TEAM NEWS: Arsenal have to do the impossible without a host of players as Sebastien Squillaci, Per Mertesacker, Andre Santos, Abou Diaby, Mikel Arteta, Francis Coquelin, Jack Wilshere, Aaron Ramsey and Yossi Benayoun are all injured. Milan have Alessandro Nesta, Rodney Strasser, Alexander Merkel, Rino Gattuso, Clarence Seedorf, Mathieu Flamini, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Maxi Lopez, Antonio Cassano and Alexandre Pato injured, while Massimo Ambrosini is banned and won’t play at this Emirates clash.
Arsenal F.C. (4-1-2-3) – Arsene Wenger
Wojciech Szczęsny; Bacary Sagna, Thomas Vermaelen, Laurent Koscielny, Kieran Gibbs; Alex Song; Tomáš Rosický, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain; Theo Walcott, Robin van Persie, Gervinho.
Bench: Fabiański (GK), Djourou, Jenkinson, Miquel (DEF), Özyakup (MID), Park, Chamakh (ATT).
AC Milan (4-3-1-2) – Massimiliano Allegri
Christian Abbiati; Ignazio Abate, Philippe Mexes, Thiago Silva, Djamel Mesbah; Antonio Nocerino, Mark Van Bommel, Urby Emanuelson; Robinho; Zlatan Ibrahimovic, Stephan El Shaarawy.
Bench: Amelia, Roma (GK), Zambrotta, Bonera, Yepes (DEF), Aquilani (MID), Ganz (ATT).
Referee: Damir Skomina (SVN).
the whole team is in a bad form but good to see aquilani in a good form
No mate, Mexes been superb so far.
him and Mvb even abate but i mean in general
Stopped watching the game, its so scary, im sweating, even in my anus.
Milan is killing me softly,
oh! Why?
Oh! Why?
I cnt pretend like nothing is wrong, what would yu do milan? If yu were dhe fans and we the team. What?
we have a free kick .. give the ball to acqua not urby this time for heaven’s sake
My heart beat racing!!!!!!!!!!
Duh! Bonera……..
Come on chaps!!!!!! hold on a little longer!!!!!!!!!
yes yes yes yes! we’ll go through to semi forza milan forza milan forza milan.. so happy
Thank Goodness! We qualified past 2nd round after 3yrs. Forza Milan!
But am still wandering what happened to the team.
For the last 4 years guys!!! Finally we managed to get through. Im gonna berserk now, I fell like punching my bosses faces!!!!
Abbiati Mexes and Aqua We play we 3 players only
Robinho-joke
Mexes is a pure class tonight! sorry to say this but he had better game than Silva today.
it was the first when i was happy when bonera came in. but you really have to say that bonera is better than last year. he isn’T the best, but better then before
Aquilani is a very good player…i see how uch we missed him.
That was the most nerve raking and damn right scary 90mins of my frikin LIFE!!! My heart is beating 1000000 mph at the moment! Very stupid of Allegri to start with with 3 strikers.
We only had 4 midfielders. Nothing we could’ve done about that, except play 5-3-2 or 5-2-3.
Yeh I just realised that. The only other options we had in midfield were Aquaman (who just came back from injury) so he couldnt start and 2 other youngsters which in that kind of situation obviously could not start. So I dont think it was Allegri’s fault.
phew!!!
The second half was much better…that is the true milan team
they were complacent in the first half with a big lead, but when push came to shove, they came out in the second half and played a better game
good job going through to the quarterfinals!
PS…good to see aquilani back on the pitch
Finally! The whistle… Horrible first half. Once again, our finishing was downright poor. Well, at least Milanisti will learn not to insult allegri for not playing 4-3-3, or for playing antonini instead of mesbah. Although this is the 1st time we’ve been to the quarter-finals in 3 (or 4?) years, I’m not happy. Disappointed with everyone except Abbiati and maybe Mexes.
Who are these pessimist that comment only when Milan is loosing???? We don’t this kind of people here.
I actually thought we have arrived but tonight performance really got me thinking. our We can’t blame injury for performance as both teams are in the same shoes. Allegri really need to go back to the drawing board cos we still have a long way to go.
