That's a major bummer, then. No chance in a years Seedorf should be there. If the sticky midfield of Barcelona target him personally, then we can be in big trouble. We'll probably have to sacrifice Nocerino to cover for Seedorf, and Boateng to battle alone with help. Dear, dear.


I can only hope you are right, that's what I'm telling myself. Not playing Aquilani would hurt us.

The only way I'd see Seedorf is by playing him as AM and Boateng as RCM.

Seedorf is bad there too.I believe playing Urby would make us bit more dynamic and unpredictable,but where would the creativity come from?only if we had cassano...

Aquilani is your answer. He's not slow, he can press and play ball. In other words, the perfect choice against Barça.

While i do think we should field him from the start, i think your overrating his defensive characteristics....

How exactly did I overrate his defensive characteristics? I didn't say he's a defensive stallion. I only said he's not sluggish and can press, unlike Seedorf who's the total opposite.

While Aquilani is not "slow", he's not really fast either. if I wanted to rate his speed, it'd be 6.5 out of 10, max.

I tend to agree with that. Pressuring Barca and keeping tight in both midfield and defence is the number one priority. Seedorf and Aqui will simply not work hard enough

Surprisingly, it seems we agree. This is a match I'd actually prefer Emanuelson.

Emanuelson or Aquilani would be fine with me. Just no Seedorf.

Seedorf will do his job later on. I still have immense respect for him, and if we somehow grab us a goal advantage, he's the person we need in.

Agreed. Since he's not played for a while, it seems a lot of us here are forgetting his capabilities. He can take care of himself, while pressing the opposition, and more importantly create chances and scoring opportunities. A rich man's Emanuelson, though he's got a lower watt battery, but that's okay.

Like I said, a lot will depend on the gameplan and mindset. I'll be okay with Emanuelson too, but that is if we are not to assert our advantage from the starting whistle. If we are playing a soaking game, then perfect. Anyway, this is our home, we shouldn't be missing out on pulling whatever strings we can.

As long as the defense remains solid (it will be slow, that much I can tell you), we should look to score.

I don't know how we can expect to do an Inter to Barca with some of the players we have in defense and midfield. who can we rely on to do a Zanetti on Messi? ... .

Nevertheless, the group games were not worth taking too seriously because we were gonna advance anyway so we played attacking whenever we could without having to worry too much, but this time around I think we need to be as defensive as we can. if we push forward a lot we'll concede too much space in our 1/3rd and that will be the end of us. we need to play this tie the Italian way. I wouldn't give a **** if we eliminated Barca the way Inter did. if that's the only way to stop them, so be it. we could make up for it in the next round by playing our usual, more attacking football against Chelsea.

I really don't see a lot of hope for us in this match. I just hope it won't be embarrassing.

Well I'm still not sure if I should watch the game, as things stand we don't have the capability to progress. Maybe we win the San Siro leg, but what of the one in Spain? Yeah, I just want to see the team test their wits against the best and assess what level we are at. Other than that, there is not much to take from these ties

No matter what happens, I'm taking this as an entertaining fixture, and nothing else. It's a clash of two European powerhouse, one of which I happen to be a fan of. And I'll just have a good time watching it, regardless of the results. We either get humiliated, humiliate them, it'll be a conservative fixture, or an all out attacking one.

Either way, you can find me near the screen, enjoying some good food, and not worrying about what happens!

Not watch the game!




I doubt that'll happen when game starts,we'll see

LIVE : http://www.p2phd.eu/4417/1/ac-milan-fc-barcelona.html

Who's unavailable for Barca?

Oh,this will take some time...;p

Well out of our starters,I can tell you that Pato,Cassano(obviously),Abate,Silva,Van Bommel.

Some fans...

after chelsea scored yesterday the guy on SSN said that this could be the goal which sets up chelsea's semi final meeting with Barca

Sorry, I meant who's unavailable for our visitors?

That's how little hope anyone's giving us.

Yeah..most of them Barca fan boys...already think we're gonna park the bus..play negative etc etc. They think it's just a matter of time.

Truth be told, I don't mind losing. I can accept our team is right now, not as strong as theirs. What I will not accept is if we don't put up a fight.

Like we did at the Camp Nou you mean?

It was one of the most negative defensive displays I've seen, completely reliant on counter attack.

Well yeah..but what I mean is that they think that's the only chance we've got and that it's just a matter of time before they beat us silly.

If we perform like we did in London, they will beat us silly. And with no Silva, VB, Robinho or Abate it's that bit harder.

The one good thing is Ibra and Boateng will play - our most potent attacking players. And, in Boateng, imho, one of Serie A's best players and one of Europe's most in form players.

He's become our Sneijder - in terms of the Dutchman at his peak for Inter.

Can't disagree with this. Not as creative or visionary as the Dutchman, but almost as effective!

Not really. The Barça fans have a lot of respect for us, and they really think we were the worst possible opponent they could get.



Robinho will play from the start. Only Silva and Abate are unavailable.

Anyway, Seedorf still being favorite over Aquilani and Emanuelson.

I heard something about Aquiliani returning from injury completely unfit (in terms of having a belly and all). It irritated the boss.

He looked ok to me

At least it does not go to his @ss like with Seedorf

That's training. That's how he holds up the ball.

What is the expected lineup on the usual site you guys get it from?

Abbiati; Bonera, Nesta, Mexes, Antonini; Ambrosini, Nocerino, Seedorf; Boateng; Robinho, Ibrahimovic.

I really hope he'd use Urby for the first 60 mins over Seedorf. Seedorf just doesn't have that much juice in his legs anymore. If we could get a lead he would be the perfect sub though.

Bonera, Ambro and Seedorf worry me greatly.

Indeed.

We might play with the white, "lucky" jersey tonight.

Link

For f*ck's sake!

PLEASE NO SEEDORF,OR I WILL KILL MYSELF,thank you.(inb4suicide note)

Bonera is our best option at RB. Ambro and Seedorf are the real problems, Allegri must be on something FFS

Thiago and van Bommel are unavailable, so we have no other option but to play Ambro. Seedorf is the real problem here.

Yeah I know, the comment was mostly aimed at picking Seedorf, but Ambro comes into play as picking them together in that midfield makes the decision a million times more stupid if you ask me.

So even if Ambro is forced, putting the Seedorf icing on that cake is certainly no help to our cause

Yup. I really want to know what goes on Allegri's mind, playing Seedorf in this kind of game.

Our only hope is that Seedorf drank from the fountain of youth!

Or he does as he did against Arsenal... Get injured in the first 15 minutes

Exactly. We are a club that oozes quality. It may or many not translate much today, but still.


Oh heavens to bitsy! If he does start and gets rundown, I probably will never be able to unsee it.

OFFICIAL LINE-UPS

MILAN: Abbiati, Bonera, Méxes, Nesta, Antonini, Nocerino, Ambrosini, Seedorf, Boateng; Ibrahimovic, Robinho.
BARCELLONA: Valdes, Dani Alves, Piqué, Mascherano, Puyol, Xavi, Busquets, Keita, Iniesta, Messi, Sanchez.