Paulo Fonseca made it clear that he believes AC Milan should have had a penalty late on against Bayer Leverkusen but praised his side for their performance in the second half.
Milan fell to their second consecutive defeat in the Champions League as they were beaten 1-0 by the German champions at the BayArena in what was a performance of two halves from Fonseca’s side.
In the opening 45 minutes the Rossoneri could be accused of being passive and letting the hosts dominate, but they sprung into life after Victor Boniface’s opener and had good chances to equalise.
Referee Sandro Scharer is the subject of criticism from a lot of Milan fans and the players too after the decisions he made to not award penalties after incidents involving Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Alvaro Morata and Tammy Abraham.
Fonseca spoke to Sky after the full-time whistle to try and make sense of what was a night full of action but unfortunately not yielding any points. MilanNews relayed his comments.
How do you judge the performance?
“The performance I liked the most this season since I’ve been here. Mainly in the second half we played a fantastic game, we created a lot and it wasn’t easy against a team like Bayer Leverkusen.
“We’re sad, disappointed but we also have to be balanced and understand what we did. And I’m satisfied not for the result, but for the courage and how we played.”
Do you think it was a penalty late on?
“For me the strange thing is that VAR didn’t intervene. For me it’s a penalty. They didn’t even look at the situation. But I felt during the match that the referee had no doubts about going against us. I don’t like talking about referees, I don’t want it to be an excuse but we feel these things.”
Did Bayer Leverkusen offer what you expected?
“I think Bayer have a very strong positional game. In the first half it was very difficult, we closed the spaces but then they created problems with the combinations on the right corridor. It was difficult but in the difficulties we defended well.”
Do you think they targeted your left side?
“We had more problems in the first half on the right. It’s true that it’s difficult to get Rafa to help Theo but I think we suffered more on the right.”
How was the hand to the face to Theo not a yellow card as he moved up the pitch? It was pretty clear early on that Milan were playing 11 against 12.
In CL it’s about politics. We’re nowhere to be found in terms of powerful management from quite some time. That red card + penalty against Chelsea was the tip of the iceberg, even their players were surprised.
It does seem like the refs are given instructions from higher level on how they should whistle. We all remember the season when Milan made the comeback to UCL and the insane ref decisions made it clear Milan wasn’t “allowed” to continue on from the group stage.
I thought we played with intensity in the second half. We are going in the right direction!!.Leao needs to work harder!!
Yes, referee was poor. But WHY did Milan need to concede goals in order to be allowed by Fonseca to take the initiative in the match?! They sat deep, invited Leverkusen to take charge before reacting. Naïve and cowardly. Best performance?! Get him out. Only a loser plays like this and blames the referee afterwards.
What on earth are you talking about? Milan’s defense needs balance as it cannot stand on its own. It’s an away game against a club playing some of the best football in Europe. Looked like the tactical set up was sound just unlucky in terms of chances and calls. You’re a fool plain and simple…
Which Game did you looking?
Come on man…at least in the second half the team reacted well, to bounce back.
Don’t judge from one game that went lose to our team.
If you see Milan now, is much better than Pioli’s last season. They just need subs players, that can ‘click’ with the starting eleven.
Players like RLC, Chuk, Okafor, Jovic, and Musah are not enough. That’s why, when we rotate the team, then the tactics is also different too.
Agree. Leverkusen is a bit overrated, and we should perhaps have shown a bit more courage. Then again, its hard to find the right balance.
Milan forever all we need to do is change to 4:4:2 that’s all and nothing more
Things I liked
1. Magic Mike. He was a beast
2. Morata’s immediate impact upon entering
3. The one two’s between Pulisic and Reijnders
4. Fofana bossing the middle of the pitch
5. Theo playing with full effort
Things I did not like
1. Laeo’s pressing or lack there of
2. The inability of our midfield to make quick decisions and direct passes to start the counters.
3. Reijnders ability to finish
4. The lack of creativity up the right flank by Emerson.
5. Lack of a threat on set pieces
Yeah how many goals were from Royale side?
How many chances were created when Emerson was involved?
Please…
Boniface used him like a highway. And he was the one supposed to mark Boniface when he scored.
The reffere was a german from Switzerland with the Name Schäffer! He was 100% German and the fact that the Captain of the national Team of switzerland PlayStation for the German club Leverkusen Xhaka! It’s been for years now that Milan geht’s Punished from reffere‘s in the league and also in the Champions League, it‘s sad and disgusting. They dont have Respect to any player or the coach, something feels wrong here and I believe something is going against us, in this and last campaings, especialy against Chelsea and PSG.
The whistles are constantly against us – that’s fore sure. And it started years ago already.
Fonseca’s tactics due to the compactness of the players always open up the wing, and this is something that still needs to be worked on, else we will keep losing against teams that have good coaches and wingers.
I didn’t actually see the first half because of work. Second half I thought we played brilliantly against 12 men.
Still too many misplaced (simple) passes across the midfield.
Also, if we are going to set up like this we seriously need to consider Leao’s role. There is no question he’s brilliant at what he does, but Fonseca is clearly trying to make us an into an industrious team.
It’s getting better…
I think milan shown too much respect for Leverkusen, They play the waiting game and Leverkusen took advantage of that. you cant just sit back and hope on counter against an attacking team.
Milan should have took the fight to Leverkusen at the first kickoff like every other big European teams play.
But this Milan mentality did not see themselves as a top team in Europe. That need to change.
A team like milan should have the mindset of creating and scoring goals within first 10-15mins against any team. not to sit back and allow them take it to you before you react
I am not in complete agreement with the RLC penalty claim but a VAR revision would not have been bad anyway…. already stating that, the referee was poor. At least a yellow card was deserved for that hand in the face of Theo (and in the side Leao was attacking could be a game changer) and lots of other fouls deserved a yellow card. Also, in the doubt, he always went for Bayer which was awful. I am not saying we lost because of the guy but it was a very partisan performance and in Europe one would expect better