So well done Max! Score 8 on 10 to you.

And Ibra. Whaddamaan!! It's like he's changed his entire game for us...and I feel really happy to see this. So much for all the people saying he is an individualist etc etc. He really put his head down and slogged. And credit to the big man for keeping his bigger ego aside.

All in all...well done to the team. Haters can hate.But then this is typical. I'm sick of teams complaining that we didn't fight the fight on their terms. We played on the same pitch as them..and we slipped even more than they did. So whaddever!

Great post Jack completely with you

The pitch talk is just ridiculous, our players suffered a lot more on it than the Barca players did. In fact some of the bigger opportunities Barca created came from our players slipping in crucial moments. Not to mention the injuries which were no doubt partly to blame on the pitch

Yep, I agree with Jack on all accounts. Not much to say for me after such a great post.

Total rot Zed. The playing surface was the same for both teams. tbh, Barcelona have previous for moaning after a 0-0 draw. They did it with Rangers in 2007, Lionel Messi complaining to the press of our 'anti-football'.

It seems when they don't get their way, they complain about tactics, the pitch, everything but their own failure.

btw, agreed all counts Jack. Though I'd have given Ambro 10/10. His best performance for a very, very long time. Thought he was absolutely outstanding.

Pity he'll go back to his rubbish regular ways against Catania etc.

Great posts all around guys and congratulations everybody

I know both teams played on the same pitch but if you look at it from a neutral's perspective Barca are not totally wrong to complain about the pitch. I hope more teams do that so maybe someday our owner/management realize il club piu titolato al mondo (as well as their opposite numbers) deserve better than this.

I don't look at it as a neutral though. I care only about Milan. (Well, and Rangers )

Let's forget about the pitch for a moment.

I see people maintain pointing out we got embarrassed, but as a Milan fan, after yesterday I don't feel in this way, but quite the opposite. Allegri deployed a smart line-up, his faith in players like Seedorf or Ambrosini proved many wrong, and what is most important he had a real plan, a minute-by-minute plan alla Ancelotti or Sacchi. We played some parts more defensive, some parts with more possession, but in the end we had them were we wanted them. Only Nesta's injury changed the course drastically: it gave us a big burden and the confidence was gone. If it wasn't for that injury, I'm sure Milan would have held on to the momentum and pushed harder up front, maybe even got the lead.

The last 20 minutes of the first half were a nightmare. They totally packed us in our own half and we were incapable of reacting. Good thing we didn't concede, otherwise the team's morale would have been destroyed. The second half was much better for us. Barça created next to nothing, and even their ball possession dropped somewhat. Still, I would have preferred a more agressive attitude from our midfielders, and Ibra + Binho should not have wasted those chances, especially Robs. Against a team like Barça, you must take all the opportunities you get.

The last time Barcelona didn't score away in international competitions was against Rubin Kazan in 2009 (0-0), in the group stage of the CL. And in the return match, the Russians actually won 2-1 at Camp Nou. Hm...

Antonini was declared MVP by UEFA last night.

The only thing I'd say about the first one is that Sanchez knocks the ball too far away from himself and looked for it. Had he not have been touched then the ball would have gone out anyway. In saying that, if it happened to us then I'd be mightily pissed.

The second wasn't given because, for once, Puyol actually carried on and got his head to the ball. Usually in situations like that he'd have gone down like a sack of 5hit and got the penalty.

The last one should have been a freekick on the edge of our area as that is where the offence seemed to take place.

It seems strange to think that the best team in the world can't beat a mediocre Milan and have to resort to whining about missed penalty appeals. They also moaned about the pitch as well, to me that shows how well we actually played last night.

Oh and any chance of any clips of calls that didn't go our way or went unpunished? Keita had more than his fair share of fouls including a shin cruncher on Nocerino. Ibra was also wrestled to the ground, yet the Barca player went unpunished and there were many others.

+1

You've also got to consider the amount of players that weren't available last night through injury as well!



Thing is there aren't many teams that can actually outplay Barca though! To beat them you have to be able to sustain pressure and counter, which is what we did. IMO possession counts for nothing as we've dominated games with 60% possession and lost, while we've also had less possession than the opposing team and won! I thought we played the perfect game last night and in some ways the 0-0 was almost better than a win as they haven't got the away goal. I do agree that both Binho and Ibra should have finished their chances though.

Has anyone seen this?

The Curva ...

My EXACT thoughts on both incidents. the second one was never a penalty, Puyol managed to head the ball and it nearly went in. only if he hadn't got to the ball as a result of Mesbah pulling his shirt it should've been a penalty.

i still think Mesbah could benefit from a lobotomy...

Were they not such an egocentric team, they would realize that this pitch played a part in alot of our injuries, the main reason we faced them with our B team...

Injury in part due to the pitch. It's a swamp out there!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_xTcYUxohwY...eature=youtu.be

0.48 Seedorf passes the ball then gets taken out from behind. No punishment

0.55 El Sha gets bundled over in the box just like Messi. Again no punishment.

Oh and they complained about the pitch but we played on it ok? For such a great team they really act like a bunch pussies when things don't go their way. I just hope they do go trophyless this season...

Oh man, well said. I'd love if I could get my hands on the matches our injuries occurred, and how many of them were in the San Siro. Remember, inter is the only other team that had their players missed out in over 150 matches. I am not saying it's THE problem, but it's A BIG PART of the problem, nevertheless.

If both clubs can't get their act together and work on the pitch, they won't get nearly as far as they want to.

What disgusting cry-babies! The don't score the first time in years and all of the sudden everything is to blame - the pitch condition, the referee...I really despise the Spanish duo. Please give us a Milan-Bayern finale, god that would be a great blow in their faces!

