AC Milan vs. Barcelona: Milan Not Equipped to Stop Messi

Zlatan Ibrahimovic has made it clear that it's not about stopping Lionel Messi, it's about stopping Barcelona as a team.

But, the reality is, he must stop Messi to stop Barcelona, and AC Milan doesn't have the makeup to do so.

Ibrahimovic told Aftonbladet before the Champions League quarterfinals clash on Wednesday, via ESPN, "We have to stop Barcelona, not Messi, in the same way that Barca will have to stop Milan."

Let's not state the obvious.

Let's not talk about how Barcelona is the best team in the world, or how Messi is the best player in the world. The real reason why Milan won't beat Barca on Wednesday is because the Red and Blacks simply aren't equipped to do so.

Massimiliano Allegri has already said that Milan won't try to duplicate the style of Jose Mourinho's Inter Milan squad from two years ago, when Inter Milan knocked Barca out of the semifinals.

Allegri said, via AFP, "It would be difficult for us to play like Mourinho's Inter, they were more physical than us."

He added, "We need to try to cut down the mistakes to a minimum while having an attacking mentality."

And that's the whole problem right there.

No one beats a team like Barcelona by simply trying to score more goals. Barcelona has Messi, who just broke the Barcelona scoring record with his 234th goal and his 55 tallies this season in all competitions. That is already a Spanish record. He has 18 goals in his last eight Barca matches, including that lovely five-goal affair against Bayer Leverkusen.

On top of that, the loss of Thiago Silva after the 2-1 win over AS Roma on Saturday is the last straw. Silva was Milan's centerpiece on defense. Losing him opens up a gaping hole that Messi and Co. will gladly slip through en route to a goal.

Milan obviously has a tremendous player in Ibrahimovic, but it all comes down to stopping Messi and Barca, and the Red and Blacks won't be able to do that.

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