Barcelona's starting lineup today was similar to what the coaching staff had predicted before the game.

Sure enough, they lined up a 433 formation:

Forwards: Pedro, Villa, Messi

Midfielders: Iniesta, Xavi, Busquets

Defenders: Adriano, Mascherano, Abidal, Alves

Goalkeeper: Valdés

Strikers Cesc Fabregas and Alexis Sanchez, who had just moved in the summer window, did not feature, while captain Puyol, who had just returned from injury, was also on the bench.

On the Milan side, it is dealing with a 433 dominated by young players:

Forwards: Mane, Ibrahimovic, Salah.

Midfielders: N'Golo Kante, Gattuso, Boateng.

Defenders: Desiglio, Van Dijk, Thiago Silva, Abate.

Goalkeeper: Abbiati.

In this starting lineup, with the exception of Gattuso and Abbiati, the rest of the players are all under the age of 30, and the average age of the whole team is only 24.

In this defensive battle, which was destined to be difficult, Allegri also agreed with Pan Yi's opinion and sent more young players who could run.

In the midfield position, all three players are good at defense, physical and aggressive, and also in order to better perform defensive tasks.

At this time, the referee blew the whistle for the start of the game.

Playing away today, the Milan players in white jerseys quickly set up their positions.

Barcelona's players naturally got possession of the ball.

In midfield, Villa handed the ball to Messi, who kicked it back to Xavi.

At this point, Milan's Gattuso and Boateng were immediately close to Xavi, which left him with the ball to the left wing and handed it to Adriano, who came in from behind.

But Salah had already come up to block his way in the first place, forcing Adriano to pass the ball to Busquets again.

Sergio Busquets then passed it back to centre-back Mascherano to deal with.

Mascherano made a couple of simple passes with another centre-back, Abidal, only to find that no Milan player had come up to press.

Seeing this, Guardiola's brows on the sidelines have begun to wrinkle.

It doesn't seem to be the same tactics he has studied this season.

Said to be good front-court pressing, but full-court pressing?

But now most of the Milan players seem to be just standing in their own half, and they have not taken the initiative to force Barcelona's defenders.

This kind of scene is actually not what Gua Shuai wants to see.

His instructions to his players were to put their feet at the back first, wait for the opponent to come up and expose the defensive gaps in the back, then hand the ball to Xavi or Iniesta, and then attack quickly.

But now, it feels like it's a bit useless.

Back on the field.

At this time, the ball had been passed to the middle, and Barcelona's overall formation began to press forward.

Mascherano took the ball close to the center circle.

He glanced ahead and found that no matter which person Habaibu was, there were Milan players around him, and it was difficult to catch the ball.

In desperation, he had no choice but to split the side and hand it to Alves, who was plugged in on the right side.

Alves tried to make contact with Messi, but his straight ball was cut off by Kante and rolled straight out of bounds.

After Barca sent a throw-in, Alves opted to cross directly into the box this time.

Villa is already standing there.

But Van Dijk, who was on Villa's side, had already suppressed him with his body, making it difficult for Villa to get his hands on the ball comfortably.

It's just that Spain's main scorer is not an idle person, and in such a difficult situation, he still came to look back at the moon, and rushed to the Milan goal before Van Dijk, completing Barcelona's first goal of the game.

It's just that the ball doesn't have much power, and the angle is not tricky, Milan goalkeeper Abbiati gently stretched his ape arm and held the ball firmly in his hand.

There was a sparse round of applause at the Camp Nou.

Some were given to Villa by Barcelona fans, and some were dedicated to Abbiati by Milan fans of the away team.

……

The first attack didn't work, and Barca quickly launched a second one.

Busquets took the ball and passed it to Xavi, who came to pick it up.

But just when Xavi was about to start with the ball, Gattuso, who was following closely, suddenly fell to the ground and shoveled the ball out of Xavi's control.

Milan's iron-blooded midfielder did not return to defend at the first time, but followed Xavi closely first, and after seeing that he had no intention of continuing to turn back to ask for the ball, he returned to his position.

N'Golo Kante, Gattuso, Boateng, Mohamed Salah and Sadio Mane are all now in the midfield area and have a short distance from the back four.

As a result, the Barcelona players had a lot of trouble with their crosses up front, making it difficult to get the ball to the attackers' feet smoothly.

After a couple of crosses from the centre circle to the top of the box, Iniesta opted for a less threatening long-range shot to finish the attack.

……

Milan's side of the bench.

Allegri couldn't help but look at Pan Yi and smiled with satisfaction.

The current situation on the field is developing as they expected.

He remembered what Pan Yi said at the coaching staff's tactical meeting:

'Barça's midfield trio is very strong and we have to limit their play.

'Sergio Busquets, he's very good at receiving the ball from the goalkeeper, guiding at the back, playing the ball under pressure, he's the best midfielder I've ever seen. He has a very clear sense of the ball and will do some feints to turn around and then move forward to complete the ball shuffle. ”

"On either side of him is Habai, and even if you put pressure on them, they can get the ball comfortably. Because they have good personal little skills and are good at handling the ball in tight spaces. Even if we send five men to strangle them, they can get through the midfield with quick passes. ”

"So, they are the top midfielders, they can play under pressure, and they are very fluid, and they also exert a numerical advantage in the local area, so it is not easy to press high, and the only solution is to ...... Seal off the space! ”

'One of the key points was to make the two wide players up front a little narrower, to keep the five men in midfield in a tight position, and then to be mindful of the distance between the midfield and the back.

"Once the space is too big, Barcelona can make a fuss between the two lines and can find Messi who is in between the two lines, so it will be a big problem. Therefore, the distance between the middle and back fields must be compact and compact. ”

'They can get the ball in front of the halfway line, it doesn't matter. As long as we keep the distance between the back four and the midfielder, even if Barcelona have a bunch of talented players, they can only stay away from the goal! ……”

Pan Yi's thinking is very clear, and his analysis of Barcelona's midfield style of play and player characteristics is also extremely thorough, which is why Allegri has to admit the cleverness of this tactic and adopt it.

For Pan Yi, this is a variant of his tactics against Barcelona based on Klopp's tactics.

Now the individual ability of Milan players is not as good as Barcelona, and if you play against them, you will lose too much.

Therefore, after a long period of analysis and study of Barcelona's tactics and player characteristics, Pan Yi proposed this combat plan - turning the high position into a low position, compressing Barcelona's space, and waiting for an opportunity to counterattack.

Now, the Milan players on the pitch are strictly executing this tactic and draining the patience of the Barcelona players.

When the time comes, Milan will bare their fangs and deliver a lethal blow......