Riccardo Montolivo enthused at Milan’s performance in keeping Barcelona ‘sterile’ on Wednesday evening.
La Blaugrana struggled for space and goalscoring opportunities in defeat at San Siro in this first leg Last 16 Champions League tie.
“It went well and we played the game we had to, as we were prepared for them to keep possession and therefore we shut down the spaces to make it sterile,” Montolivo explained to Mediaset afterwards.
“Clearly we had a bit of luck with the ricochet on the first goal, but the second was a wonderful team move.
“It was a great night and we hope for another one in the second leg.”
Montolivo and his teammates successfully kept Lionel Messi’s contribution to a minimum.
“Leo Messi wasn’t having a good night, fortunately, but we hope he won’t be at 100 per cent at the Camp Nou either.
“It’ll probably be the same basic approach, just that Barcelona will attack us with more intensity.
“We’ll have to be very careful and try to be dangerous on the counter-attack, as it’s the only way to face a team like Barcelona.”
