Published 2/20/2013 4:44:49 PM by Shane Barrow from soccermogul

Two huge names.  The best squad in the world.  Barcelona.  A legend looking to regain their past form.  AC Milan.  

Would the Italians be able to rise to the challenge.  The recent addition of Mario Ballotelli has re-energized AC Milan.  Unfortunately, the young striker is cup=tied to Manchester City and not eligible to take the field for AC Milan in the Champions League.

The Italians came out firing as the Milan crowd urged them on.  Could they keep it up though?

It did not take long for Barcelona to get on the ball though.  The short, quick passing game began to take over as it seems to do every match.  AFter chasing the game for about ten minutes AC Milan created a pair of chances.  El Shaarawy got in behind and raced in on goal, but his final touch got a bit too far in front and Barca forced a corner.  On the resulting corner a Boateng flick narrowly missed the backpost as it whizzed wide for a goal kick.

Milan were doing well and had to feel pretty good about themselves as the match hit 30 minutes still scoreless.  Now could they steal the important goal?

Despite bossing the final minutes of the opening half, Barcelona could not even generate a shot on goal and the match went scoreless to the break.

After a slow opening to the second half controversy would strike 11 minutes into the half.  An AC Milan freekick was taken short where it was blasted at goal from 30 yards out.  The rocket deflected off a Barcelona defender and then clearly off the arm of Milan's Zapate leaving the ball perfectly set up for Kevin-Prince Boateng.  He wasted no time blasting a low shot into the net as Barcelona protested for the obvious handball.  The referee allowed the goal and AC Milan had a shock lead amid major controversy.

Barca was clearly rattled as the Italians kept the pressure on.  Fifteen minutes to go and Milan were looking confident.  A couple of close calls on long range Barca shots had the crowd nervous, but they could not have imagined what was to come.

A brilliant AC Milan attack resulted in a doubling of the lead.  A nice square ball from substitute Niang found Boateng at the top of the box.  He calmly turned and flicked a perfect lob pass to the backpost where Sulley Montari blasted a low left footed volley into the net.  A wonderful goal.

The shock result was on!  2-0 to AC Milan and one had to agree it was well deserved.  The defense was spot on.  Everytime they needed to get a foot in, it seemed they did.  Lionel Messi was non-existent.

With only minutes left the only question was would Barcelona be able to grab a vital away goal?  As the Milan keeper came out and handled a final cross AC Milan had a famous victory.  Now can they go to Spain and hold onto their two goal lead?

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