I know we would go through! Milanista’s I agree we were horrible. I believe Allegri got his selection wrong! 1. Mesbah has NO UCL experience.Too much pressure for him in such a big game! Sames goes for El Sharawy. 2. We should have played with 2 forwards instead of three. El Sharaawy is inexperience at this level. Therefore Allegri should have started Aquilani. 3. Milan should have used a different formation. possibly 4-5-1 or 4-1-3-2! Allegri will learn from this mistake! Had been a better team we would be in great problems especially with our injuries to key players like… Read more »
1)He got his selection absolutely right. there was just no one else to play. 2)aquilani wasn’t fit for 90 minutes. we played boateng when he wasn’t fully fit, he hasn’t played since because his injury aggravated. 3)You can’t play 4-5-1 when you have 4 midfielders, and you can’t play 4-1-3-2 when you have no attacking midfielders. Only alternative was to play with 5 defenders, for which Berlu would’ve probably fired Allegri be4 the game even started. IMO, it was the player’s fault. We were ASLEEP in the 1st half. And our finishing was horrible. We had 4 more shots than… Read more »
stop blaming allegri.he handled it perfectly after half time mesbah-horrible SES,urby-subpar performance
zlatan was in one of his moods robinho worked very hard in the attack.silva,mexes,abate were almost perfect.abbiati was awesome
EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY? emanuelson superb performance? First half: 3-4 balls being given away FOR FREE in our half of the pitch
he said subpar, not superb. That means they didn’t play as well as they should have.
Silva didn’t have a good game today. Remember, he gave the ball carefreely to Rosicky.
ya one mistake but other than that good.even that was a result of mesbah letting walcott run at him
If we lost this game I would have commit suicide….we are through but not impressed
I couldn’t find Ibrahimovic anywhere
Ibra is the main reason his mates can make chances! whilst Arsenal’s defenders smacking down him, the others can have room. Add to the fact, he too made a couple of chances.
Aquilani and Abate were the only normal players we had on the pitch tonight. Oh, Abbiati, Mexes… and give it to MVB in second half… BUT, lets make some conclusions:
– Boateng is the key player in AC MILAN
– (Optional) Pato appears to be important in these kind of matches.
– We MISS C*SSANO THE MOST OF THIS WORLD…. OH GOD, THE WAY HE SETS OUR TEAM MATES UP…
– LEFT BACK PLEASE, LEFT BACK PLEASE, LEFT BACK PLEASE, LEFT BACK PLEASE, LEFT BACK PLEASE, LEFT BACK PLEASE, LEFT BACK PLEASE,
The second half was much better…that is the true milan team
they were complacent in the first half with a big lead, but when push came to shove, they came out in the second half and played a better game
good job going through to the quarterfinals!
PS…good to see aquilani back on the pitch
phew,
thank God we qualified bt i aint happy.
Could have easily got Neural shock bt thank God, i was helped out.
Now Allegri USE YUR BRAIN.
Tiago silva trying to be too clever will cost us dearly somday.
Wats up with thiago silva these days
wrong formation+tactic n plyer..,wtf
My heart is still racing… my hands are still shaking.
English announcers never shut up about Istanbul in ’05… I would’ve been driven over the edge had they performed a miracle today.
What a bad (unlucky at times) performance. I really hope our other MF’s get well and stay well heading into the end of the season. We really can’t go on this way w/o them in the UCL.
FORZA MILAN!
This would not have happened if we started with 4-4-2 and not 4-3-3. I think being 4-0 up from the first leg we should have started with a more defensive setup. Then again we were short in the midfield, the only other midfielders available were Aquaman (who just came back from injury) and two other youngsters. I would say it kinda was Allegri’s fault that we scraped it through and kinda not because of the situation we were in. I must add when that penalty was given I switched the laptop off and was contemplating suicide! lol joke, at the… Read more »
Honestly even Barca lost against Arsenal at the Emirates last year so overall I think we came out with a wrong mentality and almost paid for it
Exactly. On their good day they can win everyone. But so can Milan. They just need to put their heads down and work harder. There’s no room for errors now on.
@Pasha bro For goodness sake Barca didn’t have a 4 goal lead.Don’t be so stupid.Barca took the game to Arsenal in The Emirates and got countered,Arsenal played even better in the return leg ,things went bad when Fabregas gifted a back pass and Van Persie was red carded.YOU ARE NOT BEING HONEST, so net time think before using Honestly!!!!
