This was such a perfect advert for the Italian game, it was free flowing had some spectacular defending. the only thing it was lacking was goals but my God, they did have their fair share of chances. Milan came into this game with maybe not the most ideal squad with Thiago silva out injured, no Ignazio Abate or Alex Pato and some of the returning players were not quite match fit, like Kevin Prince Boateng, Robinho and Nesta, but the latter out in a magnificent performance, by using all his experience he managed to keep the onslaught of Barcelona attacks at bay! That is what many people forget and they only look at their age and just label them as being too old, but what people forget is, to get this far in the competition you start to need the experience and intelligence, and you can't win the major trophies with just pace!
Milan had the first chance to open the scoring in the early minute but Robinho shot it over, having not played for a while had shown in his performance, yet they tried hard and defended well but also had the confidence to attack Barca'. Milan may have only had 35% possession but they did force the keeper to make 3 crucial saves- the same as Barca', Barca' may have had 18 shots but only 3 had forced Cristian Abiatti into action.
Zlatan Ibrahimovic was impressive throughout the match, but what impressed me the most was when late into the second half, Barcelona were growing desperate for that away goal and a Barca' player was quite literally stuck to him and just as you thought he might lash out, he kept his cool and played his way out of it. The Rossoneri will need that coolness and clear thinking when they go to Spain for the second leg.
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