Match date: 12 March 2013

It was always going to be a thrilling match with Barcelona needing at least two goals to stay in the tie, with Milan hoping to get an away goal to try to kill off the tie. What we’ve witnessed though, in my opinion, is one of the most dominate displays by any team against another top team in the Champions League.

Barcelona were entering a huge match not just in terms of their Champions League campaign, but morale. Having lost to Milan in the first leg and losing twice in one week to Real Madrid, it had been a poor few weeks for Barcelona and they were looking to become the first team ever to overcome a two goal deficit in the second leg of a tie without having scored an away goal.

Important Changes

Barcelona made two changes to the side that lost to Milan in the first leg and 3-1 with Javier Mascherano coming in for Carles Puyol and, more significantly, David Villa coming in for Cesc Fabregas.

In two of the three losses that Barcelona have recently faced, Iniesta and Fabregas have been playing alongside each other and it just wasn’t working well. I mentioned it a bit in my El Clasico piece, but because I think Fabregas’ absence from the side was crucial for Barcelona’s success, I’ll explain it a bit again.

In the first match against Milan and the first loss of the two against Real Madrid, Fabregas and Iniesta were consistently trying to occupy the same area on the pitch. When Iniesta is out wider, which is usually where he lineups with Fabregas on the field, he wants to cut inside high up the field, into the space that Fabregas also wants to run into. With Iniesta in the middle three and someone like Pedro on the left, Iniesta has the space in front of him to get forward as Pedro usually gets very high up the pitch and makes runs in behind Iniesta as he moves forward. For Barcelona to be successful on the night, they had to get the most out of Iniesta and had to have the more direct mentality of Villa.

The introduction of Villa in a more central position also allowed Messi to be more free. In the first leg of the tie, Messi was often crowded out by Mexes and Ambrosini. However, with Villa in a central position, Villa was able to occupy the centre backs, usually getting close to Mexes as Messi came in from the right, and it allowed Messi to find the space between Milan’s midfield and defensive lines, which was surprisingly large at times despite the midfield not pressuring the Barcelona midfield at a high level. Here’s a good example of Villa getting the attention of the centre backs and giving Messi space:

Milan’s changes included the absence of Sulley Muntari, not only a goal scorer in the first leg, but also the furtherest midfielder up the pitch for Milan. Rather than have Muntari play that supporting role, Allegri opted for Flamini to come in and act as another holding midfielder alongside Ambrosini. The second change was Niang on for Pazzini, who was out injured with a micro-fracture in his fibula.

Here’s how the teams looked (I’m trying to give accurate depictions in these from now on, rather just how they’d look on paper):

The Barcelona You Know

Barcelona started the game off superbly; they were getting the ball forward well as Milan dropped off and tried to keep the ball from getting to the feet of Messi, Villa, and Pedro. With that said, Milan’s midfield were putting little pressure on any of the Barcelona’s three midfielders; Xavi, Busquets, and Iniesta were all able to pick their passes with relative ease. The problem was that they still had outlets and Alves and Alba on either side of the pitch which would cause the Milan defense to shift and open up holes. Even if Milan weren’t going to put much pressure on the likes of Xavi and Iniesta, what they needed to do was put a person in front of Messi as well as behind so that they could intercept any passes intended for his feet, like Xabi Alonso did in the 3-1 Copa del Rey match.

With 57% of their passes going forward, Barcelona had a breakthrough just five minutes into the match, something that they would have been playing for and something Milan would have been hoping not to allow happen. It was Busquets who played the penetrating pass into Messi’s feet after a good build up play, with ten passes and 6 players involved, by Barcelona. Messi then played a one-two on the edge of the area with Xavi and was able to get a shot off, and score, with five players around him.

Apart from having nearly 70% possession throughout the match, one of the best things about Barcelona today were how they won the ball back. Pressing the ball and winning it back quickly has been one the key elements to the Pep Guardiola and Tito Vilanova era at Barcelona, but in the past few weeks, it has been lacking. Tonight however, Barcelona were winning the ball back exceptionally quick and extremely well, winning the ball back 18 times in Milan’s half. Both the second and third goal were done so immediately after winning the ball back. Below are Barcelona’s tackles and interceptions (provided by CNNFC and Squawka Sports):

The second goal came in the 39th minute when Iniesta won the ball from Ambrosini and Flamini and then had so much space to run into as Montolivo was slow to cover his teammates. He then played a ball into Messi’s feet (who was offside, but maybe makes up for the no-call penalty on Pedro) who took two touches and then beat Abbiati at his near post.

The third came has Mascherano made an interception at the edge of the center circle that went to Iniesta. He then played a first time ball back to Xavi, who played a one time pass to Villa. Constant tried to make a sliding interception, but missed the ball, allowing space to open up for Villa, who took his time, picked his spot, and scored at the far post.

Just as the success of Barcelona is about using their width well, today with Alves and Pedro, (although they weren’t very successful in their crossing today) and waiting for their openings by keeping the ball, their ability to succeed in retaining possession for long periods is by winning the ball back quickly and high up the pitch and they did so incredibly well tonight as Milan faltered in the transition from the defensive phase of the game to the offensive and the back, something they did much better in the first leg of the tie.

Nerves at 3-0

Earlier in the match, Milan had two good chances to try to kill of the tie. The first being right after Messi’s first when El Shaarawy got behind Alves with a diagonal run, but took a heavy touch and hit a rolling shot right at Valdes. The second opportunity was Niang’s, who hit the post, but had the pace to get onto a misplayed ball by Mascherano and almost end Barcelona’s hopes. Along with these two notable events, Barcelona’s back four were a bit nervy tonight. They knew that they could not concede an away goal or else they’d have a bit of a mountain to climb.

Once Barcelona were up 3-0, Allegri began to introduce his subs, Muntari, Robinho, and Bojan all entered the field to give Milan a greater attacking threat and they did so. Both Pique and Alba had to make important tackles to deny Milan their away goal and as Milan pushed further forward, it was always going to allow Barcelona the opportunity to counter attack, which is what they did. Messi played Alexis Sanchez in who played a good ball over to Jordi Alba, who sprinted about 80 yards to slot the ball home to give Barcelona a 4-0 lead and insure their progress.

Conclusion

A classic match really as Barcelona became the first team to come back from a two goal deficit without having score an away goal. There was so much expectation from Barcelona and Messi to respond to the poor display they showed in Milan. Messi especially probably knew he had something to prove tonight after the first leg where he was mostly anonymous with Milan crowding him out every time he got on the ball. The deployment of David Villa in a central role certainly helped allow him the space he needed to influence the match. By leveling the scores on aggregate, Messi took his tally to 53 goals in all competitions this season and now has 5 goals in 9 appearances against Italian sides in his career, all five coming against Milan in the last two years.

It was really a ‘vintage’ Barcelona display, one we would have seen during the Guardiola-era about 2 or 3 years ago. They were winning the ball back quickly, used their width well with Pedro and Alves, made penetrating passes, and combined well around the box. There were plenty of people saying that Barcelona had finally reached an end of their prestige with the Milan and Real Madrid losses, but today they showed that they’re far from it.

Barcelona will be hoping to build off of this display and, with La Liga just about won, they’ll be thinking that they can certainly go on to win another Champions League trophy.