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FC Barcelona will need all of their stars firing tonight if they hope to rescue a UEFA Champions League tie that has an AC Milan victory written all over it. Join us for live scores and commentary from 6.45am AEDT.
It has been a difficult past few weeks for Barcelona and they will really need to produce something special, even by their high standards, to progress to the quarter-finals stage.
The La Liga giants face an in-form Milan outfit that completely outplayed the Blaugrana at the San Siro three weeks ago en route to a 2-0 victory.
Since that result, Barcelona has struggled to score goals and create chances in their recent defeats to great rivals Real Madrid in the Copa del Rey and in La Liga.
Despite getting back to winning ways against Deportivo La Coruna on the weekend, Barcelona still struggled to create chances and will get no favours tonight from a Milan unit that possesses the potential to open their opponents right up on the counter attack.
Prediction
Whether Barcelona progresses or not tonight will largely hinge on the performance from superstar forward Lionel Messi.
Although Andres Iniesta and Xavi will also play vital roles, it is Messi that invariably sparks Barcelona to life in attack and if he can score early, the Argentine possesses the potential to take this tie away from Milan in the blink of an eye.
But Milan are proven masters of shutting down Messi, effectively nullifying the Argentine’s threat at the San Siro by putting three players on him at once.
Riccardo Montolivo, Christian Zapata, Kevin Constant, Ignazio Abate and Massimo Ambrosini were superb defensively in the first leg and will be confident of shutting down Messi yet again tonight.
The loss of Philippe Mexes to injury is a blow to Milan given the Frenchman’s terrific form, but the Serie A giants always possess terrific depth in defence with Daniele Bonera also capable of doing the job at the back.
With Barcelona needing to chase the game, Milan will calmly sit back and let the hosts dictate possession knowing full well that any slip up from the home side will result in a costly away goal.
Milan attackers Kevin-Prince Boateng, Stephan El Shaarawy and Abate caused enormous havoc on the counter attack against Barcelona in the first leg and will fancy their chances of finding the net against a Barcelona defence that lacks speed.
Carles Puyol and Gerard Pique will most likely station themselves high up the pitch for Barcelona tonight in a bid to win back possession quickly.
Such a tactic may play right into Milan’s hands so it would be wise for the Spanish defenders to show the respect Milan’s forwards deserve and sit a little deeper than usual.
All things considered, Milan on form just appears too stable defensively for Barcelona to break down tonight.
Barcelona will certainly ask questions at home and may even win the match, but the Serie A giants possess more than enough class to score the crucial away goal they need to secure a place in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Barcelona to win 2-1, Milan to progress on away goals.