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Mar 13, 2013

  • FC Barcelona secures Spot in UEFA Champions League Quarter Final with an emphatic 4-0 victory against Milan.
  • Barca created history by Completely overturning the first leg deficit.

It has never been done before - never in the history of UEFA Champions League a team has overturn a two goal advantage from first leg without in which they haven't scored. Not anymore. Our boys needed to turn around a 2-0 defeat from the first leg and boy, they did it in style. They thumped this AC Milan side 4-0 to book their place in the Quarter Finals. This should hurt Milan like teh way teh 94 final result hurt us, they had one foot in the Quarters. So that's a sweet revenge. Two first half goals from Messi, both of them were sensational made us equal on aggregate. Another goal from David Villa gave us the lead and the late goal from Jordi Alba completed the rout. People used to say that this Great Team has a Great Comeback missing from their portfolio. Not anymore, this would be as good as it gets. The starting line-up selected by Tito was Valdes, Alves, Mascherano, Pique, Alba, Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta, Pedro, Messi and Villa. The line-up looked like a 4-3-3 with false 9 but in reality was a much more adventurous one. We played with a three man defense and also Villa was playing ahead of Messi, who was having a free role. It was similar to the line-up I suggested in my match preview. Milan started with their strongest line-up with Abbiati, Abate, Mexes, Zapata, Constant, Montolivo, Ambrosini, Flamini, Boateng, Niang and ElShaarawy.

Mar 11, 2013

“Som un Equip” (“We are a team”) will be the slogan featuring on the huge Camp Nou mosaic ahead of the Milan clash. And it's quite apt. We need the players to fire as a team and which was very evident from the first leg at San Siro. The 2-0 scoreline shocked the entire team and fan base. What really humiliated us was the fact that Milan never had to work hard to neutralize us. That sense of humiliation became much harder with the double loss to big rival's Real Madrid. There were signs of a recovery at the weekend against Deportivo. One may argue that a game against Deportivo is no match to judge against Milan. But with Barca everything depend on the way we play. So there were enough positives with our first half display, also there were some worrying negatives also(I will get back to that later). So with a deficit of 2-0, the equation is pretty clear - we may need an offensive and defensive display of the likes we haven't seen in the recent weeks to turn this around. The situation is pretty difficult - a goal from AC Milan - then we have to score four goals to go through. In these circumstances it is usual to write off the chances of our team, especially when we have never in recent memory staged a come back like this against a team which will defend deep. But as Xavi very well said after the Milan defeat - the only thing lacking in this team's portfolio is a "Tremendous Comeback in Europe". The signs were there against Deportivo, so what the team needs now is our full and earnest support.

Mar 10, 2013

FC Barcelona extended their lead at the top of La Liga to fourteen points with a fighting 2-0 victory against Deportivo at the Camp Nou. A first half goal from Alexis and another one from Messi late in second half secured us the all three points. Messi has now scored 40 times in the league this season.The match may have been a usual La Liga encounter, but there was no denial of the fact that everyone's thoughts were on the Milan clash on Tuesday. Considering the importance of the task ahead on Tuesday against Milan it wasn't much of a surprise to see a lot of important players being rested. So the first eleven which was picked to face Deportivo were Pinto, (who replaced Valdes who is suspended for four matches), Alves, Puyol, Mascherano, Adriano, Cesc, Song, Thiago, Alexis, Villa and Tello. The bench had Masip, Pique, Alba, Busquets, Iniesta, Pedro and Messi. The fact that both Villa and Puyol started was a source of encouragement, but I had my doubts whether this is an indication whether they will not start against Milan?

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