AC Milan did what they needed to do in order to keep the Scudetto race even slightly open, beating Inter 1-0 at San Siro on Sunday night.
The decisive goal came from an unlikely source around 10 minutes before the break, as Pervis Estupinan strode onto a through ball from Youssouf Fofana and lashed a shot into the top corner to make it 1-0, which is how the scoreline would stay.
It was yet another excellent defensive display in the derby from Milan too, with another clean sheet in the bag against the Nerazzurri, this time with Mike Maignan rarely tested barring a shot from Henrikh Mkhitaryan before the opening goal.
Is it too little too late? Well, the result means the gap at the top is cut to seven points, and Milan have also ended Inter’s unbeaten run at 15 games (one that ran since the last derby), so there is some reason to believe. Ivan Stoev has five talking points from the night at La Scala del Calcio.
1. Unlikely heroes
Youssouf Fofana and Pervis Estupinan haven’t been particularly impressive this season, with the Ecuadorian in particular struggling ever since losing his starting spot to Davide Bartesaghi. Fofana has enjoyed more playing time but has been hit and miss, and also seemed to have lost his place recently.
Against Inter it was the perhaps surprise duo that sealed the three points for the Rossoneri and kept the title race somewhat alive. Fofana provided the assist for Estupinan who made no mistake in front of goal, firing a rocket into the top corner that was the finish of a top striker.
Following the goal the left wing-back did well in defence as Milan soaked up the pressure and did little in attack in the second half, but it was a job well done at the back also to help his side keep the clean sheet.
Fofana was an odd one to judge as the assist was fantastic but there were a few more chances that he somewhat wasted when he looked clumsier in possession. Luckily for him that didn’t prove costly in the end, and there were some useful defensive contributions too.
2. Men for the big occasion
Milan’s season has been reliant on the Modric-Rabiot duo in the midfield and the expectations were quite high for the pair going into the match, given that they were facing Zielinski and Barella.
It’s safe to say that they handled the pressure quite well, as you would expect, with Modric dazzling in the middle in both phases of the game. In possession, he kept his cool in tricky situations as you would expect from the veteran, who has starred on the biggest stages.
Rabiot was also on top of things as he got into many duels which resulted in him getting a bit of a kicking. The Frenchman played very smartly and won quite a few fouls under pressure, being a constant menace with his size and his ability to protect the ball.
In the second half Milan shifted to a lower block and the two midfielders helped a lot closing down the passing lanes and limiting the space for Inter, who struggled to create anything. Exactly what Allegri would want.
3. The most in-form defence
Koni De Winter didn’t get off to a great start at Milan, struggling in his first few games. With Pavlovic, Gabbia and Tomori alternating injuries the Belgian found a spot in the starting XI in all three positions and really took the chance.
He has grown with every game and has now established himself as the in-form centre-back. Against Inter it was no different and it was a brilliant performance from De Winter, with 5 clearances, 5 recoveries, 3 blocked shots, 2 interceptions, 4/6 duels won and 87% pass completion.
The former Genoa man was commanding in the air too as Pio Esposito was left helpless. There’s not much to say other than that it was another solid and extremely competent job well done by De Winter, who is living up to his potential.
At 23 years of age he still has plenty of room to grow too. Milan might lack depth in the defensive department but they certainly don’t lack quality players that are yet to hit their prime years and that’s very positive for Allegri and the future of the club.
4. Another tough night
Christian Pulisic and Rafael Leao were once again entrusted as the front two despite rumours of Christopher Nkunku challenging the American. Yet again, the pairing never really clicked on the field, as they haven’t in any previous starts.
Leao was involved in the goal, to be fair, as he laid it off for Fofana before the Frenchman provided his assist and it was a good sequence overall. The Portuguese did also track back and put in a shift too. Given how Milan were set up in the second half, maybe it’s not a surprise that he wasn’t as involved.
Pulisic seemed more engaged in the first half but he made more mistakes too. The ex-Chelsea man did, however, cover a lot of space to close passing lanes. So, both attackers played a big part in the win, even if it wasn’t in the way one might expect.
The gut feeling with the Leao-Pulisic duo is that there are two things holding them back: One: the pair are clearly not at 100% fitness and haven’t been for potentially months now. Two: they do not have the chemistry or cohesion required to function like, for example, Lautaro and Thuram.
5. Max at the max
As a reminder, Milan finished eighth last season and now sit second less than year after the end of last season, with 10 games to go in this campaign. The Rossoneri are already just four points behind the total they got in the entirety of 2024-25.
The narrative is that Allegri didn’t exactly get what he asked for from the summer mercato, but he has worked with the players he has, raising the level of the collective. It’s been a season above expectations really, with dreams of a title race going on into March.
Dreams aside, Allegri continued his big-game trend too, having outfoxed Inter for the second time this season without conceding a goal. Inter probably had one big chance that they missed (Mkhitaryan, in the first half) and immediately after Milan made them pay. From there, corto muso took effect.
