AC Milan were comprehensively beaten 3-0 at Stamford Bridge in the Champions League by Chelsea on Wednesday night after falling behind in the first half.
Milan began promisingly but Chelsea swiftly gained control of the game and their goals came from Wesley Fofana, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Reece James.
Milan started the game as if they were the home team which appeared to catch Chelsea off guard. The Premier League side struggled to get out of their own half in the early exchanges.
Despite that, the Rossoneri were not able to carve out anything resembling a real chance to begin with. The best moment in the first 10 minutes saw Leao work his way into the box where he was almost brought down by Wesley Fofana.
The home side began to exert themselves a bit more on Milan around the 15-minute mark and there was a couple of ropey moments for the Diavolo in possession. The first big chance then fell for Chelsea as Thiago Silva headed powerfully at goal from a corner but Ciprian Tatarusanu was able to palm it over the bar.
That led to a flurry of corners in which Thiago Silva kept getting on the end of everything. His third header led to a save from Tatarusanu and then a scramble in the box saw Fofana poke the ball into the bottom corner to make it 1-0 to Chelsea.
There will be a lot of talk about how Ismael Bennacer was given the job of marking Silva on three successive corners where he got his head to the ball on every single one, the third turning into the goal.
Milan didn’t react well to falling behind and Mason Mount made it 2-0 soon after only for the goal to be ruled out for offside. He lobbed the ball over Tatarusanu but he had made his run too soon to get on the end of Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang’s pass.
Raheem Sterling had a wonderful chance to double the lead towards the end of the first half as he was released by Mount’s pass. He could not shrug off the pressure from Fikayo Tomori and Sandro Tonali though and ended up scuffing his shot in the box and Milan could clear.
The half ended with the best chance for Milan as Leao went on an incredible run into the box. De Ketelaere’s shot was saved and then Rade Krunic saw his shot deflected over the bar. Nothing came from the resultant corner.
The second half commenced in much the same vein and Chelsea soon made it 2-0. An attack ended up with Reece James having ample time to pick out a cross which found Aubameyang in the box who stabbed it home. It was a surprisingly poor attempt at stopping him from Tomori.
It was immediately 3-0 when James got himself on the scoresheet with half an hour left to play. Chelsea were attacking with purpose and the ball worked its way to Sterling. He laid it wide for James as he came into the box and the English full-back smashed it into the back of the net.
The disappointing defeat to Chelsea means that Milan have missed a chance to grab control of the group. They could have been top with a win but now sit third behind RB Salzburg and Chelsea. The points gaps are very low though as Milan and Chelsea have four whilst Salzburg have five.
Embarrassing
Watching this match was a torture
same, here.
That’s why, ladies and gentlemen, Maldini insisted to get Botman on the last window. And please, it’s better to field a primavera player than seeing Fode.
Pfff, these owners won’t invest a lot(they are Americans duh) knowing how long it took to get CDK deal over the line and it nearly went wrong. We need a right winger, pacy and good striker(sorry to say, but Giroud can’t be our striker in Europa, maybe Okafor) a big strong cb and depth options, left back, right wing, cb depth is needed
To be fair, the last window was a transition between Elliot and Red Bird, so it’s understandable that we have an ‘odd’ budget. In the next winter transfer, Red Bird has fully taken control, so we can judge from there.
pioli is a bad coach
Both Milan players and coach are doing rubbish. they do not deserve to be in the champion league
Terrible, what’s with the coach and sticking to same formation when we lack the right personnel to fit in it? It’s pure madness to me
Not just the same formation, but the same gameplay and approach. As much as we want Pioli’s words (it’s all about the system not the players) to be true, but the fact is that the gap between our starting 11 with the backups is pretty wide.
Where to start… So poor display.
It’s one of the first times I will criticize Pioli, he got it so wrong, not with the selection (he couldn’t do much) but with the game plan. This build up from behind was a pure disaster, it’s 100% on him. It’s clear that this plan was his instruction.
Then Bennacer, probably one of the worst games. His errors costed 2 goals.
Ballo is not Milan quality, let’s face it. He doesn’t have a place in the team.
Tata does more harm that it is anticipated. His distribution is terrible and it costs.
CDK is unfortunately not ready yet for the task. Dias while not being good might be overall a better choice. I have good faith in CDK but he is clearly not ready yet.
