Barcelona vs. AC Milan – Gamper Trophy – Full time Report
With the first half ending for both the teams, everyone started to see the real shape of both the sides. While Milan played a more defensive role and relied on counter attacking football, and with Barcelona playing attacking and "possessive" style of play; it was mostly Barcelona who came close to scoring a goal.
The starting 11 for Barcelona were different from their "best side." The goalkeeper was Pinto, who recently came back from an injury as Valdes sat outside and was put on rest. Adriano and Abidal were the two defenders on the flanks while Milito and Puyol featured as centre backs for the Spanish side. Jonathan was the "play maker" while Iniesta and Maxwell were supporting him from the right and left flank as Guardiola was playing his usual 4-3-3. It was Jeffren who was playing as a right winger while Ibrahimovic was playing as a centre forward with Villa playing at his favourite left wing position.
On the other hand, Milan played their new "on loan" goal keeper, Amelia. Bonera, Nesta, Thiago Silva and Antonini featured as full backs for the Italian club and were doing a pretty good job while keeping the Barcelona strikers out. Pirlo and Ambrosini featured as centre midfielders while Huntelaar, Borielo and Ronaldinho were the 3 strikers who were supported by their new Ghana player, Boateng.
The first moment came right after the start of the second half as Villa was able to cross his marker, after being called "offside" three times, while trying to get the through ball. This time he got the ball perfectly and exactly where he wanted it and scored a perfect goal to show the world that he is still "in form" while he has joined the best club of the Spanish side and they have bagged themselves a goal scoring machine.
It was Ibrahimovic who went off as Bojan took his place while Abidal, the left back, was replaced by Dani Alves and Adriano, who was playing as a right back in the first half; now switched to the left hand side. These changes made a big difference in the team as Villa was able to score right after these changes were made. Soon, in the 67th minute, a beautiful ball from Seedorf was turned into a beautiful volley by Inzaghi which ended up inside the goal as the scores leveled at the Nou Camp.
In the 70th minute, Lionel Messi came in and wore the Captain's arm band trying to win it for the Spanish Champions but he alone could not do too much to beat the "out of the world" Italian defence. However, Messi did provide Barcelona with amazing through balls and also amazing chances which were missed by the strikers. Pedro also got the chance to win it for the Catalan giants but it was thrown out because of his "over powered" shot.
Milan were the ones who substituted all their 10 players, except the goalkeeper while Barcelona changed everyone except the new signing, Adriano. With so many players coming into the field, the match lightened up as both the teams took their chances on goal but failed to win it between the "93" minutes that were given to them.
The match was then carried on to a penalty shootout as both the teams were on level terms when the match ended. The first penalty was to be taken by Barcelona's captain, Lionel Messi who made no mistake and placed an inch perfect penalty at the right corner of the goal while the Milan number 1 dived correctly but was still unable to reach it.
On the other hand, with Ronaldinho substituted in the 75th minute after an amazing standing ovation given by the crowd, there were not many players that could take good penalties for the Italian club.
Seedorf was the player who came to score the first penalty but Pinto was the man who dived perfectly and made a good stop to take a goal's advantage. It was Busquets who took the second penalty for Barcelona and he missed as well with the score 1-0. Pirlo, the amazing AC Milan midfielder came to take the second penalty but his cheeky chip shot was grabbed by pinto in a second. Now Milan did not really have a very good chance at this game while Bojan was the one who came to take the third penalty. He took the shot and it bounced off the Milan number 1 goalkeeper going inside the net to make it 2-0 for Barcelona. It was Yepes who came on for Milan to take the 4th penalty and he scored to make the scoreline 2-1. He easily sent Pinto the wrong way and scored a goal for Milan. Thiago was the last penalty kick taker for Barcelona and he scored the goal easily with his powerful shot and made the score line 3-1. Jankulovski was the last penalty kick taker for Milan and he had to score to help his team but it was too hard for him to beat Pinto as Pinto made another fine save to win it for Barcelona who won the match 3-1 on penalties.
The match was filled with excitement as it marked the return of Ronaldinho to the Nou Camp and the way things changed for Milan was simply amazing to watch. The new Milan coach tried all his new players and they turned out to be in pretty good form but a few still needed to "blend in" with the Italian club. The trophy was won by Barcelona who won it for the 34th time in the history of the game.
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