The Gamper stays at home (1-1)

The Gamper stays at home (1-1)

Jordi Clos

José Manuel Pinto was the hero for FC Barcelona as he saved two penalties in the spot-kick shoot-out to give the home side and the Trofeo Joan Gamper in Camp Nou against AC Milan on Wednesday night after David Villa had netted his first goal.

The tension and competitive nature of an official fixture may have been missing, but the two giants of European football produced a vintage pre-season encounter and Ronaldinho was given the send-off from the home fans that he did not receive two years ago. Camp Nou was packed for the game as the excitement and expectation of the new season brought the fans out and Barça did not disappoint as they showed that they will once again be a force and a great side to watch. 

Villa and Ibrahimovic 

Barça could have been affected by their efforts to win the Spanish Super Cup at the weekend, but the starting line-up performed superbly as they dominated the early stages on what proved to be a very hot evening in the Catalan capital. Milan started slowly and there was a slight lack of depth to the match as both teams worked out how competitive it was going to be. 

It took 20 minutes to bring the crowd to its feet as Villa and Zlatan Ibrahimovic both looked to break the deadlock. The Swedish striker did put the ball into the Italian visitors' net, but he was ruled out for offside. 

Quiet night 

Milan stepped up and attempted to catch Barça on the break when they could and this in itself offered the home team a different kind of challenge. At the other end Pinto was enjoying a quiet evening despite Ronaldinho being given a free role behind Klaas-Jan Huntelaar and Marco Boriello. At the break the hosts made three changes while Milan swapped four players in order to bring some fresh legs to proceedings. 

'Killer' Villa 

After seeing Villa make his home debut last weekend the Barça fans hoped that the free-scoring striker would net his first for the club after joining from Valencia before the World Cup Finals. They were able to celebrate that feat in the second period when he met a cross from Adriano and beat the keeper having been moved into the centre after the withdrawal of Ibrahimovic. Dani Alves, Thiago and Bojan Krkic lifted Barça when they came on and despite the continuing interruptions for more substitutions the intensity increased. Only Pinto and Adriano remained on the pitch for the Blaugrana for the entire game. 


Milan equalise 

With their first real occasion of the game Milan drew level when the irrepressible Fillipo Inzaghi produced a magnificent volley to beat Pinto. That goal meant Barça had to push forward looking for a winner and they did just that. Pedro, Thiago and Messi all tried to find a way through, but they could not score and that meant that at the end of 90 minutes a penalty shoot-out was required to find a winner of the Gamper cup. 

Pinto stood firm and after first preventing Andrea Pirlo's cheeky chip from the sport the keeper dived to his left to palm away Marek Jankulovski's effort.