AC Milan boss Max Allegri has admitted that Barcelona along with Real Madrid are the best teams in the Champions League but still believes his side can beat the Catalans when they host the European champions in the Champions League on November 23.
Allegri’s team suffered a slow start to the new season, however, they did manage to snatch a draw away to Barcelona in the opening game of Group H thanks to a late equaliser from Thiago Silva.
The return leg after the international break is a must win game for the Italians if they want to claim top spot in the group.
Despite the difficult task ahead, Allegri is confident his side can beat Barca.
“Milan are at the level of the big European clubs,” the former Cagliari boss told the Gazzetta dello Sport on Friday.
“Barcelona and Real Madrid are the best in the Champions League, but we can beat Barca at San Siro. It’s not a normal game against Barcelona, it’s a Final.
“Saying that we can’t try to emulate Real or Barca – we just have to be ourselves.”
The game is set to be an intense especially after the revelations of Zlatan Ibrahimovic this past week.
The Swede has released his autobiography which contains some controversial statements regarding his time at Camp Nou and his fractious relationship with coach Pep Guardiola.
“I yelled to him: ‘You have no balls!’ And probably worse things than that. And I added: ‘You are sh***ing yourself about Mourinho! You can goto hell!’ I was completely mad. If I were Guardiola, I would have been frightened,” Ibrahimovic writes in the first chapter of his book.
Ibrahimovic left Barcelona in 2010 after just one season and joined AC Milan whom he helped claim the Scudetto last term.
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