I live in the United States and I was on spring break, unwilling to wake up before 11 a.m. It’s because of this that I didn’t watch the draw for the quarterfinals and creation of the final bracket for the 2011-12 UEFA Champions League, which was on at 6 a.m. on the East coast. I knew when I woke up that my best friends, Twitter and Facebook, would give me the news about who AC Milan Jersey team would be playing.
What I didn’t expect was for the first word I saw that morning to be Barcelona. However, that is the way a draw works. The quarterfinal draw, where all bets are off and there are no rules about group alignment and domestic relation, is truly a “luck of the draw.”
Some might not call it luck, drawing the defending European and world champions, the winner of the Champions League, the world’s most elite sporting competition in three of the past six years.
It’s a team with names like Xavi, Iniesta, Fabregas, Puyol, Pique, and, of course, the three-time reigning world player of the year at only 24 years old, Lionel Messi.
It is a Germany Soccer Jerseys team with a 41-year-old coach who took only three years to break the legendary Johan Cruyff’s record for most trophies as Barcelona manager by winning his 12th.
All that said, AC Milan should see it as an opportunity to send a message to the world.
The meetings between Milan and Barcelona on March 28th and April 5th will be the third and fourth of the season, as the two were rivals in Group H of the competition, playing each other to a draw and a Barcelona win.
Without star forward and former Barca frontman Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Milan went into the Camp Nou as underdogs, and rightfully so in credit to the Blaugrana. However, 24 seconds in, Alexandre Pato scored the fifth-fastest goal in Champions League history.
After Barcelona struck twice to take the lead, which they did on an unstoppable free kick from David Villa, it looked clear that they would get off to a quick start in the quest for group supremacy. However, Thiago Silva’s stoppage-time header gave Milan a share of the spoils.
In November at the San Siro, Barcelona controlled the game, as is common any time they take the pitch, but Milan Soccer Jerseys team refused to go away. An unfortunate deflection off Mark Van Bommel resulted in an own goal and a debatable penalty gave Barcelona their second goal before they added a third. Ibrahimovic and Kevin-Prince Boateng gave Milan reason for hope, as their goals kept the pressure on Barca all match.
Milan have only gotten better since those meetings. They currently hold a four-point lead over Juventus in Serie A and show no signs of slowing down.
While they fell to Arsenal 3-0 at the Emirates Stadium in the second leg of their Round of 16 matchup in the Champions League, Milan held strong defensively through the second half and protected their 4-3 lead, which started with a 4-0 win over the London club at the San Siro.
Ibrahimovic is on a tear this season. He is the first 20-goal scorer in Serie A for Milan since Andriy Shevchenko in 2003-04 and has five goals in the Champions League, scoring in nearly every match he’s played.
Milan have the defensive capabilities to hold Barcelona.
From bleacherreport
Tags: AC Milan, Barcelona, Champions League
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