Barcelona vs Milan preview

March 11, 2013
By: Nemanja Lazarevic

Milan vs BarcaBarcelona are clearly in a very difficult position after the 2-0 defeat at San Siro, but if anyone can overturn a two-goal deficit it is the Catalans.

Milan arrive at Camp Nou full of confidence following yet another victory in Serie A, but the Rossoneri are aware the job is not even remotely finished.

What looked like a very promising season has quickly turned into a major disappointment, with the team experiencing all sorts of problems over the last few weeks.

The heavy defeat to Milan was not the worst thing that happened to the Catalans, as they were also beaten by Real Madrid to a place in Copa del Rey final, before losing the La Liga El Clasico as well.

With the league title already in the bag, all that’s left for Barcelona is to fight for the Champions League title, which is why the return leg against Milan is extremely important.

The Catalans may be just 1.33 (1/3) at Coral to win the return leg, but they are also 2.30 (13/10) at Sportingbet to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Barcelona were finally able to return to winning ways at the weekend, beating Deportivo at home, with Jordi Roura using the opportunity to rest most of his starters.

The likes of Messi, Iniesta, Busquets and co. are set to return, but the most important thing is Xavi Hernandez is back after fully recovering from a hamstring injury.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Valdes – Alves, Pique, Puyol, Alba – Xavi, Busquets, Iniesta – Pedro, Messi, Villa.

AC Milan may have struggled during the opening exchanges, but the team have since done brilliantly to return to the right track.

Everybody is now talking about the Rossoneri’s European exploits, but it is also worth noting that they managed to climb to third place in Serie A, thus increasing their chances of playing Champions League football next term.

There’s no denying the 2-0 victory over Barcelona acted as a huge confidence boost for the players, who went on to produce few more excellent showings over the last couple of weeks.

Milan were very unfortunate not to win in Derby della Madonnina, but they then recorded comfortable victories over Lazio and Genoa to keep their spirits high ahead of the clash at Camp Nou.

The Rossoneri are now 1.73 (8/11) favourites at Stan James to go through, and the same price to score at least once in Barcelona.

Max Allegri is still without cup-tied Mario Balotelli, but the good news is both Philippe Mexes and Kevin-Prince Boateng have been passed fit.

Giampaolo Pazzini, however, picked up a leg injury at the weekend, joining Bartosz Salamon, Didac Vila and Nigel de Jong on the sidelines.

Probable starting line-up (4-3-3): Abbiati – Abate, Mexes, Zapata, De Sciglio – Ambrosini, Montolivo, Muntari – Boateng, Niang, El Shaarawy.

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