AC Milan began their 2024-25 Champions League campaign with a defeat as they were beaten 3-1 at San Siro by Liverpool on Tuesday night.
Things started brilliantly for Milan when Christian Pulisic drilled a low shot inside the far post less than three minutes into the game, but then Ibrahima Konate and Virgil van Dijk each scored headers from set-pieces to turn the game on its head before the break.
Liverpool hit the woodwork twice, then Dominik Szoboszlai was on hand to turn in a third from close range and effectively put the game to bed, and in truth the Rossoneri never really looked like getting back into the game from there.
It is a result that certainly undoes a lot of the good work from Saturday’s 4-0 win over Venezia, and it puts further pressure on the Real Madrid and Bayer Leverkusen games which arrive within the next three rounds.
Paulo Fonseca chose to make three changes to the starting line-up from the side that beat Venezia on Saturday night with Davide Calabria and Fikayo Tomori coming into the back four and Alvaro Morata chosen to lead the line.
Milan broke the Liverpool line inside two minutes when a pass was played in behind to Morata who had run off the shoulder of the last man and his square ball was cut out virtually on the goal line by Virgil van Dijk. However, the offside flag went up moments later so it wouldn’t have counted.
Inside three minutes Milan broke the deadlock, and it was a lovely flowing move that cut the away side apart. Morata did brilliantly to spring a counter with a pass down the middle, then as Pulisic looked all set to square it he fired low and hard inside the far corner with Alisson Becker beaten.
Liverpool came inches away from levelling the scores through their talisman Mo Salah. The winger picked up possession on the right side of the box after a pass from Diogo Jota and unleashed a rising shot that seemed to take Mike Maignan by surprise as it thundered against the crossbar.
In the 23rd minute, the away side got themselves level and it came from a very straightforward set-piece goal. Calabria had complaints about the free-kick being awarded over on the right side as he got a yellow card, but when the delivery was floated in both Maignan and Tomori failed to beat Konate to the cross, which was headed in quite easily.
Liverpool should have taken the lead not long after equalising when a sloppy giveaway in midfield saw Milan caught in transition, with Gakpo slipping Mac Allister in behind and yet he scuffed his effort wide. Moments later, Salah shot straight at Maignan inside the area as the Reds began to get on top.
Salah was proving to be a constant thorn in Milan’s side as he kept getting big chance after big chance. Just before the half-hour mark he again was given time to let off a shot from the right side of the box and again it thumped the bar, this time bouncing down and to safety.
Maignan had twice gone down in the first half with what looked like some discomfort in his thigh, yet he produced some good reactions to deny – you guessed it – Salah’s low shot that was heading for the bottom right corner.
From the resulting corner, Milan conceded their second set-piece goal of the night. This time the delivery came from the other side and this time it was the other central defender Virgil van Dijk who got on the end of it, heading in from just a few yards out after being left remarkably unchallenged.
The final action of the first half saw Gakpo cut in onto his right foot from the left side and fire a venomous shot that was sailing inside the far post before Maignan extended a hand out to turn it behind.
After withstanding some issues in the first half, Maignan was clattered into by both Jota and Tomori as he made a brilliant stop to deny the Liverpool forward and it was finally time for Lorenzo Torriani to make his Champions League debut.
Just before the hour mark, Milan had a big appeal for a penalty when a cross to Morata appeared to be potentially controlled by the hand of Van Dijk before he then bundled the Spaniard over as he tried to get to the loose ball. Nothing was given, and Fonseca was booked for his protests.
Torriani’s first real test came from a narrow angle shot that he did well to stop from Szoboszlai, and the rebound fell to Tsimikas who lashed a low attempt wide of the far post.
Having been denied not long before, Szoboszlai did get the goal that put Liverpool in command. A slack pass from Pavlovic into the midfield was seized upon to start a three-on-one break, with Gakpo squaring to the Hungarian who volleyed in off the far post.
A change came with 20 minutes left as the captain Calabria made way for Emerson Royal, and he appeared to be in some discomfort as well. Loftus-Cheek also made way, with Tammy Abraham coming on in his place.
Shortly after Noah Okafor came on in Morata’s place, Theo came close to halving the deficit with a rocket of a first-time drive from 20 yards out that whistled past the far post.
FONSECAOUT!!!!!!! 🤢🤢🤢🤮🤮🤮🤮🇵🇹
not his fault he got all the players in the last week of avg bar one
Started well and spiked my expectations. Went on same ‘ol. Oh well. On to the next one I guess.
Where did they find this reff? In the trash bin
What exactly is Fofana’s specialty??? Man, he sucked tonight. Can’t even tackle.
Fonseca-ball is just not working.
Sunday is not going to be fun.