At some point you just have to stop and appreciate what the coach has done in the limited time he has been here. The management should be thinking about how to fully back him and improve the squad going into next season so that they can be competitive on multiple fronts.
1. Estupiñán was the actual surprise yesterday. Fofana wasn’t much different from his usual self, as in many mistakes here and there, but an uncanny ability to spot a player running towards the keeper and playing a perfectly weighted through ball to him. In the Cremonese game, he should have gotten 2 assists for example.
2. It actually feels nice to win the derby sunday and prepare to watch the UCL games tuesday and wednesday with no inter to root against.
Fofana should probably play further back, like last season when he finished with 9 assists. He seems to be better there at spotting passing lanes. Once he is close to the penalty box he panics and makes bad decisions. At the same time maybe he needs more time in the new role as Ambrosini said. After all he does have 4 assists this season in half of the games and minutes and if his forwards can actually finish the passes he gives them he would have more assists.
In terms of assists he is closer to last season than first glance. He is currently at 3 assists in serie A and 1 assist in copa Italia. Last season he had 4 assists in serie A until the 32nd game (he finished the season with 6 assists in serie A), 1 assist in copa Italia and 2 assists in UCL. Fonseca and Conceição also relied on him way more often than Allegri who tried Ricci, Loftus-Cheek and Jashari in some games. If you combine all of that with Allegri’s EXTREME defensive tendencies, I’d say Fofana isn’t worse in terms of assists.
Now I don’t know if he can play further back. That either means having him as the deepest midfielder which isn’t his natural position (he is a box-to-box midfielder) and where Modrić is currently thriving OR swith to a double pivot system but I don’t see that happening or working.
He makes all the right runs and reads without the ball, but once he gets the ball up the pitch his passing, shooting, decision making fails him.
Modric stays where he is at but maybe switch Fofana and Rabiot positions on the pitch. Rabiot is way more composed around the goal.
It would be interesting to see who Allegri plays instead of Rabiot vs Lazio with RLC being injured.
“It would be interesting to see who Allegri plays instead of Rabiot vs Lazio with RLC being injured.”
Don’t get your hopes too high, it’s mostly gonna be your favourite midfielder Samuele Ricci or maybe Ardon Jashari.
Keep Fofana out of both boxes and we’ll be ok.
I agree on both counts.
I don’t know how a person can watch Milan for the last year and not appreciate what Fofana does.
I didn’t even watch Milan after January last season and I know the role Fofana played.
Do you remember Kessie? That’s what Fofana’s role is supposed to be. Disrupt and pass on. Well, so far his disruption is a lot better than his erratic passing.
If people could finish he would lead the team in assists by a large amount. Remember a couple matches ago when he put both Leao and Pulisic in 1 on 1 with the keeper and they both missed?
That’s happened multiple times this season. He has good vision and is a good passer. His shooting is awful but there is much more to his game than that.
Exactly.
All Milan need is a (mythical) 30 goal a season striker
Look at his assists.
They speak for.themselves.
Rafa made the pass to Fofana and Pulisic made a run drawing Bisseck away from Estupian. Pulisic created most chances of all the Milan players. Rafa had a great defensive involvement in the first half. Neither are fully fit and both are best case false 9’s whereas Lautaro and Thuram are actually strikers.
Great comment.
In addition to drawing Bisseck away from Estupinan, Pulisic’s dragging of Bisseck is what kept Estupinan on-side.
Otherwise Estpinan couldn’t have made his run behind his defender, because Estupinan was already goalside of his marker at the time Fofana (beautifully) passed the ball. So he would’ve been offside except for Pulisic’s dragging run. You can see from the video that Estupinan watched Pulisic drag his defender and timed his run exactly as Pulisic did his. This is all clear from the tactical video that SM posted:
x(dot)com/SempreMilanCom/status/2031007101900804271
Agree on both counts. In fact, this was one of Rafa’s best efforts for the team overall. Pulisic always makes that run, and was available for the pass if Sommer had closed down Estupinan.
The two are immensely talented. Rafa is at his attacking best running at defenders in space. Puli helps with that by drawing a defender away. But Puli is at his best playing off of a true striker. We will need to see a lot more 4-4-3 to get the very best out of both.
3-4-3
Sempre Milan is becoming a joke. It’s as if this writer is now trying to justify the terrible ratings of the other.
Anyone who thinks Pulisic had a bad game just doesn’t know what they are watching and really shouldn’t be commenting on football. To say he and Leao deserved the same rating in yesterday’s match is just a non reality based opinion.
Pulisic was very active, had many good dribbles, carried the ball past Inter’s midfield, setup his teammates with chances. He very easily could have had 3 assists in the game. Because they can’t finish should not diminish the effort. Modric’s shot went just wide.
