AC Milan will face FC Barcelona in the last 16 of the Champions League. Read our in depth article about this Champions League last 16 matchup.
AC Milan – FC Barcelona
First leg: San Siro, Milan. Wednesday, February 20.
Second leg: Camp Nou, Barcelona. Tuesday March 12. (Buy tickets for this match)
The final last 16 game is heavy with history and with promise. Barca are the current darlings of world football and massive favourites to add their fifth Champions League trophy. Milan are the seven time-winning team who dominated the tournament in the late 1980s and early 1990s and don’t know the meaning of the word defeat.
The balance of power might have shifted decisively from Italy to Spain since Milan’s glory days, but the San Siro side have won the title as recently as 2003 and 2007 and their 4-0 drubbing of Barca in the 1994 finals is one of their most famous victories.
Recent Champions League history though is in favour of the Spaniards who knocked out their next opponents in the quarter finals in 2012 and semi finals in 2006, going on to win the title in the earlier tournament.
And Barca cruised through their group, dropping points only in a home draw with Benfica and in a surprise loss to Celtic at an emotional Celtic Park.
Milan on the other hand scraped through with the lowest qualifying score of just eight points.
The history of this tie is long and illustrious. They’ve faced each other 15 times and Barcelona hold the upper hand with six wins to the Italians’ four. The 2012 quarter final was a reunion from the group stages when Barca also came out on top, taking four points from a possible six from Milan, in fact, they haven’t lost to the Rossoneri in seven games.
However, Milan’s Bojan Krkić and Carmona will certainly want to prove something against the club that produced them and a visit to San Siro can never be taken lightly.
Of course, one name will be on everyone’s lips for this tie. Lionel Messi is the world footballer of the year, again, and just completed a record 10 consecutive match scoring run for the second time. However, the record came in a loss to Real Sociedad, Barca’s first of an invincible season. Tito Vilanova, the man who replaced Pep Guardiola, has the love and respect of a squad, a city and a region after returning to his side after cancer surgery at the start of this year.
Milan have stars too, although Massimiliano Allegri’s men waved goodbye to Zlatan Ibrahimović, Thiago Silva and Antonio Cassano in the summer. Egyptian striker Stephan El Shaarawy, the ‘Little Pharaoh’, is only 20 but is already setting Serie A on fire. You can’t miss him either, with his striking, description-defying hairstyle.
Head to Head
AC Milan
League position on February 4
Fourth
Last five games
L, D, W, W, W
Odds
184/29
FC Barcelona
League position on February 4
First
Last five games
L, W, W, D, D
Odds
4/7
Odds on Draw
32/9
Check out the other Champions League last 16 matchups :
Celtic Glasgow vs Juventus
Valencia CF vs Paris Saint-Germain
FC Shakhtar Donetsk v Borussia Dortmund
Real Madrid CF v Manchester United FC
Arsenal FC – FC Bayern München
FC Porto v Málaga CF
Galatasaray A.S. v FC Schalke 04