A Football Report

By Anthony Lopopolo

The stats didn’t give Barcelona much of a chance. The oddsmakers turned on them. The people criticized the club, virtually preparing for their burial. No team had managed to overturn a two-goal deficit in the Champions League without the benefit of an away goal. Barcelona had never capsized a 2-0 deficit in Europe. And Lionel Messi had never scored against an Italian club from open play. Not often do Barca, and Messi, need a game to silence critics, but if there ever was one, it happened Tuesday night.

Presumably, only Barca could’ve played so confidently with all that racket. They’re so strong-willed. They didn’t want any negative energy: come support us or go home, Gerard Pique insisted. And just when some were starting to believe they were losing their lustre — they had lost, before the second leg against AC Milan, three of five games — the Catalans put on a performance to remind the world they are still capable of greatness.

This was not just a case of Barca being Barca. Jordi Roura said so. “Beating Milan 4-0 is not normal for anyone, not even Barcelona. They are a great team and made life very difficult for us,” the club’s assistant manager told reporters. The match was much more than a blowout. It was a game of stark conclusions, one in which we saw true reflections of both clubs: that Barcelona can still play, and that Milan still have much work to do.

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By Anthony Lopopolo

They didn’t like being called the favourite. Barcelona almost always are these days, but something about AC Milan frightened them. Not so much the team, or its players, but the very thought of playing against Milan. Barcelona’s people spoke of their opponents in the round of 16 in the Champions League as if they were patron saints of the tournament. (And to some they are.)

But they came into Milan’s San Siro revering a familiar foe to such great extents. Milan’s history, their seven European titles, and their past performances against Barcelona — despite winning none of the seven previous games — intimidated them. Barca’s president, Sandro Rosell, didn’t feel relaxed. Xavi, too, speaking like a historian of the game, felt uneasy. “They have always made things difficult for us,” he told Sport.es before the game.

If Milan’s new team — only four of the team’s starters remained the same since the last time the two sides met — didn’t intimidate them, this idea of history did. Not what Milan are, but what they represent: a club demanding respect. Now, Bojan Krkic, the former Barcelona player, had at least said so: “Barca has the best in the world,” he told reporters, “but the San Siro commands respect.” So the visitors gave them every bit of it, maybe even too much. After all, it is Barcelona’s opponents who so often give too much respect. So often those opponents give up possession for the sake of defending.

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By Ogo Sylla

When Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Antonio Cassano both left Milan, the attack of the club was left in the hands of Alexandre Pato, Robinho, Bojan and Pazzini. However, no one would have expected young Stephan El Shaarawy to be to be sitting as Milan’s top-scorer this season.

In fact, El Shaarawy is not only Milan top-scorer but he’s the Serie A topscorer as well. His 14 strikes place him ahead of Cavani, Klose and Di Natale; all of whom are renowned for their goals. Additionally, the attacker has three assists to his name; the young man who was born in Savona, Italy is responsible for a little over 50% of the Rossoneri’s goals this year. His new role in the team has created more freedom on the field, allowing the attacker to flourish, without playing in the shadow of somebody else.

It was last summer that El Shaarawy signed for Milan from Genoa for a fee around €10m. It indeed looked a hefty sum for a 19-year-old who had previously only made one league appearance and mostly featured in Serie B during a loan spell at Padova. But with Italian clubs not so flush with cash and lowering their wage bills in recent years, El Shaarawy has become one of the many Italian youngsters benefiting of more playing time.

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By Jared Mercer

Amongst all the transfers this summer, it was the Milan clubs who swapped strikers, which has been the most surprising and well planned by Internazionale.  Inter’s 28-year-old Italian striker Giampoalo Pazzini suffered a poor year with the Nerazurri, playing in 33 matches and only notching 5 goals. He quickly became one of many players offloaded in the summer transfer season by Inter as they try and reshape their squad. At AC Milan, 30-year-old striker Antonio Cassano only participated in 16 matches, scoring 3 goals but assisting on 10, with his stats tainted because of health issues involving his heart.

Both clubs decided to send their star strikers packing as Cassano questioned Milan’s ambitions after the sales of their top players Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Thiago Silva to PSG and he had also never really fit into the Milan fold since joining from Sampdoria anyway.  Inter wanted to cut all the dead wood loose from their poor season and underperforming Pazzini headed that list. The two former teammates at Sampdoria and good friends off the field swapped teams while remaining in Milan in what looks to be a relatively fair trade other than the fact that Milan also had to pay Inter €7 million as well as sending over a top player.

Cassano is two years older than Pazzini, and with his heart problems over the past year, that does not make him an ideal transfer target, which is perhaps why Milan had to pay the extra amount of cash to land Pazzini. But is the gulf between the two worth that many millions?

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By Ogo Sylla

It has been a tough summer for Serie A fans. The mercato has seen many stars and promising young players leave the Peninsula such as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva, Fabio Borini, and Marco Verratti just to name a few. In fairness however, it is AC Milan who have experienced the most tumultuous of mercato and thus results on the pitch may be a difficult thing for Massimiliano Allegri to come by. 

Indeed, in addition to the immense quality the Rossoneri have lost in the form of Ibrahimovic, Thiago Silva and Cassano, they have also lost a substantial amount of experience with the departures of Nesta, Zambrotta, Gattuso, Van Bommel, Seedorf, and Inzaghi. As such it becomes a massive task for Allegri to mount anything close to resembling a challenge when it comes to the upcoming Serie Acampaign. In Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi’s mission to lower the wage bill and make the club more financially self-sufficient, the Milan hierarchy went on to recruit youth or bargain signings they knew could contribute something. 

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