I said it when people were crying about 35m. He never looked anything close to that if people actually watched him play. He is not better than the guys we had like Pobega.
Fofana and RLC such a bad performance. MORATA bad. Calabrian pls don’t let me even start. The only good ones today Abraham amazing, pulisic good
I blame the offwhite jackets!
Whenever we become fashionista’s and unveil these new lines in the champions league, we always perform crap.
Out here looking like lord knows what.
These are the 7X champions man, what happened to suits and ties?
Whew… that’s my venting done.
Apart from the ‘fashion’ were really not good.
If we lose Sunday, season is done already and we’ll need to look at ‘next season we build’
If this is the Milan Gerry, Ibra, Furlani and Moncada are the face of?? Yho… I’d be ashamed.
Forza Milan
And who said that Arnold cant defend?
1-12 at shot on target ROFLMAO, lucky that only concedes 3 from all of that
Really hope the rumors of Maldini coming in with Saudi backing are true, or else we’re sliding right back into Banter Era but even worse this time because we have money.
Just a reminder that Liverpool have already played against Ipswich, Brentford, Man United and Nottingham and they created more chances against Milan than any other opponent.
Fofana and RLC can’t play together as our midfield double pivot, it’s really that simple. Neither has the vision or technical ability to play the ball out from deep. At the moment the team is trying to play a brand with players that aren’t suited for it. We really need a defensive midfielder who can start alongside either two. We can play TR there but that will be a waste of his talents.
This team really sucks meeen… In all the stats, they were just baaad
MILAN. LIVERPOOL
9. Total shot. 23
1. Shots on target 12
6. Shots off target. 8
9. Goal attempt. 23
9 Dangerous attacks 29
201. Total passes. 235
9. Total crosses. 15
2. Air challenges won. 4
4. Air challenges lost. 2
I wonder what the manager had prepared for all week, with all the video analysis, training etcetera…. This is indeed a farce
Fonseca said: “it is the players who are wrong, they didn’t follow my instructions”
What an abysmal performance. Completely outclassed, outrun and outperformed. Fonseca is absolutely clueless and the sooner we part our ways with him the better the chances of salvaging this season.
Management will keep fonseca because he is cheap. Fonseca is right choice for trophyless profitable cardinale milan.
Also, there are too many misplaced passes every game. It’s really painful to watch so many positive plays going forward ending with a misplaced pass. What exactly are the guys doing in training.
Liverpool are a much better team and proved it rather easily tonight. When it mattered, they showed a higher class of play and took their foot off the pedal after the 3rd goal.
We needed a higher profile coach and better defenders then Pav & Emerson.. a top class midfielder too.
The only bright spot(apart from Puli’s goal)
was how well Torriani played .
I’m not even angry at the team anymore, I know they’re trash. I’m angry at this management. From the owners, to the scouts, to the manager himself, it’s a clown show. I’m disgusted as a fan
Aren’t individual ratings getting increasingly pointless? The atmosphere is toxic thanks to the ridiculous management and their Yes Man middle table coach. I’m sure at least 75% of the squad is capable of more under different circumstances, especially if the proper coach turns them into an actual team with an actual strategy that suits their qualities. They simply don’t trust Fonseca and are doubtful about the management’s ambitions. And in both cases they are right.
Why everyone is crying about fofana we forced him to play DM or register he isn’t DM OR register which means he isn’t good playing at tight spaces
What a performance. Calabria, Pavlovic sucks cant even play a ball, Fofana is he a DM? RLC was invisible. Maignan always crying
Good game, despite the loss. The team started well, but, like a “work in progress”, they didn’t really gel for long. Liverpool is on a higher pedestal, despite their loss at the weekend. They have better players, and they worked together so well. I believe this Milan will mature faster under Fonseca. We just need to be patient. I saw something different from what we’ve always had. The lessons from this game will really help us this Sunday against Inter.
21 shots against us at Meazza is definitely “something different from what we’ve always had”.
Forza Fonseca
Whoever signed or recommended Emerson should be fired now. He can’t pass nor defend. Calabria will keep him out of first team soccer. If that is the dream signing of Fonseca, he should leave too. 18m for him? daylight robbery. Someone must have been paid a hefty commission in that deal.
The coach has no say on the transfer market under RedBird. He only wanted Tammy for backup and he is our best newcomer so far. Much like Zlatan, Fonseca is here so that fans’ anger is spread between different targets and not just RedBird. Not a single person in this management cares about actual results. I’m starting to the doubt that they even like football in the first place, namely Furlani and Cardinale.