Antonini is the best lb out of a bad bunch
He’s been doing better and really trying hard as of late. Still not the ideal solution, but much better from him.
Mesbah always looks like he just kinda feeling his way around in the dark – as evidenced by the way he uses his hands.
what i dislike is when the team is not playing wel,Ibra does not have the x factor like Messi or other big name players to change the game.
What can we say? He was one-man army upfront. Robinho nor SeS did nothing to help him.
@ Peter ,thats what I keep telling in this blog all the time,Allegri depends on Ibra to score and win games but Ibra on the other hand does rely on support and supply from the others,It’s very rare he will take the game by the throat and kill it .Guess you have seen Messi do it quite a few times,Ronaldo does it occasionally,Ibra is a forward who will throw his weight around only when the others are backing him up and concentrating only on him.If you watched the full 90 minutes, you would have noticed even THEO WALCOTT who is… Read more »
i cnt eat or read 2 9te
Am very disappointed despite us going through. A lot of questions is been asked today and we gave no answer.we can’t afford to play like this and walk to the final. We were just terrible as a team and i think we underestimated arsenal and it almost cost us.
our mentality for this game must have been so wrong… What else can i say
I’m very happy we won but today’s game proved that we really need a plan B. We settled after we changed into our traditional 4-3-1-2. Why didn’t we start with that 2 begin with given that we’ve never started a game with a different formation.
Add to that we were 4-0 up. I ask why start with such an attacking setup if we are 4-0? the 4-3-3 formation almost cost us dearly! I think plan A should always be 4-3-1-2 and only change if we absolutely have to.
@infra_x We had a poor game tonight lets face it. No need to cover up for our poor performance tonight. If we had won the first leg 4-1, then Arsenal would have gone through tonight. If we don’t accept the fact that we need to improve , then we will keep celebrating our level of performance instead of thinking of how to correct our wrong. For me this is almost our worst performance of the season. Did you see Mexes comment???????????? Noting to celebrate as this must never happen again.
our mentality was wrong,we were too over-confident.i agree that we had a tormenting 1st 45 but we picked our bearings in the 2nd half.i was mad about how bad we were playing but we played a very professional 2nd half and saw the game through and like u said this must never happen again
1.The support for arsenal was more than i expected. The supporters were never silent. Whenever we had the ball in our possession, they were booing us. How could our UCL inexperienced Mesbah-SES-nocerino-urby handled the pressure?
2.We couldn’t just play defensive. Italian teams are too much blamed for that; we had an international reputation to handle.
3.Hats off to arsenal! They played a good game. I could feel the impact of Aquaman’s in the mid.
Forza milan. We still love u.
Arsenal also had a youngster on field. Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who was the best player on field. Last year he played at 3rd tier team in England now bossing the midfield against MILAN. So there’s no excuse on players performing LIKE SHIT.
In CL they need to perform well all the time or there’s no chance to win it and if Milan perform like that there’s no chance on winning it or even going further.
See thats where you missing the point when we losing the game or lacking ideas thats when those players are supposed step up,such as ibra,instead he looked like wasnt gona score even when givn an oppurtunity. Im just reali upset,but then again I wasnt on the field who Im I to say.
First half all players looked like primadonna’s
Second half some of them started to show up. Abbiati had no chance on all of the goals. Mesbah was just shit. Had Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain not been injured it might have been 4-0 and ended in penalties.
But still glad to be through and hopefully injured players return fit and stay fit for rest of the season.
KPB was needed in that match desperately.
Mesbah was not flop of the match.He was nervous.I think this was his first start in CL..come on man..he was bought from leece..you can’t demand performance of marcelo or abidal..he improved after the second half..Forza Mesbah!Forza Milan!
I hope we get real madrid and barcelona in quater finals because we always seem to do better against them.
