AC Milan are taking on Club Brugge this evening and are looking to grab their first win in the Champions League. After some rotation at the weekend, Paulo Fonseca has reverted to what many would consider to be the usual starting XI.
After the defeats against Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen, Milan now need to turn things around in the Champions League. Taking on Club Brugge at home, this is the game to do it and Fonseca has made some changes to the starting XI compared to the Udinese win.
You can follow along with the action from San Siro with the live commentary below, as posted on X. Unfortunately, we have no watchalong tonight but Ahmed, Lorenzo and Stefano will be back soon.
Live Commentary
Starting XIs
Official Milan XI (4-2-3-1): Maignan; Emerson, Gabbia, Tomori, Theo Hernandez; Fofana, Reijnders; Pulisic, Loftus-Cheek, Leao; Morata.
Bench: Sportiello, Torriani, Pavlovic, Thiaw, Terracciano, Musah, Zeroli, Chukwueze, Okafor, Camarda.
Official Club Brugge XI (4-3-3): Mignolet, Seys, Mechele, Ordonez, De Cuyper; Onyedika, Jashari, Vanaken; Talbi, Jutglà, Tzolis.
Bench: Jackers, Romero, Skov Olsen, Vetlesen, Vermant, Skoras, Nielsen, Spileers, Sabbe.
I can’t say we played well in first half but we’re ahead (thanks to Pulisic who is turning into a MAJOR world-class player) and a man up, so I’ll take it.
Twice, Emerson nowhere to be seen resulted in dangerous attacks from our right side which Mike had to save.
Rafa gave to Puli a good pass but Puli shot at the goalie (narrow angle, though); in another occasion Rafa could have scored but unselfishly passed the ball instead. These two opportunities could have resulted in goals for us but didn’t. Otherwise we rarely had good moments and actually Brugge looked more dangerous.
There was also a decent header by Gabbia and a decent attempt from outside the box by Fofana but both went wide.
We lost too many balls in midfield and defense (Fofana, Reijnders, Tomori, Emerson) resulting in dangerous counters for Brugge.
Rafa had a couple of good runs into the box but in both occasions he crossed poorly.
Alvaro and RLC barely touched the ball.
We need to improve in second half but being a man up will make it easier.
Much worse than the stomp on Reijnders was the one suffered by Chuk against Udinese which the grossly incompetent Italian ref ignored; I’m glad that this UEFA ref seems to know what he’s doing.
I don’t fault Fonseca for tactical choices or team selections, which by and large have seemed fine. What I do put on him, though, is getting the team ready to play. Why are we content to stand around passing the ball back and forth in the midfield, in a match we HAVE to win, against a side on whom we (presumably) have a significant talent gap? The only attacking players on this side whose first instinct when they touch the ball is to look forward are Pulisic and Leao; and, in this match, we are so static that whenever the ball goes to Rafael, Brugge can just immediately double-team him by sagging the right midfielder back.
We trash
Rejinders with a brace… Been on fire in this game.
We must admit very bad play
Maignan saved us as well luck
Okafor and Chuk come on and suddenly we’re playing downhill! Much more like it . . .