Lionel Messi converts his first PK of the match. (Getty Images)
Coming into today's UCL quarterfinal match between Barcelona and AC Milan, the Italians seemed to be a trendy to pick to upset the defending European Champs. It is true that Milan could have gone through had they duplicated their 2-2 effort at Barca in the group stage, but I for one wasn't buying it.
Part of Milan's success last week at the San Siro was because they could pretty much defend most of the space on that pitch. That wasn't going to happen on the wide expanses of Camp Nou, and it was obvious from the early moments. In the 3rd minute Andres Iniesta had Barca's first chance, but put it wide. In the 7th minute Lionel Messi looked to have a golden chance right in front of net but inexplicably put his shot wide as well.
Maybe the Italians could live a charmed life in this one, but probably not.
Milan's day turned to shambles early on in the 10th minute when Philippe Mexes mishandled the ball just inside his own half. Messi grabbed it and dashed in on goal. He centered back to a trailing Xavi, but he wasn't quite ready for it, and bobbled it around the six. It looked like Milan were going to escape, but the ball fell back to Messi and Luca Antonini made a dumb slide tackle on the little genius to concede a PK. On the actual spot kick, Milan 'keeper Christian Abbiati guessed right, but couldn't get down on Messi's shot quick enough and Barca took the 1-0 lead.
After the goal, you could just feel the stadium relax. Barca kept the possession for the most part, and it really didn't seem like Milan had much for them. However, all that changed in the 33rd minute. The Spaniards' defense went to sleep and Ibrahimovic found Antonio Nocerino running into the area. He slid him the ball and Nocerino let loose a shot that Victor Valdes took an unconvincing swipe at before it went into the back of the net to make it 1-1. That result would see Milan through on away goals.
Of course that would entail making sure Barca didn't score again, and that fable didn't last long. Barca earned another PK in the 40th minute. This one was a bit more controversial. While setting up for a Barcelona corner, Alessandro Nesta got a couple of fistfuls of Sergio Busquets jersey. Puyol set a pick on him and as they fought around it, Busquets went to the floor rather theatrically, drawing the penalty. Now, it probably was a foul, but you could probably call this type of foul on 85% of corner kick in routines in pro soccer. I'm sure Italian defenders defend corners like this every week. Busquets flailed his arms before going down like the proverbial ton of bricks, making sure the referee saw it, and called it. I'm sorry, it probably was a foul, but it was almost surely a premeditated dive by Busquets, and it's exactly that kind of play that makes people turn off soccer matches. At any rate, Messi scored his second PK of the day and sent Barca to the half leading 2-1.
Milan never really got it going in the second half, and Barca put it away rather early. In the 53rd minute, Messi let loose a shot that was blocked but the ball fell to Iniesta, who slapped it just inside the far post to make it 3-1 to Barca and kill the game off. It also made neutrals like myself feel a little bit better about the impending result after the stench of the soft PK.
Milan never really threatened the Barca net for the rest of the match, and the Spaniards held on for the 3-1 win. Now, I don't mean to imply that the second penalty was the reason Barca won. I'm sure they would have won anyway. I also don't want to imply that Barcelona didn't deserve to go through. Of course they did, they were obviously the better team over two legs. It's just unfortunate that a team as good as they are has to have something like a Busquets dive mar a pretty good performance. You don't see Lionel Messi pulling that stuff.
As for Barcelona, they await the winner of Chelsea vs. Benfica in the Champions League semifinals.
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