AC Milan’s hopes of reaching the Champions League knockout stages were all but ended on Tuesday night at San Siro as they lost 3-1 to Borussia Dortmund.
After Olivier Giroud missed an early penalty Marco Reus made no mistake when Dortmund were given one of their own, but Samuel Chukwueze got his first goal since signing for Milan to make it 1-1 going into the break.
Malick Thiaw’s injury forced Rade Krunic to come on at centre-back and that appeared to be a big turning point in the game as Jamie Bynoe-Gittens put the away side 2-1 up and then Karim Adeyemi scored 10 minutes later to make sure of the points.
The result means that Milan now have to win at Newcastle United in the final round of the group while Dortmund must avoid defeat against Paris Saint-Germain to go through.
Stefano Pioli decided to make three changes to his starting line-up compared to the Fiorentina game as Yacine Adli, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Olivier Giroud all came into the side.
It was Giroud who had the chance to add to his tally for the season inside six minutes when a shot from Samuel Chukwueze was blocked by the outstretched arm of Schlotterbeck. However, Kobel guessed the right way as the Frenchman’s curled effort towards the bottom left corner was parried away.
Moments later up at the other end, Dortmund got a chance of their own from 12 yards. Bynoe-Gittens made a darting run to the left side of the box and Davide Calabria clipped him down with a spot kick being the right decision, and Marco Reus despatched it emphatically to win the battle of the veteran penalty takers.
Bynoe-Gittens continued to cause issues down Calabria’s side, this time cutting in past the full-back onto his right foot and unleashing a fierce shot that skimmed the crossbar and went over.
The game continued in an open fashion and there were a couple of half-chances at the midway point of the first half. The first came when Christian Pulisic shot from a central area and drew a comfortable save from Kobel, and then Mike Maignan did well to shot a ball across goal from Malen.
Dortmund continued to demonstrate their threat on the counter after taking the lead, with Christian Pulisic making an excellent block to deny Ryerson’s attempt after a cross found its way to him on the far side of the area.
In the 38th minute, Milan got themselves back on level terms in what was a perfect time for Chukwueze to get his first goal for the club. It looked like the Nigerian had been successfully jockeyed to the byline by two defenders, yet he cut between them both onto his favoured right foot and curled a perfect shot inside the far post through traffic.
😍❤️🖤
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) November 28, 2023
Milan started the second half on top buoyed by a raucous sell-out home crowd, and Pulisic attempted to channel the acrobatics of Leao with a volley at the far post that was crucially blocked.
Having come into the game in a defensive emergency, disaster struck in the 50th minute when Thiaw made a tackle while backtracking and pulled up clutching his hamstring. He could not continue, so Rade Krunic came on leaving question marks about who would slot in.
Dortmund got themselves back in front just before the hour mark as the dangerous Bynoe-Gittens got his name on the scoresheet. A move that start on the right flank went through Sabitzer in the middle and found the teenage winger on the far side, who swept a first-time shot inside the near post bast a diving Maignan.
The Rossoneri went in search of a goal to keep their hopes alive, and Giroud was the first player to get on the end of any of the eight home corners in the 68th minute but headed straight at Kobel.
However, at the other end Dortmund would get the third goal that effectively killed the contest. The substitute Adeyemi cut inside and unleashed a low shot that seemed to wrongfoot Maignan despite going down the middle of the goal and though he got a hand to it the ball bounced over the line by half a yard, evading the Frenchman’s desperate clawing save.
Right after Giroud went down just outside the edge of the box, Pioli made a double change with Chaka Traore and Luka Jovic coming on for Chukwueze and Giroud.
Milan had a couple of chances with headers to make it an interesting finish; the first was Tomori glancing a corner over and the second saw Jovic rattle the post after a fantastic cross by Calabria.
Füllkrug hit the bar with an unmarked shot from inside the box, then Jovic had a close-range attempt saved in added time as the final minutes were played out.
Hahahahahahaahaa trash team, trash coach, trash club, and trash management.
Go post else where. This is ourilan for the better or worse.
i have stopped watching this team a long time agooooooo…pioli needs to go
We’re just not good enough….
