AC Milan CEO, Adriano Galliani has insisted that his side’s style of play in Tuesday’s 2-2 Champions League draw against Barcelona was not defensive but merely a consequence of the Catalans’ intense pressure at Camp Nou.
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The Serie A champions were pushed back into their own half for large parts of the game and hardly created any opportunities in their Group H encounter, but Galliani has stated that Milan didn’t have the intention to defend in numbers ahead of the encounter.
“What we did was not catenaccio. You are simply forced to defend this deep against Barcelona, because they keep possession so well. You hardly get the chance to attack,” Galliani was quoted as saying by La Gazzetta dello Sport.
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“Barcelona are amazing with the ball at their feet. They enjoyed 70 per cent possession and we were unable to win the ball from them.
“The defence did a great job though, and Thiago Silva and Alessandro Nesta in particular were impressive. We struggled a bit to cope with Dani Alves, but that changed with the entrance of Urby Emanuelson.”
Milan’s next Champions League game is the away match against BATE Borisov on September 28.
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