Barcelona vs. AC Milan – Gamper Trophy: Half Time Report
Finally the time had arrived for the Catalan fans, as Ronaldinho arrived at the Nou Camp to wave to his former club's fans. The match started off with the fans watching the screen as Ronaldinho's "amazing" moments were shared by Barcelona. Both the teams named their eleven for the match as Zlatan Ibrahimovic, David Villa and Ronaldinho all featured for their respective clubs.
The AC Milan man, Ronaldinho, gave a hug to his former rival club's striker, Zlatan Ibrahimovic; reports said that he had urged the Swedish striker to join him in AC Milan as Zlatan is still struggling for the first team spot in the Spanish club, Barcelona. This match marks the end of the pre-season matches for the Spanish side, as their season is starting next week on the 27th of August.
For the first 25 minutes, both the sides were trying to play "possession" football. AC Milan were showing a defensive side of play while Barcelona were the ones trying to attack time and time again. Milan defenders had no problem with the Barcelona attackers and easily avoided David Villa and Ibrahimovic, who were playing as full strikers for the Spanish club.
Action wasn't seen until the 31st minute, when David Villa got a right-footed shot right from where he could score; right outside the 18 yard box. He struck the shot right at the top corner but it was Massimo Ambrosini's face that came in the way, and he went down as he took a hard blow. Right in the 33rd minute, Milan were the ones who were able to make a counterattack which was well defended by Maxwell, who threw the ball outside before it could reach Ronaldinho, who was making a run from the left-flank to the centre of the field to get the ball from Andrea Pirlo.
Carlos Puyol, David Villa and Ibrahimovic, along with Andres Iniesta, were performing a little less than their full potential. The reason could be the fact that they were tired from the international fixtures that they recently came back from. Victor Valdes, the first choice goalkeeper of Barcelona, was also seen sitting on the bench along with the Catalan mastermind, Xavi Hernandez, and the Argentinean magician, Lionel Messi. The shots from the bench showed that the two important players Xavi and Messi might feature for the Spanish club.
Milan was playing its best side; only Pato did not appear as a forward because of his recent international call-up with Brazil where he scored a goal against USA and played his best international match ever. Milan was obviously playing Ronaldinho along with their amazing midfielder Pirlo. There was no Seedorf, though; many reports claimed that the amazing playmaker suffered a calf injury during training, but he still featured as a bench warmer for AC Milan throughout the first half. Ambrosini and Nesta both featured for the club as Flamini still didn't make a mark for the Italian side.
Both teams did try to feature some new players, as Barcelona played their new signing, Adriano, who was playing as a right midfielder, while the AC Milan "flop of the previous season" Huntelaar featured for the Italian club even though he did not really get the ball too much.
Huntelaar was replacing the Brazilian youngster Pato in the squad as he used to move out wide on the right just like Pato, and he used to make a run towards the centre of the 18 yard box so that Pirlo and Ronaldinho could feed him with through and long balls. Even though Huntelaar didn't really do too much for the Milan side, he did manage to make a "moment" of his own right at the corner of the box as he dived when Maxwell was trying to get the ball from him. With Klaas-Jan Huntelaar shouting for a penalty kick, the referee waved play-on and the match continued.
The first half ended goalless as both the teams did not manage to score even once. However, the game is far from over and the Gamper Trophy is for the better side to take; the match can even go till it reaches the penalty kicks. Will that point come for these two sides? Let's just wait and find out.
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