AC Milan lost the Coppa Italia final to Bologna by a single goal on Wednesday evening, and their performance was ultimately deserving of the result.
Sergio Conceicao named two changes from the win on Friday night, bringing back in Youssouf Fofana and Rafael Leao after their forced absences (injury and suspension). Many expected Santiago Gimenez to be given a chance, but the Serbian Luka Jovic was preferred instead.
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As first halves go, it certainly was not Milan’s best of the season. With Bologna dominating the ball and the chances. However, when the Rossoneri got close to the box, it normally had a bit of menace, though they were unable to get themselves ahead.
Bologna would break the deadlock in the 53rd minute, through Dan Ndoye. A goal that the Diavolo have ultimately conceded too many times this season. The defence turned off, were caught out, and paid the price.
The ‘comeback kings’ certainly weren’t up to their name in this game, failing to threaten much after the goal, making it a very frustrating result indeed.
Milan were almost ahead in the first few minutes of the game as Rafael Leao danced through the Bologna defence before finding Alex Jimenez at the back stick, but the Spaniard didn’t connect with the ball well, sending it over.
It almost seemed like the Rossoneri were going to be made to pay instantly, as the Rossoblu came forward themselves instantly after.
Riccardo Orsolini was played through the middle and Maignan stopped him on the edge of the box – a brief heart in mouth moment. However, the Italian was deemed to be offside. In other words, a chance to breathe out after a lively 90 seconds.
A nice set piece from Bologna saw Castro unmarked in the box and he flicked the ball backwards towards goal, but Maignan got down well to his right in a split second. It seemed that the striker was offside in the replays, but you cannot take anything away from the save.
If Maignan’s save was good, then Skorupski’s was just as good a minute later, as the Rossoneri almost scored three times in less than 10 seconds. With the ball pinballing in the box, there was nearly an own goal from Beukema and Luka Jovic could have scored too. The ball then fell to Christian Pulisic, but he couldn’t connect.
Extremely unlucky, and on another day, probably 1-0.
A mental opening 15 minutes at a frankly ridiculous pace.
The following 10 minutes were dominated by the ‘away’ side, with Vincenzo Italiano’s high press suffocating the Diavolo quite substantially, leaving the occasional chance for a counter. However, none were really taken, with Conceicao’s team failing to really get out of their half.
Milan’s next chance came in the 32nd minute, as Jovic’s long ball got the team accelerating up the pitch. Jimenez was found with the pass and he slipped the ball into Leao, who drove into the box, but dragged his shot/cross wide with Pulisic also not able to get a foot on the attempt. The Portuguese was deemed offside, had it not been, it would have been a big chance missed.
Fikayo Tomori received the first booking of the game, but not for long as Lewis Ferguson went in heavily on Rafael Leao – causing the game to stop for a few minutes as medics came onto the pitch. Then, Christian Pulisic was booked shortly after the reset.
Admittedly, it seemed like the game was starting to get a little away from the referee with the latest yellow card of the three, with it being a very harsh booking for the American, first offence or not. As the half time whistle went, Leao certainly made his feelings known to the referee about a few incidents, even having to be pulled away.
Considering the Rossoneri have often started games poorly, going into half time at 0-0 will certainly be a positive. However, more definitely needed to be done from Conceicao’s side, with Bologna dominating rather heavily.
The second half started just as the first did; Rafael Leao tormenting the defence, and he won a corner within the opening few minutes of the half, before taking a chance to liven the crowd a little. However, Conceicao’s men could not provide another reason to road from the following set-piece.
Unfortunately, deservedly, Bologna took the lead in the 53rd minute, as the Diavolo again looked shaky in defence. Theo Hernandez’s initial tackle – which was great – unluckily fell to Dan Ndoye, who was left alone in the box, created an angle and fired past Mike Maignan.
It was another case of players being static and effectively freezing in a key moment. A goal which was probably coming, but certainly preventable.
As the game hit the 60th minute, Conceicao looked to his bench, bringing on Santiago Gimenez, Kyle Walker and Joao Felix for Luka Jovic, Fikayo Tomori and Alex Jimenez. Changes that took his side to a 4-2-3-1.