Mediocre owner
And average coach
Fonseca go home ….Enough
The players looked lost. The team didn’t play anything worthy. Maldini saw this coming. We were building something two seasons ago and we destroyed it. This is completely horrifying. It’s evident, these players don’t want the coach. He can’t coach Milan. This is terrible. I couldn’t finish the match, why we’re we playing from the back without perfecting it. Gattuso tried it and failed but he still did way better than this new coach. I’m completely mystified. What are we doing??? This is Milan. Come on!!!
Mike would have done better in those corners. It was actually an own goal from him. The coach will set up the team to play, they’ll enter the pitch and behave the way the want. For me, I’ll gladly sell Mike, Theo, and Leao. They are the Judas we have in our team. They’ve broken the harmony there. No player is bigger than the club
Who cares ,we won venezia 😂😂
Hmmmm
We sad,Ac Milan today is an inferior team
The players are just not good enough, Roberto De Zerbi would have been a better choice, watching Milan in the 90s and 2000s and the current team made me feel depressed
Wouldn’t pay maignan more then 2 mill a year. Torriani better already. Mike is ingured every 2 weeks and wants 7 mill hahahaha. He didn’t even jump for the ball when the corner ball came flying right into his space.
I see Furlani Moncado and Redbird are still god to some… nothing to see here move on 🙂
Why you change the winning team ? Why you play again the duo tomori and Calabria ?? Torriani will derby debut next game !!
At what point will MANAGEMENT AND OWNERSHIP be held accountable??
THEY selected this team and THEY selected this coach. THEY selected these players.
We are a disjointed and a completely lost team. Now the easy scapegoat is Fonseca. And he certainly hasn’t done himself any favors. But for me this goes back to the POOR decisions by management. We had a spoil of choices for coach (from Motta to Conte to Conceceaio, etc…) and yet we chose a coach nobody really wanted in Fonseca. Why??? Because he was CHEAP and he would ask the club to spend $$$$$.
We had a choice of many players – but we passed for various financial reasons – agent fees, wage caps, transfer fee cap, have to sell before we buy because we messed up on the homegrown quota, signing players that nobody wanted only to take up a roster spot and to then send them to the bench (Jovic) – not finding a replacement for Benny even though u know his injury history and you have been dying to sell him, dumping Kalulu to a rival for a measly 3M and overspending on a weaker replacement…..it goes on and on. Then we appoint a former club great – who would rather spend his time skiing in the Alps and making TV appearances on American TV rather then helping us to land players during the transfer window OR showing up for games. It’s a FKN EMBARRASSMENT AND A DISGRACE to our once proud club.
Like I have said many times: you get what you pay for.
When are the Redbird Lovers going to wake up??? Isn’t it clear by now? Redbird always takes the cheaper way out. Well – this is what happens when you consistently do that. You get these results. We saw how we compare against a team with class and that spends $$$. You cannot compete. We were destroyed. Plain and simple. What we had in our Scudetto year is gone – Gerry saw to that. We didn’t have the most talented team – BUT – what many seem to not realize is that we had a TEAM. A groups of players that believed in the PROJECT and vision Maldini, Massara and Pioli sold them on. Now it seems we have none of that. Just a miss-mash of players playing out of position because we got them for a “bargain” deal. #MoneyBall
Good times.
What a fkn Disgrace
“At what point will MANAGEMENT AND OWNERSHIP be held accountable??”
Ownership? Accountable? Who do they answer to? Oh right, themselves. So there’s that…
Juro
I feel with you and have the exact same emotions … We were perfectly fine 3years ago and that’s all gone now, there is no more motivation, no more joy, no more fighting spirit.
I really miss Pioli, he was the glue that kept our guys together. He tried his best to keep the faith high & work in what was left from the organisation built by M&M.
Those fundings are still there but we need complete new management to keep building on that. As our current management prefers to grave a hole instead. Though you and I seem realistic enough to know that’s not gonna happen any time soon.
Kalulu to Juve and getting Pavlovic in return is such a joke. Because we needed a left footed player in our back four so badly… Almost all topclubs have rightfooted LCB’s and some players are actually better on LCB, like Tomori!!!!!! Has played LCB all his life !!! Now we are stuck with a Cercle Bruges level of a guy with the worst positioning and vision I’ve ever seen. Liverpool had their gameplan all around him, ‘pressure everyone but Pavlovic, let him have the ball…” can you imagine that.
The whole team is not just good enough
D gulf in class is too much
We never played as a team
And lost with ideas
Great work needs to be done for us to get anywhere this season
Hmmmm
We sad,Ac Milan today is an inferior team
The players are just not good enough, po De Zerbi would have been a better choice, watching Milan in the 90s and 2000s and the current team made me feel depressed
Just look at the photo – especially Reijnders. No wonder Pool scored twice on set-pieces.
The Derby Match is very important
I pray we win it or draw else Fonseca may lose the dressing room
LoL