AC Milan booked their place in the next round of the Coppa Italia with a convincing 3-0 win over Lecce at San Siro on Tuesday night.
In truth, the game quickly descended into a bit of a training exercise. Milan peppered Lecce’s goal with early attempts, then Jamil Siebert saw red after a VAR review deemed that he had taken Christopher Nkunku down as the last man.
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Santiago Gimenez broke his duck for the season not long after the sending off, converting a lovely cross from Davide Bartesaghi. Nkunku also got his first of the season and as a Rossoneri player early in the second half, then Christian Pulisic made sure of things with his fifth of 2025-26.
Marco Landucci took on the responsibility of leading from the dugout as Massimiliano Allegri served yet another touchline ban, but he kept up his perfect record as the stand-in. Now, Lazio await in the last 16 for Milan, but what did we learn from such a one-sided game?
1. Warming up his engines
Nkunku got his first start after joining Milan in the summer and it ended up being a positive performance in the end.
The striker missed a couple of decent chances early on but redeemed himself with an acrobatic finish that got him his first goal in red and black. On top of the goal he was very lively and was the reason Lecce were down to 10 men.
The game itself was in Milan’s control following the red card but we saw that the Frenchman is picking up the pace after Allegri said he only had 20 or 30 minutes in his legs recently.
2. At long last
Gimenez has had to wait five months since his last goal for Milan, and after struggling for confidence since the start of the season finally managed to get a goal to his name and Allegri will be hoping that this will provide a much needed confidence boost and get the striker going.
Other than the goal Gimenez didn’t show anything spectacular as he even missed a couple of big opportunities, but the importance of him finally scoring should not be underestimated as he clearly lacked confidence and the pressure was mounting on him in recent weeks.
3. Solid as a rock
Following the red card for Lecce, Milan had total control over the game so it’s not surprising that they achieved yet another clean sheet, a fourth in a row. Yet, it’s still worth highlighting how stable the back line has been and how good Fikayo Tomori and Strahinja Pavlovic, in particular, have been.
This time around Koni De Winter started ahead of Matteo Gabbia and did a good enough job, whilst Davide Bartesaghi got the nod over Pervis Estupinan and got a lovely assist for Gimenez’s goal. He could have had a couple more too but for wasteful finishing.
In other words, it’s fortunate that Milan are in such a positive defensive form going into the game against Napoli, one that is shaping up to be a very important game despite the season being in an early stage.
#ACMilan under Massimiliano Allegri so far:
➤ 5 wins in 6 games
➤ 5 clean sheets (4 in a row)
➤ 12 goals scored
➤ 2 goals conceded
➤ Top scorer: Pulisic (5 goals)[via @SkySport] pic.twitter.com/YiLRUKEcRx
— MilanData📊 (@acmilandata) September 24, 2025
4. Mixed midfield
Ruben Loftus-Cheek has had an interesting start to the season, and whilst his physicality has helped him a lot in duels in previous game he struggled to actually produce anything impressive in terms of passing or ball carrying.
Against Lecce, however, he was rather unlucky to not get a goal. He had a shot cleared off the line followed by another attempt that was just wide, and he even hit the post early in the second half. The overall performance was encouraging as he even took a couple of men on, showing his confidence.
Then, Ricci was in the opposite end as he struggled to impose himself on the game. You would’ve expected him to be able to do so easily given the numerical advantage Milan had, dictating the tempo in the regista role.
Despite a few decent passes we didn’t see anything worth mentioning and the Italian will have to do a lot better to get more regular minutes, especially with Adrien Rabiot and Luka Modric already so important.
5. Youthful energy
Zachary Athekame was introduced in the second half, and despite it being hard for us to judge him given the game situation, we did see some positives in his cameo.
The Swiss showed good pace and strength whilst making runs down the flank and we saw a flash of what he is capable of. He is still just 20 years of age and the potential, at least physically, is there. It’s over to Allegri to turn the raw materials into a refined wing-back.
We also saw a bit of Cheveyo Balentien again. The Dutchman is still 18 years old and despite him having played limited minutes we can see that in terms of physicality he is an interesting profile.
He has the pace and flair that is exciting, as well as the frame to make use of it, but the end product is not there yet. It is not too dissimilar to how Leao was at the start.
What is promising to see is that the youngster is not afraid to take on players and try to make those direct runs, and he’ll be another player to watch as the season progresses.
Not a lot to learn giving that we played a much weaker opponent down to 10 mean , but I however learned this:
Serie A referees seem to hate Nkunku.
I like Nkunku but sooner or later referees are going to start making calls against him because of his excessive diving. He dives so much it’s becoming embarrassing to watch.
Wow. What a liar. He wasn’t diving. You are a sad little man.
He is a bit jumpy like Neymar. Naturally, you don’t fly into the air every time someone touches you. We’ll see.
Perfect match
– Three goals scored
– Clean sheet
– Santi gets his first goal
– Nkunku gets his first goal and 60+ minutes
– Koni, Bartesaghi, and Ricci get significant minutes
– Pulisic gets rest, plays 30 min, nails another goal
– Modric, Estupinan, Gabbia fully rested for Napoli
Perhaps would have been nice to rest Rabiot and Salad, but we should be good to go against Napoli!
Defense looks good so far because of Allegri and because of our midfield which has been solid …
Garbage game. I was disappointed with Nkunku constantly diving. The Leece defender contact was so soft but Nkunku was playing for it and acted like he got shot.
I hate to see grown men playing football like this. It’s cheating and the game sucked after the red card.
I would have like to see Milan win with 11 vs 11. And I would I have like to see Gimenez score before the red card because he missed once again 2 clear chances before the red card. His first touch is so bad that it’s shocking how he made it this far as a professional.