Pulisic attempted to weave his way into the box and almost got past three players successfully, but his final touch was slightly too heavy, and he lost the ball. A change from the slightly more direct football attempted since the goal, but with the same effectiveness frustratingly.
The final 15 minutes saw Milan start to control the ball more, with Bologna more than happy to press relentlessly rather than have possession. More often than not though it was the Rossoneri who were at fault for losing the ball, making an overly ambitious pass, for example, or just being generally sloppy.
In the final minutes of the second half, Conceicao opted to bring off Fofana and Pulisic for Tammy Abraham and Samuel Chukwueze, a last ditch effort.
The win cannot be taken away from Bologna, who were levels above Milan for the great majority of the game. However, Milan will certainly be frustrated with the performance, failing to even threaten after the opposition scored. A disappointing night, but perhaps a sign that change is clearly needed.
hahahahahahaha…
sempre redbird!
We got what we deserved from the horror show of a season; nothing.
Now let’s look at the one positive; no European distraction next season, whilst seven or eight other teams will be playing every midweek.
We have to make that count. The opportunity is big, the confidence is not.
Congratulations to Bologna, they’ve shown us up time and again this season, doing so with two players we deemed insufficient and with a star player they signed from Switzerland for the same price we paid for Okafor. I’ll be cheering them on next season when they’re not playing us, a club doing things right.
i’m sorry, but there’s absolutely no positive thing at all with this result.
a good competitive club or squad are always try to enter as many prestigious competitions as possible each year and try to win them
Do you think Napoli would be challenging Inter this year if they were in Europe? I don’t think they’d be close personally.
why not?
Napoli have a good players and the right coach this season.
what your asking me just now is “what if?”
you wrote before was about Milan, not other clubs.
that you think playing only in local competitions is a positive thing.
And my response was, for Milan it’s not a positive thing at all, because it’s mediocre club mindset, and this club is Milan!
The issue with milan, is the foolish fanbase who didn’t protest when maldini and tonali was let go, am hoping they renew ibrahimovic and give him a 6 year contract, so you people can be happy, after everything pioli and maldini build you fans could not support them, you should have ask the board to provide more funds for maldini, also i hope walker his signed, since you fools like players who are past their prime.
Most fans thought the same, don’t doubt that. It’s the loud minority who wanted to feel special and just immediately bin Maldini after 1 window who were screaming like children
Not really bro, most people wanted maldini and pioli out, i remember very well in this blog, people saying they have nothing more to offer, that this is as far as they go, the foolish fans where even happy with tonali going, saying milan can buy 2 good player with the 70m, (like as if it that easy to get quality players). We had the perfect chance to build on maldini and pioli but nooooooooooo back to banter era, inter,napoli,atalanta, roma are moving forward, we went backwards
Stop ruminating about Maldini, he was sacked ages ago, wrong decision, but we must move on
That wrong decision as you put it, still affects us till today.
He had vision, goals and a plan on how to get there. Even when we won prematurely. And he and his team built a working sport team that have now been dismantled so to say.
In all it all falls back to Maldini. Even Zvone Boban put it so.
They gave away a working Maldini and kept mediocrity. What a joke of an ownership and management
Thank you.
The foolish fanbase kept quiet when those two were fired. Even cheered it.
And now they reap the harvest. We are all in it for the long haul.
First of all, congratulations to Bologna. They were clearly the better team and created far more chances. They played very high, which nulified our ability to build up, and were very organized all night long.
As for Milan…
I know there were quite a few people here who wanted another season of Sergio. But if you actually watched the matches, this is why I — and a few others — were saying “hell fucking no.” Milan have no tactics.
Tonight, we created only one 100% chance and maybe less than a handful of half-chances. We have no idea how to build up from the back or how we WANT to build up from the back. We can’t press high for shit; there are always gaps. Slow football. Poor decision-making. Etc. etc.
Well, no European football. At least they can focus on the league. Get a new manager who has a clear football philosophy and much more.