It’s a strange season for me. I feel like we had a plan and a strategy when we had maldini & massara. This year we’ve spent money, changed the team for a bit but were still heavily relying on Leao’s magic. Maldini was absolutely right, Pioli is not a coach for this level. Now all of a sudden he is giving youngsters a chance? Total madness….
What are we supposed to do if we get eliminated from CL & we somehow finish in 4th In a very mediocre way? He needs to go, it’s not working and it never will with Pioli.
“Now all of a sudden he is giving youngsters a chance? Total madness….”
What else can he do? His lack of rotation has lead to half of the players being injured. And one more muscle injury added to the never-ending list.
If we got eliminated from European competition, we should focus on Serie A. With less matches, the injury will lessen so we might have chance like 2021/2022.
Pioli is tactically inept, poor team management on display when he brought in Krunic as a CB. Could he not have shifted Calabria as a CB and brought in Florenzi as RB?
The idea of complicated build-up and the idea that our attackers have to get into the small box to shoot at the goal is killing me. At the moment the club is mismanaged, the lack of rotation has produced an endless list of injured players. This alone says it all.
If Pioli has an ounce of self respect he’d leave now, been more than a year that this clown has been showing his limits. Enough is enough, we need fresh ideas and a fresh start , the guy flew close to the sun and the result is in any way a surprise . Please just walk out baldy
💯💯 agreed
At this point fire the whole management as well. They got everything wrong. 100mil spent and this team is worse than last year.
Well people thought it was Maldini and Masara who got things wrong last season. Its all clear now why it was rumoured Maldini wanted to sack him. A player of Maldini calibre who won many throphies under top managers must have realised Pioli has peaked as a manager when we won the scudetto and our good run in the champions league last season. For those who think pioli should stay…we will not be in Europe next season in any competition if he continues.
💯💯 correct.
Maldini was fired because he spoke the truth after our UCL semi-final loss to Inter. He said we needed to buy a few more ready made starters and he was correct. He also questioned Pioli’s ability to lead this team. He was also correct.
But the haters needed a scapegoat so Maldini was the easy target and any failures were blamed on him but all the success was due to others LOL. We are now seeing the flaws in that flawed logic. I’m not saying Maldini should have stayed or been fired (although strongly disagreeing in the manner it was done) is an owners right to hire or fire who they please. BUT the you cannot paint over the tough realities that Maldini pointed out that this club needed. They are still here. We STILL do NOT have a striker, adequate depth, back up LB, etc….LOL. So now with Maldini out of the picture and no longer to blame who do the fanboys shift to? Pioli yes – but what about MANAGEMENT who built this NEW FLAWED squad?????? Are we still “cooking”???? Terrible
Pioli sucks, but this group had Dortmund, PSG, Newcastle and we have Leao out injured, Bennacer out injured, and one senior CB left (as of this game). It’s not THAT bad. People need to calm down (although I admit I reacted very poorly after Udinese, but that was Udinese).
And 90% of the injuries were avoidable as they’re muscle related and wouldn’t have occurred if Pioli used rotation.
True but the lack of management. Bringing a midfielder instead of another defender, not calling up another defender just in case….
Also our play build up is horrible
If it was only this game I can understand, but this whole season, his coaching kept letting us down.
They did buy a defender but I don’t remember Pioli using him. Who was his name? I don’t even remember.
Pellegrino. Injured. LOL.
Its not just this game, we play bad in general. There is no clear game plan, the whole team looks unorganaized and based on what we spent it should be the other way around.
At this point this useless coach should be fired
Somebody has to say that AC is a group of mediocre players very far from Europe top clubs. Silvio”s times will never come back cause he loved this club and wanted to see only the best in Milan’s jersey.
Same old story … injury (typically muscle injury) and we loose the match. This has happened in more than 50% of the matches by now? I lost counting, but the statistics are way way beyond normal. At this point, this is more than ridiculous
Dont blame Krunic Pioli put him there. He could have moved Clabria or played Simic who is a natural CB. So far Pioli has played Krunic like a LW, AM, CM, DM and now CB. What a legendary coach.
