"With lots of respect for Barcelona but without being reverential towards them," AC Milan Coach Massimiliano Allegri

By Anna Italia
Follow me in Twitter  @ItalianSerieA
Support 100% Italian Teams in UEFA Champions League
  

    AC Milan - FC Barcelona                              

                   

Here are the declarations from AC Milan Coach Massimiliano Allegri on the UEFA Champions League Group Stage Match, AC Milan v FC Barcelona to be played on Wednesday 23 November 2011 in San Siro stadium.

We’ll have to show respect for that and we’ll have to play to Milan’s standards. Tomorrow the top spot in the group is up for grabs and we’ll need a big performance, very intense and technically very good especially from a defensive point of view and we’ll have to do more and better than we did in Barcelona.

Ibrahimovic is fine. He can’t wait for the game like all the others. We need to keep calm until tomorrow evening and then, from the kick off, we’ll have to play 100 minutes of really intense football, with lots of respect for Barcelona but without being reverential towards them.

The first leg was a strange game. We took the lead immediately and strangely we had more chances in the first 20 minutes that Barcelona had in the whole game. The players did well to close down spaces and defended well. We had three or four chances in the first half that we should have done better with. In some moments tomorrow, we’ll have to have the patience to deal with their ball possession but that’s nothing to be ashamed of. Up front won’t only be up to the forwards but to the whole team. We’ll have to improve our defence compared to how we did at Barcelona and that’ll be up to the while team. 

I’ll have to choose the formation based on who plays up front tomorrow evening. 

We played well against Fiorentina, played very well in some parts of the game. We created a lot of chances and we got a lot of shots off. We could have got more men in the box and sometimes we lacked the final touch. It’s nothing strange that the result from the first leg helps the self-esteem of the team. This team has always been able to read the game as best as can be done as they did on Barcelona and it could happen again tomorrow.
We shouldn’t have any difficulties in that, at Barcelona we showed that we conceded little or nothing. I spoke with the President and I think he’ll be at the stadium tomorrow and that’s an important piece of news.
We’ll have to be able to read the game tomorrow. When we can attack, we’ll attack. When we have to the ball we’ll have to defend well.

Iniesta is an extraordinary player as is Xavi and they always looks as if they have a numerical advantage. The important thing about the game tomorrow is to get to the top spot. As for the draw I don’t know… anything can happen. Tomorrow is an important evening, a fascinating game and we’ll do everything to win or at least to put in a good performance.

UEFA Champions League Group Stage
Group H
Matchday 5
 
AC Milan v FC Barcelona
Wednesday November 23,. 2011
San Siro Stadium
Milan, Italy
20:45