adminThe match kicks-off at 9:45pm.
Barca’s hopes of a third Champions League crown in five years are hanging by a thread after Milan surprised them 2-0 at the San Siro in last month’s last-16, first leg. If the pre-tournament favourites are to get past the Serie A side into the quarter-finals, Messi will surely have to be on song.
He and his teammates will also need to reverse a slump in key games after they were beaten twice in five days by arch-rivals Real Madrid following the reverse in Italy.
Messi, well shackled by Milan in the first leg, claimed another record on Saturday when he came off the bench and scored for a 17th consecutive La Liga game in a 2-0 victory for the leaders at home to bottom side Deportivo La Coruna.
Barca said he had set a new world best by surpassing Polish forward Teodor Pewterek, scorer of 22 goals in 16 straight outings for Ruch Chorzow at the end of the 1930s. Messi has netted 27 on his prolific run.
Some have questioned his form of late but it was his 40th goal of the La Liga campaign and his 51st in 41 appearances in all competitions, including five in the Champions League. He is the top scorer in Europe’s elite club competition the past four seasons.
Producing the goods on the biggest occasions is what counts, though, and the 25-year-old has been overshadowed in recent weeks by Real Madrid forward Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese scored the goal against his former club Manchester United last Tuesday that sent Real through to the Champions League last eight and netted twice to help eliminate Barca from the King’s Cup at the end of last month.
A significant positive from Barca’s La Liga win on Saturday was that they kept a clean sheet for the first time in 14 outings and a repeat performance will likely be crucial tonight at the Nou Camp.
Barca also rested a slew of key players to keep them fresh for the Milan showdown. Assistant coach Jordi Roura, standing in for Tito Vilanova while he undergoes cancer treatment in New York, deployed Messi only for the final half hour.
Although he is in close contact with Vilanova, it appears as though he lacks the same discipline and strength of character to motivate the players.
However, he seems sure about how his team need to tackle Milan.
“It is an important game and the one that we have been focusing on. We are clear about how we are going to approach it,” he said after the Deportivo game.
“We know how Milan are going to play and how we will do ourselves. I don’t think there is a problem psychologically and we are all very much up for Tuesday’s game.”
Roura rested a number of players against Depor who will start against Milan, including Messi, and again Barca lacked their typical slick passing, committing too many errors and needing Messi to come on and score the second to secure the win.
“We need to do better in front of goal but we did have intensity. At 1-0 anything can happen but we are happy with the result and the league is key for us,” added Roura.
“Each competition is different and you have to appreciate that when we now look at the Champions League, but still it is best to approach it with a win where we worked hard and created chances, while importantly not conceding.
“We have been working on pressuring more and I think we are in good form and in conditions to achieve our aim. We will give everything to turn the game around. I’ve seen the players and they will do everything humanly possible.”
He gave Andres Iniesta and Sergio Busquets a run-out in the second half but centre-back Gerard Pique, fullback Jordi Alba and forward Pedro did not feature.
Barca are also expecting to have playmaker Xavi available after he returned to training this week following a minor muscle strain.
However, Vilanova will again be absent from the bench and it is hard not to attribute at least part of Barca’s recent dip in form to their coach’s enforced exile.
“We really miss him,” Pique was quoted as saying on the club’s website (www.fcbarcelona.es) on Sunday.
“It’s a difficult situation to be in, without the boss — it’s like a company without its chairman, but we will come through this,” added the Spain international. Tito is helping us from New York and the most important thing is his health. We’re not putting any pressure on him and we’ll be waiting for him till he gets better.
“We’ll attack from the off — which is our way of doing things – and we hope to win 3-0.”
Contrastingly Milan are going through their best form of the season and their strikers proved on fire in the win at Genoa. However neither Mario Balotelli, who has given them greater potency in attack, nor Giampaolo Pazzini will play in Catalonia.
Balotelli is ineligible in Europe having already played for Manchester City while Pazzini is out with a knee injury suffered just before scoring against Genoa. Even so, the Italians are confident.
“We have belief in ourselves and that we can qualify for the next round. It won’t be an easy game and it is going to be quite defensive but we will also try and play our football as we know that a goal will make it even harder for them,” said midfielder Mathieu Flamini. Milan warmed up for the trip to Spain with a hard-fought 2-0 win at Serie A rivals Genoa on Friday.
Victory came at a cost, however, and the club said on Sunday goalscorer Pazzini had sustained a micro-fracture in his right fibula and was out of the Barca game. Fullback Kevin Constant, who was sent off against Genoa for lashing out at an opponent, said he expected Barca to come at Milan hard from the start.
“We know that Tuesday’s match will be different to the first leg,” he said on the club’s website (www.acmilan.com). We are starting with a 2-0 lead and we are not going there to defend but to try to win this game,” the Guinean added.
“They will have a lot of ball possession but when it is our turn we have to be the ones to circulate it and try to score. We cannot underestimate the best team in the world.”
Barcelona have not lost a European tie at home for more than three years and knocked Milan out in last season’s quarter-finals, their 16th meeting, and in the 2005-06 semi-finals.
History is against them, however, as no team has ever overturned a two-goal first-leg deficit without the benefit of an away goal.
Barca will hope to emulate Depor, who lost 4-1 at Milan in the 2003-04 quarter-finals but beat them 4-0 in the return leg, the biggest first-leg victory overturned in Champions League history.
Probable teams
Barcelona: 13-Jose Manuel Pinto; 2-Daniel Alves, 3-Gerard Pique, 14-Javier Mascherano, 18-Jordi Alba; 6-Xavi, 16-Serg/io Busquets, 4-Cesc Fabregas; 17-Pedro, 10-Lionel Messi, 8-Andres Iniesta
AC Milan: 32-Christian Abbiati; 2-Mattia De Sciglio, 76-Mario Yepes, 17-Cristian Zapata, 21-Kevin Constant; 23-Massimo Ambrosini, 18-Riccardo Montolivo, 4-Sulley Muntari; 19-M’Baye Niang, 92-Stephan El Shaarawy, 10-Kevin Prince-Boateng
Referee: Viktor Kassai. — Soccernet.
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