I also think Krunic himself is a bit deluded as he doesn’t seem to be aware of his own limitations. One disaster after another by Pioli…it was Musah as right back now Krunic as CB… This must be worse than watching Mickey Mouse….
It seems he did it just to show the Musah as a RB wasn’t a fluke. Krunic never played as a CB !!!
worse than banter era!
why?
at least at banter era we knew we didn’t have much chance at that time, and now, two years after winning the scudetto, the new owner wasting the team, the management, who’s having enough foundation to going through further again, back to point zero again.
well done!
The scudetto was just luck. All the other big teams where in reconstructions. And even then we had to wait for Inter to drop points which they did at the end thanks to a tight schedule that came out of a canceled game… There was so much luck involved in the whole thing.
The scudetto wasn’t luck, we were consistently one of the best teams in the league and had a long streak of scoring 2 goals in every game.
Yes, so much worse than the Banter Era, when we weren’t even in the CL. So much worse to be in the actual CL and lose to quality opposition than be out of it and talk about how well we’ll do when we get back and send 500m every summer. If only we had better owners like Boehly, PSG owners who have spent 2bn and still not won the CL, or Newcastle’s owners who are level on points with us in the CL, then we’d have hired Guardiola and Mbappe and we’d have 10 champions leagues by now! s/
yeah, your logic not in line with me, and at least chelsea and psg owner trying to, and also those two clubs beat us hard on our last encounter in UCL.
so don’t talk about winning it first.
it’s either you have a money or not!
don’t talk in circles.
– then we’d have hired Guardiola and Mbappe and we’d have 10 champions leagues by now! –
why the effin not?
Milan could if they have the money.
pep never coach serie-a team, mbappe is a Milan fans.
the keyword is, “don’t get used to mediocrity!”
Bro stop. The current Milan regardless of this loss is nowhere near the banter era. You think watching our team is worse than watching Mesbah, Bertolucci, Bakaye Traore and Kevin Constant. You need to get your head checked.
I’m not talking about the squad composition, you don’t get with what i mean anyway so….
Maldini OUT
Masaara OUT
HAIL Lord Cardinale
HAIL Lord Furlani
100 million well spend
What about Pioli? OUT or HAIL?
Ah what a shame really, we could have won that game had Giroud scored that penalty and after Thiaw was taken off, we change the formation that made the defense into a mess, allowing Dortmund to score 2 goal. Gittens is the man of the match here, he got the penalty and a goal, it could have been Chikwueze night. Some reliable senior squad made a mistake here. Giroud miss the penalty, Calabria commit a foul led to penalty and Maignan fail to save a routine shot. Congrats to Chukwueze for the first goal and Traore for the debut. Forza Milan
Another one bites the dust… Pioli is destroying our players one by one. Lack of rotation combined with poor training pitch and incorrect training methods (with incompetent physio team) means half of the squad is on the injury list with muscle issues. Coincidence? Bad luck? LOL. FFS. Time to look at the mirror.
The irony is we were right in this game until the moment Thaiw walked off the pitch. That’s when we lost.
I agree that pretty much destroyed the match for us.
Yep! It was the game-changer moment for sure. Even the players on the pitch realized it’s now over.
I hope Dortmund will swap Pioli for Edin Terzic and Adeyami with Traore
Oh I f*ng looooooved to see the passes Adli gave. Even in the last minutes (of his game) he sent a perfect high ball into the trajectory of Chuckie.
If there was anything good about the match today, it was Adli’s passing play.
Peace out Pioli
2 wins in last 8 games. If Mandragora equalized 1 in last 8 games (but miracle happens).
Again the same problem no defense at all ( how many times B.D. players was at offside 0 times). In attack no idea at all. Just run, just fight and just struggle..
Giroud this guy can play with Frosinone and Salernitana , because with him we played 10 men…
There are Calabria ont the pitch (who has experience to play as center back) and youngsters on the pitch ( Bartesagi who has this experience on this position too) but Krunic came in who NEVER played as center back for this dessicive game…
This coach has not impact on the team, no idea how to win . Pioli out
Happy to see a **** coming all the way from America to see this game
Nov 28 – Out of UCL (99.99%), Out of Serie A, Fighting for top 4
He took a title winning team and turned into this.