Against other teams , milan arent motivated for and think they are gonna win easy and get complacent. I always knew we were going through because after the 3rd goal they woke up and done the bussiness and them going through is all what matters for milan and espicially for SERIE A. I will be rooting for napoli and even merda inter just for serie a.
milan can learn from this 3-0 lost. i believe it’s a great experience for players like mesbah, el shaarawy and even silva. all players and alegri MUST learn from the game. two things that i would like to highlight : 1. milan must find the right replacement for DM if van bommel is out. my solution is : play silva as DM and give the CB role for nesta & mexes for the next match 2. aquilani has great visions however he is kind of a ‘soft’ player like pirlo and i don’t like this. midfielders should be warriors in… Read more »
i was watchin didac vila against madrid this weekend & he was one of his teams best players & his better than all our left backs. we were complacent today & it nearly cost us but at the end we pulled thru & thats important, i dont approve of allegri but the team showed character in the second half & i attribute the change to him. allegri now knows which players not to play in high pressure matches & how important pato, baoteng and aquillani are to milan. ses is still young & will recover but we shud use him… Read more »
Most of our players are very over rated,Masbah,Nocerino and SES they didn’t do anything today….I am very disappointed but atleast we made it to the quaters
WTF are u talking about!you can’t blame them.they are champions league amateurs.we don’t have leader in midfield and defence.I really missed Nesta and Boateng.The score could have been 3-2 if SES and Noce didn’t missed the sitter.
@Milanista93, If Rosicky & Van Persie would have scored their sitters ,It wud be closed doors for Milan.Luckily we have Abbiati who save us .And you are talking about CL amateurs Oxlade Chamberlian is younger than SES ,Keiran Gibbs is new to CL.but the only thing they have is MOTIVATION for Arsene Wenger, In Serie A Milan is not the best team ,i would say the other teams in the league are not that competent, Napoli being an exception.Only if Milan can impress in a match like this ,we can consider Milan being a potent force in Europe.Now Barca Madrid… Read more »
Welcome back Aquilani!
Really miss ya!
No excuse @all, may be we were just not well
Mentally prepared, they got their injury problms 2!
Preparing Mesbah 4 the tougher stages ahead
Nice game Thiago!
We just need 2 stay calm!
i don’t know whether didac is truly better than mesbah. imo, mesbah is currently milan best LB. i don’t agree with anyone who said that antonini is better than mesbah. mesbah has better tackling. what he needs is to gain his experiences and confidence. the good thing from mesbah is that he can play as a midfielder too. it is a joke if someone says that taiwo is better than mesbah.
still FORZA MILAN…this not the time to talk too much, for God sake we just qualified for the next stage of which we’ve failed to do couple of years ago. I think this is the time for us to cheer them up despite going through UGLY! LOVE MILAN
I was getting flashbacks to the Liverpool Milan game, just happy it’s over, I was naive enough to believe that we wouldn’t be underestimating them, I hope Abbiati will slap the Sh*t out of the players, he warned Milan about not taking the challenge serious enough, like we did against La Coruna, but noone listened. just happy we are through, hopefully this will be a valueable lesson, that can get us through the season holding the scudetto, and with a bit of luck, maybe a ChL trophy, and even the Coppa italia, even though Juve leads on aggregate at the… Read more »
Dis game is a very good lesson for alegri, he needs to have noticed d following or we r in for a lot of more poor performances: 1. Never play emanuelson in left or central midfield again unless in a 4 midfield formation. 2. Mesbah is offensively useless n defensively slow 3. Ibra needs to b given options on both sides (as was done against palermo) 4. Robinho is losing pace (more aerobics) n can’t play central supporting striker. 5. Wen playing 433 formation d midfielders must b more diffensive n d fullbacks offensively potent. Much like d gattuso amro… Read more »
come on guys ur being cruel…i think allegri has done great… he coudnt do better… 1st he ddnt have options: he cant risk aquilani and start him so he has to play with 3 strikers or 5 defenders or t,silva in midfield ( remember tottenham last year ???) t silva had a good game not great because he made 1 mistake which led to the goal..but he was pressed by van persie…but should have done better nevertheless… he couldnt start with antonini bcz hes not fit …i agree mesbah was a gamble bonera woulve been better…but again if he had… Read more »
Dis is d worst 1st 45mins i’ve seen from milan in several yrs, mark vanbommel was very useless and he put d defence under a lot of pressure, a milan like performance in d 2nd half
ibra is not on d same level as messi.