Two of the world’s biggest clubs will clash on Wednesday 20th February when AC Milan welcome Barcelona to the 80,000 capacity San Siro stadium in Italy for the first leg of the UEFA Champions League Round of 16.
The two teams have dominated the European scene for many years and they have won an incredible eleven European cups between them, with AC Milan notching seven of those trophies. Both teams boast some of the top players in the World among their ranks, including Lionel Messi, the controversial Mario Balotelli and the deadly duo of Iniesta and Xavi. In order to get to this stage, Milan finished second behind Malaga in Group C whilst Barcelona topped Group G, suffering a surprise defeat to Celtic along the way. At the moment, both sides are unbeaten in six games and have won four of those games. Barcelona are currently top of the La Liga table and are an impressive 15 points ahead of Atletico Madrid whilst AC Milan sit in third place in Serie A, level with Lazio and behind Napoli and last year’s Serie A champions Juventus. In the past, the two clubs have played each other just ten times, with Barcelona winning four of those games and AC Milan winning only two. The Catalan club are unbeaten in their last seven meetings against Milan and the last time Milan beat them was back in 2004. However, a worry for Barcelona is that they may be without their midfield maestro Xavi, after he picked up a hamstring injury recently, but Barcelona certainly have enough class in the squad to fill this gap.
So, who will win in this battle of two heavyweights in what is sure to be a fantastic game with plenty of fast paced, attacking football and give themselves an advantage going into the second leg? It will only be a matter of time until we find out the answer – this is definitely not a match to be missed!
