La Pulga y Don Andrés...

...son grandes!
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by PAM


FC Barcelona vs. AC Milan
UEFA Champions League Quarter-final tie, 2nd leg
3rd April 2012, Camp Nou, Barcelona, Spain


Of course, Lionel Messi weaved his amazing magic again at Camp Nou to keep
Italy's best meet World's best. Game on!FC Barcelona's hope to retain the Champions League title in the Catalan capital alive and well.  He did it via amazing runs and a brace of goals - this time, both from the spot.  The two goals pushed Barça to an early lead in the second leg of their UEFA Champions League (UCL) quarter-final tie with AC Milan.  And it was a happy, happy, happy thing, especially that one of those goals was record-setting!   While that was pure Messi awesomeness, I think it was Don Andrés Iniesta who lighted the fireworks of brilliance on the pitch this time around!  The "pale assassin" slotted in the third goal that provided the necessary cushion to Barça's precarious 2-1 lead in the first-half of their match with the visitors from San Siro!  Iniesta's sublime goal, a remnant from a Messi attempt, brought the scoreline to 3-1, on aggregate, against the Italian Serie A's best to ensure a place for Barça in the UCL semi-final round.

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Off to a flying start!


As expected, the match kicked off with both sides at full speed.  I thought Dani Alves fouled Clarence Seedorf twice with
Gerard Piqué and Ibra...tower-ful both.harder-than-necessary push, but only the second one was called. Gerard Piqué did great intercepting Zlatan Ibrahimović's early runs for the Barça goal.

At 4:38 minutes of play, Messi did a great run against three Milan defenders, getting through impressively - as usual - but Christian Abbiati did a fine save.  Awesome job - for both men!  And that was going to be the theme of the match, actually.

At 6:13 minutes, Dani Alves sent a nice cross to Cesc Fàbregas, who was behind Messi.  Fàb flicked the ball beautifully in one touch to Messi in front of the Milan goal.  Messi, with two Milan defenders on both his sides, stopped the ball with his chest and attempted to send a volley over Abbiati's head... but missed! "He's human after all," was all the stunned commentator could utter in disbelief.  Then again, one cannot discount the Rossoneri defenders around Messi.

At 8:54 minutes of play, there was a commotion between Barça's captain, Carles Puyol, and Alessandro Nesta - battle of muscles... aaaw!

At about 9:30 min, there was a big Barcelona run... Messi was running against two Milan defenders, he kicked the ball to the speeding Xavi, who miscalculated his control of the ball... but saved the ball and quickly returned it to
Leo Messi celebrating goal #1 with Cesc Fàbregas.Messi, who was still finding his position.  But Messi quickly got the ball to position for a sure goal as Abbiati was still paying Xavi, and Dani Alves behind him, his divided attention. Nesta and Luca Antonini did what they had to do: threw and entangled themselves with the speeding Messi, who was thrown down - mostly by Antonini's impact.  Penalty!  The little "magic man" himself took the shot... and it resulted to Messi's 50th goal in the UCL.  Therefore, La Pulga became the youngest player (at 24 years) to reach a half century of goals in the Champions League!  Aaawww, brilliant!  :)  More importantly for Camp Nou, Barça pushed through in front to take the early lead, 1-0.  Awesomeness! :)

The next how many minutes were relatively calmer run from Barça, just trying to make some chances to cushion their lead... and a more tactically disciplined run from Milan, especially defensively, trying to stop Barça from scoring more.  The result was a treat for football fans all around the globe!  Both teams did fantastic in a fast-moving game, tactic vs. tactic runs, trying to outwit each other in a great execution of the 'beautiful game'.  Oy!

Champions League cardiac duel...

...between Italy's best... and, uhm, Europe's best! Oy!
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by Philipina A. Marcelo


"Friday (work) madness" is brewing, so let's make this quick! Therefore, let me say, first of all, that the AC Milan vs. FC Barcelona UEFA Champions League fixture in San Siro earlier this morning (Thursday, Manila time) was a monster of a match - in terms of excitement! It got me spewing early morning coffee at many points as a torrent of yellow cards swept the Italian pitch - defining the mood, speed and INTENSITY of the duel between Zlatan Ibrahimovic's current Club and immediate former Club!

Let me say, second of all, that the Barça away kit was, uhm, so
Four from Barça's three generations of superstars
celebrating Xavi's Messi-assisted goal - such an
awesome sight to behold!pretty (hehe... y'know I need to say that, don't ya?)... uhm, even on Sergio Busquets who usually wears the Barça color with very neutral effect even when his ballhandling, er, ballfooting (huh? hehe...) in Barça's midfield can be extra-ordinary, and especially on Lionel Messi who made the minty cotton candy-ish shirt a total "pop hit" in a classic only-for-the-"big-boys" tumultuous affair of footieful brilliance! Aaawww! :) The kit in question also made Cesc Fàbregas worthy of some pause-and-stare in the midst of all that testosteronic intensity despite Cesc's painful (for us, fans) "hair confusion" phase ( I sure wish that it's just a phase). *sigh* :)

The scoreline, AC Milan 2-3 FC Barcelona, doesn't really sum it all up. The three times that Barça took the lead and the two times the San Siro residents equalized, and all the round leather's close encounters with the net in between, were the big dramas that made the duel between the two giants at the Stadio Giuseppe Meazza quite unforgettable... and another day of no-sleep for football fans in this side of the world - but very happy, nevertheless, thank you very much! :)

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It all began with a tackle...