Defensive duo had really poor moments at times.
The rest was just too average.
Tatarusanu, Tomori, Dest, Tonali and Giroud were absolutely overclassed today. Tomori was to blame 100% for second goal. He also made a super big mistake that almost lead to the goal of Sterling. Tonali had no calmness on the ball, this match really showed that Bennacer is our best mf not Tonali, by far. Dest is pure garbage and tatarusanu is so annoying with his weird and innacurate build up play. Just kick that damn ball forward! I know many of u will mention ballo toure but imo he did better than I expected. You can not expect more from a player that is getting his first minutes of the season. However, WE SHOULD EXPECT MORE OF TOMORI, TOTAL SHITSHOW FROM HIM!
But no matter what: Forza milan, lets focus on Juve, a team that we can beat.
In the premier league tonali, bennacer, kalulu tomori, dest, giroud, would play in sounthapton balo toure krunic in stoke city second division leao theo maybe wolwes this is crazy stuff premier league is on another level this is embracing for serie a
Serie a isnt poor, all other 3 teams won. This was a terrible performance
Embarrassing. You can lose a game, but not like this. The only player who did anything worthwile today was Leao, everyone else was a joke. For all those complaints that I was being negative after the last few games, I have to letters for you: F U. The entire back line and the goalkeeper were abysmal. Tonali, CDK and Bennacer shocking, Giroud invisible., Krunic…do I even need to say? But the worst of all: Pioli. This guy is not good enough to lead our team, he is not a tactician, his formations and subs are stupid. He needs to leave and we need more money for us to compete at the highest level again. Otherwise, it will be more of this rubbish.
Worst Milan performance in recent memory. I can’t express how disappointed I am in this team.
I echo everything you just said, our team is being passed around from owner to owner like cheap hooker without any sort of serious financial investment. For God’s sake how can we not afford to pay Leao €7mill a season?! Pioli is an average manager and not fit for a team like Milan, he needs to go and if the new owners don’t want to spend £100+ per season like they did with Liverpool then just sell to someone who will, what an absolute disgrace
Well we are without Magic Mike,Theo,Calabria and Salemakers who got us two goals in two games in Champions League!
Oh, and I also forget Dest. Absolute garbage. That sums it up.
Dest. WTF. I would get any of the lads from Milan’s primavera over him anytime. Horrible display from the whole team. Poor defending. Crippled midfield. Bennacer and Tonali were out of it. Tatarusanu could have done better on 2nd and 3rd, but obviously both were defense fault.
Dest is disastrous… rubbish display
Never have I seen so many mistakes in a match. Milan was weak. Too bad they couldn’t get Leao more in the game. They should have scored in the last minut in the first half. All the goals were defense errors. Easy golas for Chelsea. They could have lost by bigger numbers even when Chelsea wasn’t playing good. Milan wasn’t up for the game tonight. They all were disappointing.
all these comments about blaming Pioli, blaming the players, bla bla this, bla bla that,..
we lose terribly tonight? yes!
our team’s performances are waay below par tonight? yes!
the coach & players make many mistakes tonight? yes!
but it’s only one game, ladies.
we’re still have home game against chelsea next week, and two more after that.
our points in serie-a & in champions league are still good.
let’s support our beloved team like the curva sud did in stamford bridge a few hours ago, eventhough we lose 3-0, but still towards the end of the match they sang Milan chants loudly & proudly like we won that game, just to support the team
Bob, I agree with you. Yes, it was terrible and frustrating and I hated it; but teams have a bad day sometimes. All humans have bad days and teams do too collectively sometimes and of course missing so many key players didn’t help.
We need to brush it off like we did some bad performances last year (like scoreless against Salernitana) and come back next match focused. We have Juve Saturday — let’s turn it around there and then we have Chelsea in San Siro and Theo will be back for that one. Get 3 points at home and if Zagreb can help us out at home vs Salzburg, we’re on top of the group again very soon. Calm down everyone.
FORZA MILAN
I don’t know how I got home.😭
I am highly disappointed watching this happening to milan,ballo and dest killed the game,even the double pivot are out of it,CDK is not good enough for this match,brahim should have started ahead of him,or better still use brahim in place of krunic….pioli needs to see and know this in the second leg,thank God Theo will be back for the return leg,as for dest,a primavera defender is a better option compare to him