AC Milan recorded a memorable 2 – 0 win
over Barcelona at the San Siro in the first leg of the round-of-16
fixture between the two sides. It was a tactical masterpiece by
Massimiliano Allegri which was perfectly executed on the pitch by a
bunch of young, energetic and talented players which led to Barcelona’s
demise, particularly with forgettable games for all their stars
including Messi. Here are five things that were noticeable in the game,
and had a major influence on its proceedings.
The counter attack from Milan
AC Milan took what Chelsea did against
Barcelona in this tournament last season, and took it a step further
with some well taken goals to boot. Where Chelsea were content to park
the bus and lob the ball up the field whenever possible, Milan played
actual football with the ball at their feet, after soaking up pressure
from Barca. They were set up perfectly with pace down the wings, and
took full advantage when provided the chance by releasing the ball down
the wing, and creating all sorts of trouble for the Catalans’ full
backs, who are the only source of width to Barca’s attack. Thus, a
stroke of genius from Allegri, perfectly tailored to the squad at his
disposal, and the main cause for their win yesterday night.
The offside trap by Barcelona
Barcelona’s plan, at least over the
first half, seemed to be to try and catch Milan out by playing a high
line and springing the offside trap to good effect. It was a bad idea
overall, especially with the pace of Boateng and Shaarawy taken into
consideration, and was proven to be so when the latter beat the trap and
nearly created something for his side in the first half. Additionally,
with the full backs joining in attack often to provide width to their
play, Barca’s dependency on the offside trap was always meant for doom
against a club with the quality of Milan.
A mature role for El Shaarawy
Stephan El Shaarawy, in spite of all the
praise that Boateng will garner for his performance, was the key to
Milan’s victory. Running tirelessly all game, the young starlet made
excellent forward runs, and kept track of Alves’ runs at the same time,
only being beaten once or twice by the full back. Some vital
interceptions of balls which were meant for Alves allowed Shaarawy to
not only help out his defenders, but also set Milan on their way for
counter attacks, making him deserving of plenty of credit for sticking
to the plan put in place by Allegri.
Lack of width for Barcelona
As already mentioned twice above, the
only width that was provided to Barcelona’s play was when Dani Alves and
Jordi Alba surged forward from the back, making it nigh impossible to
find them with the excellent tracking back from Milan. In addition, the
risk of letting Milan into the gap left behind shackled the full backs,
and reduced their forays to a great extent. This was quite obvious when
comparing the number of times Alba got forward in the first twenty
minutes or so to the number of times in the rest of the game. The
introduction of Sanchez did little to change this either, with the
Chilean also trying to work a more central role, and looking slightly
lost overall.
A one-dimensional approach
Barcelona, as one person put it, were
very much like a battering ram, trying to repeatedly attack through the
middle, and failed miserably with every attempt. In fact, a shot from
Iniesta which was from about 30 yards out and curled just wide of the
far post was as close as Barca got to scoring all game. There were no
other efforts from range either, and the lack of width to their play has
already been highlighted above. In spite of the fact that many of their
players were performing much below expected standards, the fact that
Barca lacked an alternative approach either from the players on the
pitch or off the bench is something that other big clubs all across
Europe would have taken note of.