I find myself loving Allegri's humility more and more as the age of non-whining coaches seems to be many miles in the rearview. The EPL coaches are notorious for blasting the refs and getting results, the same can be said of Conte. I guess the world is trying to hard to emulate Mourinho's diversion tactics.... Nonetheless, This is bellow Barca to cry foul over our pitch that has injured us into fielding our B team, a field we played on and also missed good chances on...

Agreed, while i think Bayern would devastate us, i do think the CL needs a little variety on it's spice rack...

If it gets us a new pitch,why the hell not?Galliani spoke about the artificial turf needing only 2 month to be done,and he's only awaiting inter's apporval,so yeah the guy's pushing for it.

Devestate us!?I seriously doubt that,they'll leak a great amount of goals against us,and we've got bullet proof defence

Just read this, I think it's from ACMilan.com:



So it seems that before the game the pitch was ok but because they couldn't score and only drew it was the pitch's fault?

Oh and it seems their plane was delayed as well

Edit: Here is the communication from ACMilan.com but it's in Italian - ACMilan.com and English - ACMilan.com

If there is one thing I've learned, it's never to underestimate them Germans. They are similar to us in many ways, just that our defense is miles ahead of theirs, but their attack is more cohesive than ours. If it ever came to it, they'll give us a hard time in the own backyard, that much is certain!

http://img444.imageshack.us/img444/8707/ja5s.mp4

Clarence tricking Messi

Completely agree with that. I'll maintain that the only regrets that I have is that we didn't score those 2 chances and didn't try to force any set-pieces. This should be one of our major strategies away from home when we attack, we should just take it to the wings and win corners off them. I'd rather play like a Championship side and go through rather than play like Champions and go out.


Yes the missed chances were bad. But overall I'm proud of what we did, and if you look at some of the articles written on the net about the game, you'd see that there are more positives towards Milan and a disappointment towards Barca. People had them in the final already, Allegri needs to drill this into the players' heads before we go out there next week and they need to give their all.

The problem with doing what you saying is that it's 10 times more tiring to chase them down and press them when they're passing the ball around you. So sitting back and trying to catch them out makes a bit more sense imo. We'll see what approach we'll use at the Nou Camp. I wouldn't be surprised if Allegri dropped a forward and went for the 3 man defence, imo it would make a lot more sense than having 2 players upfront doing nothing but waiting around for us to finally win the ball again


Great analysis. When I first saw the incident I was convinced it was a dive, simply because of the theatrical way in which Sanchez dived over Abbiati, whether it was legit or not, if you fall like that there's always a chance that it will be called against you


Agreed


I think all of Pato's muscular injuries happened in the San Siro, last season the only injury he got away from home was that shoulder dislocation


100% with you. We've shown class throughout this season even when things haven't gone our way. Allegri has had ground to stomp his feet like a 3 year old this season the way things have gone for him with the injuries. Can you imagine Conte in this scenario.


??

Devestate us? Bayern have an aweful defence, and they certainly don't keep possession the way Barca do to cover that large defect. They'd only trouble us on the wings, but Allegri has handled such teams very well this season by not allowing our defence to push up to high, thus we can't get caught out with huge acres of space for the opposing winger to run into, ala Spurs last season for example

+1

I'd go as far as saying our worst games are against teams with wingers, Juventus, Arsenal, Lazio (when they beat us early in the year) are all teams that have troubled us with their wingplay. While i do concede that the sentiment of us losing agaisnt them is perhaps more of a feeling then the product of careful analysis, I can't help at think Ribery and Robben would shred through abate and Antonini, to say nothing of Mesbah... I will openly admit to not watching them as much as i once did, but i have seen their scorelines of something like 3-4 consecutive 9-1 wins...

Don't worry we've got Antonini babyy

In all seriousness,who did they win against?Our centerbacks are worldclass,Abate is solid defensively,and Antonini is having a great season.And,we've got a badass crew in midfield that can support the defense and attack.

Juventus beat us in the first game not because of wingers, but far superior physical play. They overran us in that first game and we couldn't deal with it. Juve don't really have wingers in the traditional sense of the word ala Arsenal.

As for Arsenal, we completely cut out their wings in the first leg. In the second yes they beat us, but come on. We had Mesbah there FFS. And our players seemed uninterested in the game until they realised that they could be knocked out. I don't see Lazio is a team that plays that wide either, and I don't think they beat us simply because of that. We were just bad against them and they made us pay for it.

I don't see Bayern as big a threat as Barca and Real. They just have that something missing imo. Yes they have a great attack, but imo it would be 50/50 should we face them.

That being said, I think facing Bayern this season has 1% chance of happening, so let's not worry about it

Yeah, I can attest to seeing more than a mouthful myself. An uneven surface is one of the worst things for a player. Having played on a few, I know how hard it is to run, and how hard it is not get injured while doing so. One bad landing can wreck havoc on the leg and body, even.

Uefa now saying that Barca didn't send an official complaint about our pitch now. Are Uefa yet again covering up for 'their' team?

Could be, because this whining is only making them look bad, especially after Milan revealed that before the match Barca were ok with the pitch

Hope they go through with the artificial surface proposal.

Well...UEFA have come out and actually supported Milan.

No way,they are covering Barca's whining.

Depends on perspective, I guess. Besides, if we think the pitch is of international standard, then that's another debatable point. Because I sure don't see it that way. It has deteriorated more and more by the years. But then again, that's the issue with stadiums who share two big clubs like ours. Milan and inter, play all through the year.

I don't think there are any other two clubs in the (now disbanded) G14 that shared a stadium. Tells you all.