The dogfight on the pitch started with a bold tackle by, ahem,
El Capitan, Puyi, flying
kick con flying curls.who else but Ibra on Barça's captain, Carles Puyol. As Puyi rose from the Italian pitch amidst that mighty roar from the crowd... and under Pep Guardiola's not-so-surprised stare, the Catalan Captain shrugged the Italian dust and signaled the seriousness of the match. Xavi, rising to the challenge, was not content with 'just' playmaking that night. He relentlessly skimmed the peripheries of the midfield, darting past Milanese defenders in unstoppable determination in front via a Messi-created space - on a hunt for a goal. With Thiago Alcántara behind, beside, and around him, more than ably covering the voids he leaves in the midfield as he penetrated the Milanese defense, Spain's most current "century man" flirted with fire, taunting the mighty Milanese defenders every so often as he tried to slot the ball in the Milan goal. And then, at a moment of sheer daring and
Ibra... on the loose, footloose
dangerous.brilliance, the Maestro caught a Messi long-distance volley via a Seydou Keita cross in front of the goal and pressured Mark van Bommel to slot an own goal, putting Barça in front - where they belong! Woohoo!

While Keita tried to put a fence around Ibra all night, the "Tower of Terror" got away from Javier Mascherano at one striking glory point as the Swede chased a Seedorf cross that Puyi failed to intercept, beating Victor Valdes somehow with a fantastic kick-on-the-run that found its way in Valdes's net - an equalizer for Milan! The economy-ravaged, post-Berlusconi Italian crowd roared! Game on!

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Killer kicks, blinding speed, some misses... and yellow cards!

Now that both teams expressed their singular intention of winning the UEFA Champions League Group H top spot via a 1-1 scoreline, they stared one another in the eye coldly in a nerve-wracking intensity, matching each other's kick with a kick, speed por speed... and yellow card por yellow card! But, hey, there wasn't any temper-losing incident from both sides, just a great display of tactical duel - which was an awesome way to play the beautiful game!
Kevin-Prince Boateng, he who
left Victor Valdes breathless.There were heartbreaking misses, such as that Fàbregas uh-oh moment - a waste of Thiago-created brilliant chance - and that Robinho say-what???! wasted chance at the very mouth of the Barça goal, which he sent over the net when he could have just tapped it in nicely in a clinical finish! Oh, well....

Ah, and then there was that Messi "spot blink" (hehe...) that fetched him a yellow card from the amused referee, Wolfgang Stark. :) But, of course, La Pulga completed the opportunity via a Xavi-was-brought-down-on-the-pitch confusing situation with a goal on his second try, putting the Catalans in front once again. And then that awesomeness of an equalizing goal by Kevin-Prince Boateng that left Eric Abidal, Boateng's marksman on Barça's danger zone, speechless... and Victor Valdes shaking his head in disbelief! It left me astounded, too, with a whispered, but full of conviction and sincerity, "dang, awesome"! =)

Just when I was about to declare Boateng's goal as the best in the
Ah, Barça... just oh-awesome!match, Lionel Messi, in his phenomenal brilliance, navigated a crowded Milan danger zone, slipping the ball through with incredible dribbling and speed through the narrow thoroughfare, and found the discretely positioned looking-for-a-kill-like-a-panther Xavi in front of Christian Abbiatti, who rejected a number of Catalan attempts with touches of brilliance of his own. In a split second of breathtaking football - Barça style - Messi laser-pointed the ball to Xavi, and the Maestro slotted the ball with zero hesitation and 100% awesomeness! Dang, too fantastic! Milan didn't have an answer to that, and so the BEST OF EUROPE took the top spot in Group H. Woohoo!

While Massimilliano Allegri and his men competed absolutely
El Maestro, the Man of the Match.fantastic, the well-deserved win went to those who are some notches more brilliant... who ran and attacked relentlessly on the pitch - Barça! :) But all clubs expect that when they find themselves on the same pitch as the Catalans... Europe's best run a lot, they take ball possession to heart in an attacking football strategy that is heavily anchored on tiki-taka, they link up on the pitch like a single body that packs tremendous cohesive force (although lately, they're exhibiting some failure in that division via a Guardiola endless combination "experiments" this season. Ah, but what do you do when you have so much talent in your stable, so much options in front of you? You'd experiment, too, wouldn't you? Dang, I would!). AC Milan went into the match with the right game plan, the right attitude, and the right execution with incredible football artistry, too. But in a duel of absolute brilliance, played in good spirits and sportsmanship, the better team emerges victorious! Visca, El Barça! :)

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Photo credits: All photos were grabbed from the Zimbio website - thanks.
Video credit: Thanks, YouTube, for the video link.

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