Milan Bari, Formazione Ufficiale/Official Line-up
MILAN: Roma; Oddo, Nesta, Yepes, Antonini; Gattuso, Ambrosini, Merkel; Robinho; Ibrahimovic, Cassano
BARI: Padelli; Raggi, Rossi, Glik, Parisi; Alvarez, Pulzetti, Donati, Romero; Kutuzov, Castillo.
As a result of injuries to Abbiati and Amelia – 36 year old Flavio Roma made his Milan debut, behind a bacl 4 of Oddo, Nesta, Yepes and Antonini. In midfield, Gattuso, Ambrosini and Merkel were the 3 behind Robinho – with Cassano and Ibrahimovic starting up front.
The opening 5 minutes showed that were Milan were up front, and the front 3 were linking up well – with Robinho and Cassano playing some excellent build up play involving a backheel from Robinho, And after yet another brilliantly executed flick from the brazilian, Alexander Merkel had a chance to test Padelli in the Bari goal. Ibrahimovic’s acrobatic effort forcing a decent save, but nothing came of the corner.
With a quarter of an hour gone, Antonio Cassano brought down the ball fantastically, and layed it off for Robinho – who fired hard and low across goal, but it was neither here nor there and went out for a goal kick. Moments later, Ibrahimovic shifted insite and fired it goalwards, only for Padelli to make the save once more – and the italian managed to hang on to the ball a fraction of a second before Robinho arrived, to ensure the score remained level.
With 20 minutes on the clock, Milan took the lead. Robinho’s good defensive running meant the brazilian picked up a loose ball from Alvarez – after Alexander forced him to play the ball by pressurizing him near the halfway line, before finding Ibrahimovic wide left. Ibra managaged to dribble in to the box, drop his shoulder to beat a defender by cutting inside, before curling his shot in to the far corner – another excellent finish from the swede.
A few minutes later, Milan’s lead was almost doubled, once again Robinho was instrumental. Robinho picked up the ball, shifted on to his right foor and fired a curling strike at goal. Once again Padelli was up to it, and dived well to keep it out. Flavio Roma’s debut was going smoothly too, he hadn’t been tested once by Bari, despite being 30 minutes in to the game! This spoke volumes about Bari’s seemingly toothless attack.
On the stroke of half time, Milan doubled their lead. After some nice link up play, Ibrahimovic played it wide to Massimo Oddo (who was playing very very well), and the Italian’s cross was met by the head of Cassano, though his header went past the post. However, Robinho picked up the ball, and calmly rolled it in to the path of young Alexander Merkel, who did well to slot the ball in to the back of the net, doubling the Rossoneri’s lead by getting his first goal for the club.
The half ended with a lot of action, as Bari should have pulled one back, however, Alvarez’s headed effort (from around the 6 yard line) somehow managed not to find the back of the net – instead, ending up high and in to the stands, when really, Bari should have pulled a goal back. That was very significant, because it meant – as a result of that miss – that Milan had a comfortable 2-0 lead to go back out to in the second half.
At half time, Massimiliano Allegri decided to take off Gennaro Gattuso – and bring Ignazio Abate on – playing in a right center midfield role (but running wide) probably because Gattuso had picked up a yellow card and might easily have picked up a second and gotten suspended.
5 Minutes in to the first half, and the ball was in the back of Milan’s net, but Bari did not get the goal – Nesta’s unfortunate own goal was ruled out for offside (the bari striker was still interfering with play) – this angered some Bari players, especially due to the fact that Robinho was seemingly offside in the build up to Merkel’s goal just before half time.
Milan were playing fantastic football and thanks to the 2 goal cushion, were perfectly in control. Robinho was working hard and linked up brilliantly with Cassano and Ibrahimovic, the trident were working together excellently in their first game together. Milan had 1 or 2 chances as a result, firstly with an Ibrahimovic backheel to Cassano (who was unfortunately offside) and also, Ibra’s outside of the foot pass to Robinho (who’s shot went narrowly wide – despite deserving a goal for his play)
Robinho ensured safe passage to the quarter finals for Milan with 65 minutes on the clock. Alexander merkel played a good through ball for Robinho (who’s movement was excellent to get in to the position he was in) – who controlled it, and hammered the ball hard and low in to the back of the net to make it 3-0. 3 goals up, Cassano was taken off for Andrea Pirlo, who was returning from a thigh strain sustained in December.
With 71 minutes on the clock, Alexandre Pato came off the bench, and he possibly had something to prove after seeing how well the other 3 forwards had done! Alexander Merkel picked up a slight knock, and so he made way for the Brazilin, but it was not a serious injury.
The next quarter of an hour went by surprisingly quickly – with little action. There was an injury scare, after Andrea Pirlo needed treatment on his knee after a collision just minutes after stepping on the pitch, and despite returning to the pitch, he was forced off the field as a result of that knock, a fairly big blow for the Rossoneri.
The game drew to a close in a fairly boring manner, Bari never really got going and offered little threat to Milan, the Rossoneri’s front 3 linked up exceptionally well and it’s no surprise the game fizzled out after those 3 were interrupted. Milan are comfortably through to the next round against Sampdoria, and the likes of Robinho and Merkel in particular shone – unfortunately, the latter and Andrea Pirlo picked up knocks in the process (more news to follow on those 2 injures)
Best Moment: Ibrahimovic’s goal
Man of the Match: Robinho (Merkel’s a close second, Cassano, Ibra and Oddo could all compete for the 3rd spot in terms of how well they did)
VIDEO MILAN VS BARI ,COPPA ITALIA januari 20, 2011