Would you look at that?! The bologna manager took a look at what cost them the last 20min last game, took it on the chin, made changes accordingly, came back with a new strategy, and it WORKED. It’s almost like that’s what a winning manager is supposed to do… Vincenzo doing circles around Sergio and his comfort blanket Felix…
Now Sergio can say he reached the Coppa final.
At least the Conceicao riddle is solved. New coach in June.
There was one team on the pitch that wanted it more and we know which team that was. We can complain all day about the referee and this and that, but Bologna deserved the win. No.. I’m not posting too quickly. Lol 🤣
All on the players. Everytime after conceding a goal then they want to give their all. Comebacks will not always happen as seems tonight. We need to see that hunger and urgency from the to finish as if we are starting the game trailing.
You want to save money on Coach’s salary. That’s what you got. Conte and De Zebri were waiting for offer from Milan and they went to cheap obedient coaches. No Europe next year.
You say truth mr bones, unfortunately the management and fanbase are morons, they will start throwing out average name coaches, i won’t be surprised if the fools hires allegri, this club is a cheapskates, yet they can waste catch on royal and morata
You say truth mr bones, unfortunately the management and fanbase are nuts, they will start throwing out average name coaches, i won’t be surprised if the fools hires allegri, this club is a cheapskates, yet they can waste catch on royal and morata
Conceicao had one last card to keep his job.. and he used it to play Joao Felix.
30 years of watching football, this has to be one of the top 10 dumbest managerial decisions I have ever seen.
Zvone Boban….
Described RedTurds well.
The return of the banter era, milan will not hire a good coach, and buy proper players for next season. We got rid of Pioli, and in one season it’s over for us, Pioli better than his two replacements combined. I rather get beat 11 straight from inter than banter era 2.0.
I hope the idiots who wanted pioli out because he couldn’t beat inter, are enjoying losing everything just to beat inter, inter will soon celebrate ucl, we will celebrate beating inter (milan is the new arsenal)
Really disappointing game. It would have been different if we had played Inter or Juve. So, I wonder why he allowed Bologna to control the game. I don’t know why Conceicao keeps bringing in Joao Felix, when he doesn’t offer anything. Leao had an average game too. After what I saw tonight, Milan needs a new coach.
It’s a shame that Jovic didn’t score that goal as the ball went slightly behind him so it hit the Bologna GK in the chest (very lucky for him) in the 1st half. The game would end completely different then. Tough luck today. Conceicao later made a mistake by entering sempre useless Joao Felix. He should have just add Gimenez and keep Jovic to switch on two forwards in the last 30 min. But even that might not be enough bcz our midfielders and Pulisic as well were clueless today. A trophy lost quite unexpectedy, after a nice win 5 days ago. From unhappines with 2nd place with Pioli to 8th place and no UCL next year – true horror for all the fans.
Keep the players and remove this disastrous management and we will be fine next year. Turns out that Pioli was a pure genius working with such mngmnt.
It’s such an embarrassment losing from a mid-table team like Bologna. Red Bird need to sell the club to ambitious owners who want to compete and win trophies each year. We need a winner coach like Pep Guardiola who wins everything. A coach like Pep who takes all domestic cups seriously. It’s such an embarrassment for a team like Milan to have won the Italian Cup only 5 times. Even Torino, Fiorentina, Lazio, Parma, Roma, Napoli and Sampdoria have won the Italian Cup more times than AC Milan.
The only positive thing about this is seeing Red Bird have a really bad season. And they deserved it for the way they handled things after Maldini and after Pioli. We as fans must continue to suffer!
embarrassing and disappointing
want to play in UCL ??
We can still play European football next season if bologna finish 5 /6th on the league table. So Milan can play European football from coppa Italia finalist..hehehe
Is that confirmed? If Bologna finish 5th, do the team that finish 6th get a Europa League spot instead since Bologna get it for finishing 5th??
I mean if they finish 5th do the team that lost the final to them (Milan) get the EL spot instead?
Milan still qualify European football next season if bologna in the final league position at 5-6th. So Milan can go to conference league qualification from copa Italia finalist