The only good take away was Salaemakers and Rabiot showing their class and quality. Salaemakers is a player reborn and I’m happy we didn’t sell him to Roma.
Lmao what a cry baby. It was a great game.
Hilarious…You do realize Milan beat Lecce 2-0 just a few weeks ago. And guess what? It was 11 v 11.
He’s a whiny little child. This wasn’t even our starting formation.
Wow this is a shockingly bad assessment. Zointrain you are obviously looking for things to hate on. Milan dominated the game, the card was fair as that was really sloppy tackling by the defender. Lecce didn’t even protest it. Clear as day. Also this run of games suggests improvement from last season as Milan was dreadful against the low block this in itself is something to be positive about. But you bitter and sad. I can’t tell if this is a troll or are you really that pessimistic that you can’t even celebrate a victory?
Nonsense comment. Go watch the game again, you’ll see absolutely dominance both 11 vs 11 and vs 10. Actually a lot of teams go further defensively with 10 men, and Lecce never really went for the goal risking anything.
Lecce played with a second tier line up though, so Milan should dominate – and they did.
Nkunku and Gimenez for confidence boosters, and the likes of Rabiot, Saelemakers and Pulisic continued their impressive form.
Only bad thing was Ricci not able to breaking the defence of Lecce in terms of either flair or strength. But he’ll keep growing, same as Tonali in his first season when he was behind Kessie and Bennacer.
It’s ok to be critical; even sceptical. But your comment is simply not reflecting the true situation.
Come back after Napoli and revisit the state of milan, because that game will tell a lot. But make sure to actually watch the game first. 😊
Leoni likely out for months. Stretchered off on his debut for Liverpool. Doesn’t look good.
So Calfiori goes to the Prem and gets hurt seriously. Now Leoni.
We have so many muscle injuries in Serie A. ACLs are also on the increase.
We know our game is slower and more tactically demanding. Yet our teams compete well in UCL and UEL. This sort of trend screams training and recovery program issues. Mismanaged loads, impact training etc.
Wonder if SempreMilan could do some research to validate if there is a trend and interview an expert or two to learn what is behind it?
Yep Italy seems to have a particularly bad issue with injuries and Milan have been one of the worst.
I don’t accept the ‘slower’ pace argument.
That argument carried more weight when:
a) there were differences between the leagues; and
b) Serie A was one of the better leagues and the pace was a product of that quality.
If all we’re stuck with now is a slow paced, injury riddled, mid-tier league then that’s too depressing for words.
For me (and this might sound like an obsession and shoe horn) I put it down to the level of player turnover in Italy.
Most seasons Italy has the highest number of transfers in the top leagues.
That level of to-ing and fro-ing is not good for a player’s development.
Imagine a prize race horse changed trainers every few months.
It would suffer numerous issues not to mention never reaching its levels.
And sure these players are getting injured when they move to the Premier League but they are arriving after being journeymen playing under multiple different coaches and clubs.
Arsenal was Calfiori’s 5th club before he turned 22.
Same for Leoni and he’s only 19.
Players cannot keep changing clubs this often. It’s madness.
The loans do nothing for their development. It takes them from a familiar environment and puts them in an unfamiliar environment where they’re a low priority (because the loaning club doesn’t own the player and is just taking a punt on a cheap deal).
This is not how you develop elite athletes. And it’s also not how you keep players from getting injured.
A load of nonsense, as usual.
Calafiori career almost ended when he suffered his first injury in Roma’s youth teams. What player turnover? Roma got rid off him because he is injury prone player. He didn’t start getting injured when he moved to another club or because he switched too many clubs. He has always been and always will be injury prone player.
Serie A is and always been a slower paced league, thats why 40 year olds can play and be some of the best players in the league while they cant do that in better leagues. You not accepting that fact is your problem.
You just have an obsession to complain about transfers and come up with analogies that have nothing to do with football or sports.
The players get injured because they switch teams! Ha ha 😂.
Scalvini tore his ACL, and he has played only for Atalanta since 2015. What player turnover?
Totti tore his ACL, and he played his entire life at Roma.
Players get more injured because there are too many games, and football is a contact sport, not because of some gibberish about too many transfers.
Sorry I offended you.
I know even questioning the excessive number of transfers is quite triggering around here for people who really, really, especially really, love the transfer market…..
The number of games certainly doesn’t help but other leagues have even more games and…..fewer injuries.
Messi played 778 games in 17 seasons for Barca.
Pique played 616 in 15 seasons, Pujol 593 in 14 seasons, Busquets 722 in 15 seasons.
When Milan didn’t change players every 5 mins they kept players like Costacurta and Maldini playing into their 40s.
But you’re probably right, clearly, there’s something in the Italian DNA (that mysteriously changed about 20 years ago) that makes Italians more injury prone (what with not having a League Cup or going very far in Europe).
The most important thing is not to question anything.
I was not excited that we got Allegri, but I’m happy to admit I was wrong. What a transformation after that miserable season last year
Ruben Loftus-Cheek doesn’t understand what a midfielder needs to do in a game. Only thing he does good is run forward with the ball and be inside the box to meet a cross. That is not a midfielder. He doesn’t know how to positions himself to receive the pass, can’t use his body to win duels (Pulisic, almost half his size in kg does that a million times better), can’t pass long, doesn’t understand how to defend etc. Guy is how old, 29? He spent his life training and playing football as a midfielder and he doesn’t know 80% of what midfielders do. So him making a “forward run” is the thing he does almost every game and good, the rest is sh*t.
And number 5. You didn’t mention Odogu. I mean it was his debut, you could have mentioned him? 😀
Not saying I don’t agree with some of your points but his role in this game was to come off the bench and replace a striker in a 2 striker formation.
He was meant to be up front and making runs into the box. Not back doing the dirty work.