Not many gave AC Milan much of a chance of winning against Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, and yet they did so convincingly in the end.
As Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) writes this morning, Milan showed up at perhaps the most daunting arena in European football and ‘gave Real Madrid a lesson from a tactical point of view and from an attitude point of view’.
The paper defines Milan’s victory as ‘a small great masterpiece’, and indeed it was. Yesterday the Rossoneri put together their best performance of the season and against a team that were fired up (after the Clasico hammering from Barcelona) and more rested (their game against Valencia was postponed).
Milan worked hard in the defensive phase to keep a €1.36bn squad (as per Transfermarkt) at bay, above all the two jewels Vinicius Jr. and Kylian Mbappè who overall did very little. It is a boost to the Champions League hopes too, given the second half of the schedule is easier on paper.
Everyone contributed, but it’s right to recognise the merits of Paulo Fonseca who prepared a perfect game plan and made sure that the team could implement it without mistakes. The tactical key was the inclusion of Yunus Musah to reinforce the right side with Emerson Royal, containing Vinicius.
The whole team benefitted from that move: space opened up in midfield and in attack, and it’s there that Rafa Leao managed to put on a show. In the middle of the pitch, Tijjani Reijnders ‘took the Madrid midfield to school’, providing a very high-level performance.
Up front, Alvaro Morata tied the game together and kept up his trend of scoring against his former team, who are now his favourite victim (he has seven goals against Real). In goal, Mike Maignan got his hands dirty when necessary. Everyone had their role, and everyone played it to perfection.
Madrid never learn, their stupidity is cyclical. The Galacticos didnt work in 2003….we saw to that then as well. Buying Mbappe has completely nullified Bellingham, Valverde and they’re trying to fit Mbappe and Vini into one position….Fonseca’s tactics were first rate, now we just need to find consistency and fight for the ‘smaller’ sides….
If they had Casemiro in his best days it wouldn’t be such a problem. Their next buy should be the best DM on the planet to balance the team, Tchouameni is below Madrid level.
Henry was talking about how they lack balance and it’s true. A lot of firepower but behind those there are serious gaps and a lot of space to be exploited.
This.
I would also point out that they should’ve tried to go for a player who could replace Kroos. Currently in Madrid, outside of Modric, they have no midfielder who is a good playmaker and Modric can’t play a full game. Valverde is mostly a carrier while Tchouaméni and Camavinga are very defensive with no playmaking skills.
With that said, replacing a player like Kroos is no easy feat.
Fortunately for Madrid they can spend the 100M on 1 player until they get it right.
It’s called…greed
ha, when we ruled Europe 1993 squad. that was cheat bro.
Lol, I think Madrid will be OK. They’ve won 6 of the last 10 champions leagues and 4 of the last 10 ligas. They can’t win every single year. If anything it perhaps means it’s Carlo’s time to retire. Enter Klopp.
Great win and all and I’m still super happy. But let’s not make it out like our team can win the thing . I’d still say Madrid are far more likely than us to win the UCL any time soon
Great win nonetheless
So ragazzi, where are all the haters who say ” we need to sell Leao immediately in January, he is week player” … now as you can see, he is true world class player. He hide Valverde, Vazquez, Militao in attack and also help team in defence. Finally great game by him and I hope he stay in this form for long time
we still need to bench him against tomato can teams in the league. okafor need mins as well. i’m only surprised Mr Fun claims he his on the same level with rlc and musah 🤯
“Finally great game by him and I hope he stay in this form for long time”. A world class player that finally has a great game and that we have to hope stays like this for a long time? Let’s see if he’s “world class” against Cagliari before the fangirls start doing victory laps.
There’s always a few of you, the same type of fans that used to boo Seedorf off the pitch and wanted Pirlo gone and were crying about Inzaghi playing the 07 final.
Madrid’s problem is Mbappe and the balance he disrupts. Before him Rodrygo used to play in complete synergy with Jude and Vini as he would drop back, open up passing lanes, press and participate in the build up – everything that Morata is doing at Milan, but better. Now he doesn’t start and MBappe is doing NONE of that.
Last night Jude was more of a 9 than MBappe, making all the runs intot he box that the Frenchman should have been. While Rodrygo sat out.
Rodrygo is vastly underrated. I would love for him to join Milan. He’d fit right in.