Mission accomplished. AC Milan left the Eden Arena with qualification for the Europa League quarter-finals in their pocket thanks to goals from Christian Pulisic, Ruben Loftus-Cheek and Rafael Leao.
As Calciomercato.com write, what made the evening less perfect was Mike Maignan’s knee injury in the first half, but what filters out after the game – including a comment from the goalkeeper himself – has provided some reassurance.
The last 48 hours have been very troubled for Milan due to the investigation by the Guardia di Finanza into the activity of the former CEO Ivan Gazidis and the current CEO Giorgio Furlani plus the sale of the club from Elliott Management to RedBird Capital.
Furlani himself, before the match, reiterated the club’s position: “Milan are owned by RedBird. The authorities can investigate, we have cooperated with them by giving all the information they have asked for and we are available for everything.
“We are focused about doing our job, which is to make sure that Milan is successful and that the fans are proud of their club.”
Such turbulence had no impact on the preparation for the match for a group that is becoming increasingly cohesive. The leaders Theo Hernández, Maignan and Giroud are also being joined by the new protagonists Pulisic and Loftus-Cheek.
Goals and assists aside, the duo who arrived from Chelsea are also making a difference in terms of the attitude and mentality they show off the pitch in a context of pressure and expectations that is probably very different to what they experienced in London.
The problems certainly don’t disappear in one night and the win came against an opponent, Slavia Praha, who are clearly inferior from a technical point of view.
However, the returns of Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw combined with the growth of Yunus Musah and Pulisic leave Pioli with positive feelings. The goal is to get to play the Europa League final in Dublin, there are few doubts.
