AC Milan News: Rossoneri Will Need Insane Performance to Upset Barcelona

AC Milan starts UEFA Champions League play with a game against defending champion Barcelona on Tuesday. It's a high-profile battle, with L'equip blaugrana expected to pick up a home win against the Rossoneri, who will need a huge performance to earn any points from the contest.

Zlatan Ibrahimovic will miss the match due to an adductor injury and didn't travel with the team, according to ESPNsoccernet. His absence will put a lot of pressure on the other Milan goal scorers, namely Antonio Cassano and Alexandre Pato, to create offense.

Barcelona is coming off a 2-2 draw with Real Sociedad in a game they were favored to win easily. They led the game 2-0 after just 11 minutes, but Txuri-urdin scored two second half goals to stun the Spanish Dream Team.

In a report on FIFA.com, AC Milan manager Massimo Allegri told his players not to fear Barcelona.

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"We're going to try to make a good start and be balanced in defence and attack. Right now, they are the team playing the best football, they have the highest quality—both individually and as a team—but we have our own quality; we're a good team.

"We're AC Milan, so we must play with courage. In football, you can never take anything for granted. There will be a lot of attention on the match, and we must have great respect for Barcelona. But we have qualities to make it a good football game.”

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That's the right message to send, and it's likely the same one Real Sociedad manager Philippe Montanier used at halftime. Too many teams go into a game against Barcelona not believing they can hang with the La Liga and Champions League winners.

Cassano and Pato are both quality players and, if given enough opportunities in the attacking third, could put a scare into Barcelona.

The Rossoneri are coming off a draw of their own against Lazio in the Serie A opener. Unlike Barcelona, they were the team making to comeback after falling behind 2-0. Ibrahimovic and Cassano scored four minutes apart to tie the score. All four goals in the game were scored in the first 33 minutes.

The good news for AC Milan is that both teams should advance from the group stage barring an upset. It would still be nice for Milan to earn at least one point against Barcelona in the opener to give themselves more wiggle room over the last five group games.

AC Milan have won the Champions League seven times, with the most recent coming in 2007, and been the runners-up four times. They are a long shot to make it that far this season, but a run to the final eight is within reason.

It all starts with a trip to Spain to take on the defending champions. The Rossoneri can take solace in the fact that no matter the result of the game, they are still likely to advance from the group and that no match the rest of the tournament will be tougher than this one.

If they play aggressive like Allegri wants them to, they might just walk away with an unexpected result.