AC Milan played the first of two legs in the Champions League semi-final against Inter last night, but unfortunately lost 0-2. And it could have been worse for the Rossoneri, who now have a mountain to climb.
Stefano Pioli’s men looked scared from the start and Inter took advantage of this, scoring two goals within the first eleven minutes. and Milan can consider themselves lucky that the Nerazzuri only scored two goals in the first half.
The game was much more balanced in the second half, as Milan had a couple of great chances and hit the post, but despite all their efforts they failed to find the back of the net. At the very least, they limited the damage to just two goals. Here are five things we learned…
1. Dreadful at the back
Davide Calabria was easily beaten on the corner kick for the opening goal as Edin Dzeko easily (but with a great finish) opened the scoring. Calabria seemed to be on edge after that, as he was constantly out of position and had a hard time against his opponents, which wasn’t expected given his recent form.
Simon Kjaer and Fikayo Tomori were disappointing at the back as they just let Henrikh Mkhitaryan run through the middle, without anyone trying to stop him for the second goal. Even though Sandro Tonali did a poor job of tracking back on that one, the hole in the defence was even worse.
The nightmare at the back didn’t end there as Tomori and Kjaer continued with the sloppiness throughout their stay on the pitch, and it’s a miracle that Milan weren’t punished more.
The only defender that at least didn’t commit as many errors was Theo Hernandez, but he didn’t play to his standard level either as he failed to make any impact going forward, and was struggling in defence alongside his teammates.
2. Midfield disaster
Whilst Calabria was to blame for the first goal, Tonali was the culprit on the second as he just did not start tracking Mkhitaryan until it was too late, and even when he did he jogged instead of sprinted which is unacceptable. The Armenian started his run a few meters behind Tonali and the latter didn’t really do much in that whole sequence, and got punished for it.
Krunic was also below his usual reliable self as he failed to help defensively and was of no use going forward either. And whilst Tonali stepped up after his mistake, the Bosnian did nothing for the entirety of the game, but unfortunately for Pioli, there were no options on the bench and with Bennacer injured and most likely missing the reverse fixture it will be up to Krunic to redeem himself in a week’s time.
3. Toothless in attack
Milan without Leao were, as we have often seen, toothless in attack and the team continued the negative run without him. Olivier Giroud just looks exhausted at this stage of the season and we can’t really blame the striker, as he’s been forced to constantly play amid the lack of proper deputies.
But Giroud isn’t the main man to blame because he didn’t even get a chance to prove himself, with the awful service he received or didn’t for that matter.
Brahim Diaz had a couple of decent moments but failed to link up with the striker and Junior Messias also did not manage to provide Giroud with anything meaningful. The Brazilian also missed the biggest chance of the game for Milan, as he failed to hit the target in 1v1.
Alexis Saelemaekers was probably the brightest of the bunch as he had quite a few good moments where he managed to beat his man, but ultimately failed to materialise any of the good work. It was, however, a positive display from the Belgian and if Pioli can play both him and Leao in the reverse fixture, then Milan might be a bit more dangerous going forward.
4. Two obvious problems that need addressing
The first is the most obvious. Milan must invest. Paolo Maldini mentioned this prior to the game, stating that the team isn’t close to the biggest in Europe and needs to invest to get there.
Realistically, Milan have some great players and a lot of talent, but they are still lacking quality in the starting XI even when everybody is fit and the even bigger issue is the squad depth. It’s not serious for a club that wants to reach the Champions League final to have zero firepower when Leao isn’t on the pitch.
Milan need an overhaul in the summer and quality depth needs to be brought in if the management is serious about solidifying the club’s place in Italy and Europe.
The second problem was Stefano Pioli’s tactics, which were really questionable and need addressing going into the reverse fixture. The Italian knew that he would be without his star and the logical thing to do would have been to play in a compact way, trying not to concede in the first place and then perhaps countering. Instead, we saw a very disorganized Milan, no compactness whatsoever, and for whatever reason the whole central area was just given to Inter, especially in the first half.
A lot of tactical problems and Pioli has less than a week to get Milan back on track, as they have 90 more minutes to react.
5. The only positive
Whilst nobody really deserves praise after a performance like this, Sandro Tonali – even though he was at fault for the second goal – deserves a kind word or two.
The youngster reacted well to his mistake and was constantly trying to get on the ball and make something happen for his team. In the second half especially, he showed really great qualities – long passing, dribbling, passing, shooting.
He wasn’t afraid to run forward with the ball and did so very successfully. He also should’ve gotten an assist, but Messias spoiled the lovely pass that Tonali gave him cutting through the Inter defence.
Sandro also hit the post as he almost redeemed himself for the mistake on the goal. Pioli will be hoping that the Italian can reproduce this performance next week or hopefully even be better. as he really could’ve done with more focus and aggression at the beginning of the game,
