In the Nou Camp, two Lionel Messi penalties and neat goal from Andres Iniesta were enough to give Barcelona a 3-1 win on the night and on aggregate.
Early in the first half, Messi won the ball down the left flank, entered the area and found himself one-on-one with Christian Abbiati from a tight angle. Usually Messi would be expected to pull the trigger.
Instead, the Argentine pulled the ball back for Xavi, missing his target and forcing Barcelona to rework their play. The ball would find itself back at Messi’s feet almost in the same area of the penalty box he found himself in moments before. A clumsy trip later and Messi was instead standing on the penalty spot. As expected, Messi calmly rolled the ball past Abbiati, who guessed the right way, to give Barcelona the lead.
So many times in the past Barcelona have taken a 1-0 lead and spent the rest of the game frustrating the opposition with their ball retention while nonchalantly adding the odd goal or two.
Tuesday, however, Barcelona had most of the possession but were careless with the ball and rarely threatened the AC Milan goal for the best part of 20 minutes.
AC Milan occasionally served notice of their counterattacking potential, unleashing Brazilian Robinho down the left flank, and after 32 minutes they would make Barcelona pay for being unable to shut them down.
The mercurial Zlatan Ibrahimovic played a perfectly weighted through ball to Antonio Nocerino, who found space between Barcelona’s centerback and leftback, before finishing clinically past Victor Valdes.
Barcelona’s second penalty would come after 39 minutes and in much more contentious fashion than the first.
Jostling for position in the AC Milan penalty area on a corner, Sergio Busquets ran round Carles Puyol’s basketball-style screen. Experienced defender Alessandro Nesta pulled on his shirt to keep up with the Spaniard, an offense the referee adjudged as illegal. Correct though the decision was, AC Milan’s chagrin was understandable considering how commonplace such activity is.
Messi stood up to the spot and sent Abbiati the wrong way to give Barcelona a slender halftime lead.
The early parts of the second half were all Barcelona. Iniesta took over in midfield, forcing his teammates into quick one-touch passing. Xavi went close with a free kick during Barcelona’s seven-minute ball-hogging session before Iniesta aptly gave his side a two goal cushion. Jumping onto a deflected Messi shot, Iniesta calmly lifted the ball over Abbiati from close range.
From there on in, it was all Barcelona. More than just their neat passing and possession play, the home side’s ability to press AC Milan into giving away the ball inside their own half was staggering and ensured that the visitors couldn’t get back into the game.
In Germany, Bayern Munich comfortably saw themselves through to the semifinals beating Olympique Marseille 2-0 (4-0 on aggregate).
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