The first game this year that I stopped watching before the final whistle and that says everything for me. I don’t care what people say, pioli has to go. Yes we have various injuries and that’s down to pioli, whether it’s training methods or playing players too often they’re all muscle and fatigue injuries and that’s on him.
Chukwueze your best player this afternoon and pulisic who was arguably the worst and guess which one gets subbed? Krunic who has never played cb in his life gets put there and the two goals were players out of position. A natural defender wouldn’t have been better? These players deserve better than what pioli has to offer. It’s been a horrible season because we haven’t played well since getting crushed to inter. Speaking of inter, how do they manage to keep every player in the starting 11 week in week out? Players that are well into their thirties. I feel sorry for us suffering fans.
Bye-bye Pioli (Pee-holee)
Mbappe kind of saved the fraud’s job
Ranking last in a group with Athletico, Liverpool & Porto maybe acceptable but not making R16 or europa should see this bald fraud out the door.
Side note: Pioli was (still is) the kind of student to not consistently study for months then try to ‘do it all’ in one night.
The injury issues were already evident since the 2nd or 3rd league game Bertasarghi, carlo Simic, Chaka traore, carmada, adli should have had good minutes to be in top form. But professor Pee-holee had to run 14 players to the ground just to throw in rusty players including the love of his life -sloppy krunic @ Centre back in a must win CL game.
He should be fired whether they make R16, europa or bottom of the group.
Calabria going into the center bringing on florenzi on a tied game, or bringing in bertesaghi. Chaka traore doesn’t even get serie a minutes and he plays in the Champions League. Krunic at DEFENCE? and who could blame krunic, it’s not his position. Pioli has destroyed us
Stop with the sensational headlines, no miracle happening anywhere, we are out. Just accept it. One manager won 5 UCL titles as a player, and brought the right mix of players to win a scudetto. The other sucked at every club he managed, fired most of the time and won no scudetto.
After winning one, he thinks he is master Yoda… Little wonder maldini had him set for the sack. Our American friends with the wannabe super scouting team, brought in 10 players, half of which can only 30% of the season – without replacements. Genius right? Skills without character, can’t play big games… The list goes on and on.
The coach feels one player is good to play every position.. All hail Lord Krunic, the new bonera! If pioli stays after this game, then cardinale is complicit. furlani, moncada and the medical Staff should go when pioli leaves too, they all orchestrated the 100m heist of crappy players without the Milan spirit
“ After winning one, he thinks he is master Yoda… Little wonder maldini had him set for the sack. Our American friends with the wannabe super scouting team, brought in 10 players, half of which can only play 30% of the season – without replacements. Genius right? Skills without character, can’t play big games… The list goes on and on.”
LOL- yup
I swear to god pioli is not on fire he puts Milan on fire he burned the whole stuff wtf is he doing how can we get so many injuries wtf is that for a coach fire him and get hansi flick
Pioli is the only man in the world that can make Fiorentina look like Barcelona & Dortmund like Real Madrid.
Its so frustrating, when I watch other teams play its just so much more fluid & dynamic. We can’t even shoot from target or build up properly. It’s been the same story over again for the last 2 years: we wait for a run from Leao & Theo or a deflected goal from Giroud. Besides Reinders, Maignan (sometimes) Leao & Giroud this whole squad is not champions league level.
Speaking of Theo… Was he on the pitch on the 2nd half? I for one didn’t see him at all.
And Pioli couldn’t bring on Barteshagi for Thiaw because he’s an idiot or because he’s an idiot?
Predicted this a loooong time ago. The first 13 games of the season showed we had taken a step back in game plan, game progression and squad building. Add to that whatever muscle-damage programs trainers are scheduling for the players at the training grounds. In less than 30 mins he spent with Maldini for the sack and the eventual resignation of Massara, Cardinale took the club 3 years backwards, if we are lucky. Watch this space