UEFA Champions League: No Goals In Barcelona-Milan, But Bayern Munich Beat Marseille

So they’re blaming the pitch:

Barcelona and AC Milan fought out a scoreless draw on Wednesday at the San Siro. For more on the two sides, check out Barca Blaugranes and the AC Milan Offside.

That Remy miss proved to be vital, but maybe not as vital as a referee’s decision. Phillip Lahm handled a Marseille pass, but it went uncalled by the referee. He quickly turned it into a Bayern attack, too, and eventually Robben slipped Gomez in for a clinical finish. Controversial or not, the Germans were up, 1-0.

Neuer’s save on Mbia wasn’t the only time he was called into action. He made a few other nice saves and kept Marseille scoreless, and then in the 69th minute Robben put the tie to bed. The Dutchman put the Marseille defense on their heels before a beautiful one-two. Robben passed to Thomas Muller, who chipped the ball perfectly for Robben’s run. A delicate first touch and cool finish to the far post was all it took and Bayern were on cruise control.

In the 66th minute, Urby Emmanuelson came on for a tired-looking Kevin-Prince Boateng. It took just one minute for him to absolutely blow a golden chance. Ibrahimovic played him through on goal with a stunning through ball, but Emmanuelson somehow took a touch away from the goal that instantly took away a shooting chance, even though he was clearly one-on-one with Valdes. It was a touch almost too poor to be believed.

You can find all of our coverage from the day’s games in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

We’ll have constant updates during this match in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

We’ll have constant updates during this match in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

Barcelona look rattled, and they’re being forced into rather aimless punts forward, which isn’t like them at all. They’ll need to settle down here or Milan look reasonably likely to shut them out (or even score a goal of their own), which would be a great result. This, of course, means that a Barca goal is imminent. On cue, Cristian Tello, who’s on for Andres Iniesta, smacks the ball into the side netting.

We’ll have constant updates during this match in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

We’ll have constant updates during this match in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

We’ll have constant updates during this match in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

Anyway, Stephan El-Shaarawy comes on to replace the stricken striker. Does the youngster have what it takes to get Milan on the scoresheet? Probably not, but Milan can hope. They do look like they have a shot of beating Barcelona here, which would be a superb result, but they’ve wasted too many chances (including one by Robinho in the first minute) for their own good. Right now, their attacking play mostly appears to consist of Zlatan Ibrahimovic being offside.

We’ll have constant updates during this match in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

The second half is underway at the San Siro, where Barcelona and AC Milan are locked in a scoreless draw. It’s not even that one-sided, although the visitors are clearly the better side. Milan have had plenty of chances and could definitely win this, although they’ll be very worried about the horrible, horrible things Alexis Sanchez and Xavi are doing to their defence. Look out for a big refereeing call this half after the former was incorrectly denied a penalty, incidentally.

We’ll have constant updates during this match in our UEFA Champions League Wednesday StoryStream. For more on the two teams, head over to Barcelona blog Barca Blaugranes and The AC Milan Offside.

Update: Marseille 0-2 Bayern Munich, Final Score

The Bayern goal came just before half in beautiful, though controversial fashion. Mario Gomez applied the finish on the end of a beautiful team move.

Update: AC Milan 0-0 Barcelona, Final Score

The truth is, Milan should have taken the lead in the opening minutes. Robinho had the game’s first great chance in the 2nd minute, but he shanked a wide-open volley terribly.

The Brazilian screams for handball, but Ibrahimovic pulls his arms down before the ball gets to him, and eventually possession falls to Robinho, who could be ambitious and take a shot or could pass it backwards for a rather more useless long-range shot. Guess which one happens!

Barcelona manage to regroup and attack, with Xavi (who’s been brilliant so far) blasts just over the crossbar after Milan’s defence once again completely fails to track him. The hosts are using a zonal marking system, which means they’re not getting drawn out of position by Barca... but they’re also not actually tackling them either, which could be problematic. Still 0-0 at the San Siro, anyway, and halftime looms.

And then Milan counter, working both sides of the pitch superbly only for Clarance Seedorf to completely mishit an admittedly very difficult volley. This is a good game, incidentally. If you hate defending, anyway.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

The whole Barcelona back line is looking pretty nervous about having to deal with Milan’s potent front line. They’re not passing well, they’re not clearing effectively and they’re making mistakes. It’s almost as bad as watching Arsenal against Ibrahimovic, except for the fact that Milan almost never have the ball. As long as Barcelona retain possession, they’re safe, and they’ll probably score an away goal at some point too. They nearly manage it with a really lovely piece of play which ends in a Xavi shot - but unfortunately for the visitors it’s deflected into Christian Abbiati’s grateful hands.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

Note to Robinho: Goals are not 30-feet tall and when you hit a ball 20 feet over the bar, well, you have some supreme skill.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

Follow Milan and Barcelona live in this story stream as we constantly update you with the latest news from both Champions League quarterfinal matches today. For more on the hosts, visit AC Milan Offside, and for the visitors check out Barca Blaugranes.

Marseille are without Steve Mandanda in goal and they’re in pretty terrible form at the moment. All signs point to them struggling to deal with Bayern Munich. Bayern’s defense is hardly spectacular, however, and the home side has plenty going forward. It seems highly unlikely that they’re going to be able to prevent the Bavarians from getting an away goal, but a win will keep things interesting. They have a shot at that, with Loic Remy surprisingly in the starting lineup after recovering from an injury. Bayern Munich field their new standard-issue lineup with Rafinha out for bad form and Bastian Schweinsteiger out for yet another injury issue.

Marseille Lineup (4-2-3-1): Andrade; Fanni, Nkoulou, Morel, Azpilicueta; Diarra, Mbia; A. Ayew, Valbuena, Amalfitano; Remy

Barcelona Lineup (3-4-3): Valdes; Puyol, Pique, Mascherano; Busquets, Keita, Xavi, Iniesta; Sanchez, Messi, Alves

Kickoff is at 2:45 p.m. ET, 8:45 p.m. local time from the San Siro in Milan. You can catch the game on FOX Soccer Channel in the USA, Sportsnet World in Canada, and Sky Sports 1 in the UK.

If you’re a Milan fan, that must be frustrating. The Rossoneri are a genuinely good side. They won the Scudetto in the 2010/11 season. They absolutely annihilated Arsenal in the first leg of their knockout-round tie, winning 4-0 at the San Siro, and lest anyone forget, they’ve already played Barcelona this season, losing 5-4 on aggregate but earning a 2-2 draw at the Camp Nou in the process. They’re too good a team to simply write off here, and Gianfranco at the AC Milan Offside is frustrated that the world at large is doing just that.

Milan aren’t favourites, or anything particularly close, but there’s no reason that they’ll fold like APOEL Nicosia did against Real Madrid. The last time Barcelona went to the San Siro in a knockout game, they were beaten 3-1 by unfancied Inter and then eliminated in the reverse fixture. Can we honestly say that there’s no way Milan can do the same?