Milan were far from terrible, but that was never going to be enough. The big difference from the first game was that Barca were miles better.
With Alves and Pedro playing high and wide, Milan's back four were stretched much wider than they had been in the first game. Add to that Milan's defence actually having to play against a CF, too, and it was far, far harder for them to deny Barca space this time around.
Actually, I thought Milan's defence did okay. By my reckoning, they restricted Barca to three shots from outside the box (they scored two of them) and one clear chance (the third goal). I'm not including the fourth goal, because that was irrelevant.
Barca, for periods at least, also pressed with greater intensity than I've seen from them in quite a while. That made it far harder for Milan to have any control over the tempo or to at least hold the ball long enough to give the defence a rest.
The real failing on Milan's part, to my mind, was how wasteful their forwards were. Poor decisions, poor passes and poor finishing meant they wasted opportunities and dangerous situations that had to result in one goal (Niang's chance) and should probably have resulted in at least one more.
There was never any real prospect of Milan progressing tonight without scoring.
Still, I thought Allegri could have changed things once it was apparent Barca were playing with a back three and two wingers.
Leaving the back four to play Alves, Pedro and Villa and get stretched out seemed odd to me. I'd have had a midfielder or a winger marking Alves so that Constant could play narrow and keep things more compact. That would also have made it easier for Milan to close down the space between defence and midfield, because they couldn't really get the CBs sqeezing up when they had to deal with Villa. A third defender in that area would have allowed them to be more aggressive.
In retrospect, one would also have to say it was a mistake for Milan to start with Niang. Not so much because of the missed chance, but because his complete failure to hold on to the ball at any stage did not allow Milan to get up the pitch a bit rather than being pinned back.
Can't help but feel Milan were somewhat unfortunate the way the fixtures fell and results went. If Barca hadn't taken two beatings off Real between the two legs, Milan may well have got to face the same static, lethargic Barca they played at San Siro. Instead, Barca were fired up and had corrected a lot of the faults that had been apparent in them losing those big games recently.
With Alves and Pedro playing high and wide, Milan's back four were stretched much wider than they had been in the first game. Add to that Milan's defence actually having to play against a CF, too, and it was far, far harder for them to deny Barca space this time around.
Actually, I thought Milan's defence did okay. By my reckoning, they restricted Barca to three shots from outside the box (they scored two of them) and one clear chance (the third goal). I'm not including the fourth goal, because that was irrelevant.
Barca, for periods at least, also pressed with greater intensity than I've seen from them in quite a while. That made it far harder for Milan to have any control over the tempo or to at least hold the ball long enough to give the defence a rest.
The real failing on Milan's part, to my mind, was how wasteful their forwards were. Poor decisions, poor passes and poor finishing meant they wasted opportunities and dangerous situations that had to result in one goal (Niang's chance) and should probably have resulted in at least one more.
There was never any real prospect of Milan progressing tonight without scoring.
Still, I thought Allegri could have changed things once it was apparent Barca were playing with a back three and two wingers.
Leaving the back four to play Alves, Pedro and Villa and get stretched out seemed odd to me. I'd have had a midfielder or a winger marking Alves so that Constant could play narrow and keep things more compact. That would also have made it easier for Milan to close down the space between defence and midfield, because they couldn't really get the CBs sqeezing up when they had to deal with Villa. A third defender in that area would have allowed them to be more aggressive.
In retrospect, one would also have to say it was a mistake for Milan to start with Niang. Not so much because of the missed chance, but because his complete failure to hold on to the ball at any stage did not allow Milan to get up the pitch a bit rather than being pinned back.
Can't help but feel Milan were somewhat unfortunate the way the fixtures fell and results went. If Barca hadn't taken two beatings off Real between the two legs, Milan may well have got to face the same static, lethargic Barca they played at San Siro. Instead, Barca were fired up and had corrected a lot of the faults that had been apparent in them losing those big games recently.
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