He had a great dribble and pass to setup Saleamakers perfectly in the box who sent his shot a mile wide, as usual. He dribbled past the Inter midfield on the counter and setup Leao with a good chance who also missed the goal by several yards. Oh, and he also led everyone in distance covered in the match as he always does.
I honestly wonder if these people even watch the match or the just look at the box score and see that he didn’t score.
Also De Winter is a Beast. Gabbia will make a good rotational player to come off the bench when needed.
I agree Pulisic did very well in the derby.
Gabbia is the leader of the defence, and he’s one of the most important players in the squad who has had a phenomenal season.
Why does any good performance by one player (De Winter) immediately call for criticism or a dig at another player (Gabbia)?
Just compliment the players who played and leave the injured ones to recover.
There is no “dig” at Gabbia. I think Gabbia is a solid defender and good to have on the team. I think De Winter is playing the best of all our defenders right now and has a higher upside than Gabbia.
As we know players often get injured or need rest so either way he will see plenty of playing time.
Gabbia has been central (literally) to Milan reaching 2nd.
oh I see you didn’t bite his head off for stating the same thing I did in the ratings… LOL!!! Calmed down a bit?
This is a Milan forum I shouldn’t have to keep defending the players from fans especially players who weren’t even on the pitch.
Agree, Sempre Milan articles are becoming a joke. Fofana has not had a bad season. How many goals does he need to create or be involved in Ivan? You and your minions in the echo chamber are becoming ridiculous.
That depends on your definition of a “bad” season and what Fofana’s indicators of success are?
There is only one definition of bad…just one! And Fofana’s play does not fit THE description. You should be asking yourself, why does Allegri and most of the intelligent observers see a good player but you don’t?
Agree on De Winter being our best performing CB right now. But he shouldn’t replace Gabbia post (after his injury over). I prefer he replaces Tomori post. De Winter seems like he’s very comfortable with the ball, has a good pace, and can distribute the ball well. Simply all the traits needed to be a decent RCB.
we will need them both going into next season with so many more games. Having said that, what did i learned? I learned we need patience. So many ppl writing off de winter at the start of the season. He’s finding his footing. Very similar to Tonali (who had a so-so first season, then exploded) . Not everyone can be a Tiji, Puli or Rabiot who join and hit the ground running. Lesson learned when judging Jashari, Ricci and Zahachaime
Well said. It seems if Pulisic doesn’t convert 100% and score 1-2 goals each match he’s been deemed as “failure”. People only look at the stats it seems and the amazing autumn put their emphasis even more on the “goal contributed” stats.
Allegri has improved Milan a lot. It is a work in progress, and weaknesses are still quite obvious, but 1 good CB and a proper CF could help him take his game to the next level; he doesn’t have a striker suitable for his system and Milan still is comfortably in the 2nd place. Then whether the management will buy those players or not is to be seen.
Can’t believe to say this but I have to agree with you once again. Allegri didn’t even have his request properly heard this TW, but still he delivers. Just look at how pivotal Rabiot is (purely by his request).
Just get him players he needs and for there we can start talking about a bigger target like Scudetto. I always see this season as a transitional season. And Allegri so far has done a tremendous work to stabilize the team.
I don’t know how much longer we need to keep attributing Leao’s and Pulisic’ form to fitness rather than the obvious fact they just can not play effectively together up front unless there’s a 9 there and they play off the wing… Max can reinvent the wheel all he wants, but he will keep getting hit’n’miss… And maybe that’s by design to make it obvious to Furlani and Gerry than they need solutions up front.
Allegri can only work with what he has, which is a bunch of fantastic wingers and a couple of can’t score, mediocre 9s. He has no choice but to play wingers as strikers. Leao and Pulisic are never going to be at their very best playing out of position every week. But all things considered, both have been scoring. If Gimenez wasn’t so useless, Milan would be able to play one of Leao or Puli out wide, but he can’t. Not sure why everyone is expecting anything other than what we are getting.
If they can get a good 9 for next season do you think Allegri will change to a 4-3-3? I can’t see either Leao or Pulisic being happy coming off the bench.
Not sure about 4-3-3 but x-x-3 or maybe even the xmas tree would benefit both Rafa & Puli. I just hope they both decide to stay even if Allegri is “misusing” them.
Cannot understand why in march leao is not fully fit!!!! What the hell is he waiting for to be fully fit? June?
If and whenever he wants, leao can be very good but he is lazy, inconsistent and does not show enough commitment. Enough to say that he is not a regular player with Portugal.
I am impressed with the discussions by all on this article. For once nobody is shouting at nobody or snapping at each other. For once I see different opinions being accommodated without the usual claws being out. For once I see discussions in the interest of our beloved team although opinions are at variance. It warms my heart that the egos are not on display as has become the trend on these platforms. For once opinions are just that…opinions and let’s allow views even if you do not agree. Forza Milan
I so much love rabiot and modric even pulisic and palvolis they play with their heart most have you watch modric and rabiot you will love them
Forza Milan ❤️🖤