AC Milan accomplished a feat on Wednesday that only four other clubs have managed to do this season—they emerged from a match against mighty Barcelona with a clean sheet.
And yet, even after holding the oft-lionized Lionel Messi in check and flustering the Blaugrana attack (with an assist from the dodgy pitch at the San Siro), the Rossoneri only confirmed the dominance of their visitors in all competitions, the Champions League included, and saved for themselves little more than a few moral victories.
For all their efforts—the expert defending, the chances squandered by Kevin Prince-Boateng, Robinho and Zlatan Ibrahimovic—the Seria A juggernauts were more the benefactors of good fortune than anything to have escaped their own grounds with a chance to advance to the semifinals. Like any Barca opponent, Milan were held down in possession, bunkering along the back line while the Spaniards batted the ball about the pitch for 65 percent of the match.
Each side managed just three shots on goal, though Barca had triple the total attempts (18) as did Milan (six). Where Barca connected on 82 percent of their passes (low for them but high for most), the Rossoneri made good on just two-thirds of theirs.
And there remains some question as to how serious an impact the condition of the Milanese pitch had on the competing clubs, particularly Barca, which is so well accustomed to playing amidst pristine conditions at the Camp Nou.
Not at a grounds garbled by joint ownership between AC Milan and Inter Milan. Whether a world-class club like Barcelona should be lodging complaints about pitch conditions depends on who you ask, though the fact that they have in this case would suggest that something was amiss.
Pep Guardiola is aware of how Massimiliano Alleghri, his Milan counterpart, has spun the result as a positive, though the Blaugrana boss knows that there's no need for politicking with regard to his side of the story:
"We played well, we had possession and we dominated. At half-time, I told my players not to take too many risks, but despite that we had 17 shots on target while playing with nine players from our youth ranks.
"We played like ourselves in a match which was really demanding. Milan are satisfied with the result and that is the biggest compliment we can get from a club with seven European Cups."
And isn't that the bigger takeaway here—that Barcelona went into Milan's domain and shut down an international football giant, one still replete with world-class talent, even if not of the same caliber as during its glory years?
But that's no surprise now, is it? Barca have been so superb for so long that we now expect them to destroy all comers, and when the final score—0-0, in this case—doesn't quite reflect that, it gives the other side hope.
If Ibra, Robinho, Prince-Boateng and the rest of Milan's glut of attacking talent can't muster a single goal while struggling to string together six shots at home, then what hope is there for them to find the back of the net on Barcelona's turf, where the Blaugrana surrender less than a goal per game?
And where, in turn, they average better than four of their own?
Milan can take comfort in shuttering one of the world's most prolific goal-scoring sides for now, but they'd be foolish to rest on their laurels, lest they allow themselves a rude awakening at Camp Nou as Barcelona move on to the last four of the Champions League next week.
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