AC Milan’s seven-game winning run was snapped last night as they lost 1-0 in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final clash with Roma.
The only goal of the game came early on in the first half as Gianluca Mancini was given the freedom of the 18-yard box to head home a corner having lost his marker. Olivier Giroud hit the bar late on, but Milan now have it all to do next week.
Below are how the Italian papers have reacted to the result…
La Gazzetta dello Sport: “Roma sing. It’s 1-0 at San Siro for the Giallorossi. Milan in the dark and now they’re in trouble. Mancini decides, De Rossi wins the first round. Leao disappointing, on Thursday they need a coup at the Olimpico.”
Corriere dello Sport: “Magical. Roma win 1-0 at San Siro, Atalanta conquer Liverpool 0-3. Mancini immense: goal against Milan too. De Rossi schools Pioli. Giallorossi dominate. Giroud hits the crossbar.”
Tuttosport: “Europa League: Roma conquer San Siro (0-1). Mancini strikes, Milan hit the crossbar and want a penalty.”
We are slow moving the ball around and forwards, we are lacklustre, we have nothing incisive, we have a lot of the ball but do nothing of note. We attack at training ground pace. Only Adli has the ability to look up and play a decisive pass. He then moves and looks for it again. Calabria did well, the hate on him is pathetic, he’s a 7/10 most weeks and he has heart and desire.
Pioli has reached his ceiling, he is to go now. De Rossi outsmarted him, El Shaarawy did a good job helping out with Leao. Pioli has no in game management, Chukwueze should have been on early second half as should Okafor, Giroud wasn’t getting much so change tactics and go at pace. Roma never looked really uncomfortable. Why didn’t we try Leao in the middle for a while to try and get him into the game. The game was tight so again Adli needed…someone who can look up and find the spaces
The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and I’ve learned again and hoping for a different result and this is exactly what Pioli does. It’s like he was hoping for that one magic run by Rafa to cross to Giroud for a tap in.
You explained Pioli’s Milan so accurately. And if the management doesn’t see this, then Milan will remain stagnant. A change is needed; and its not just because of yesterday’s match.
You are 99% right…but milan cant have an just ok rb in calabria if we want to win again we cant have that handicap.We need a world class RB
I think he’s better than ok. He reminds me of Gary Neville, at times Calabria has done things which no professional should ever do 😂 but then you realise he does more right than wrong, he ups his game for the big nights, he didn’t give in and he’s Decent going forwards. He is nowhere near the top of Milan’s issues.
You are correct that yes if we want to get back to 1988-94 or 2003-2007 levels then we need a better one, but for now he’s just fine
If Pioli is anywhere close to one of the best managers in Serie A right now, then Roma should go down 3-1 or 4-1 in the next round.
Can’t get simple than that. For all those who think that Pioli can take Milan to greatness again, that is a far fetched dream. Yes he brought stability, but he is not a championship winning coach, he can fight for it but cannot win it. Give him a decent team next season and then see his performance
We all owe Pioli a great deal, like you say he brought us stabiiity and made us credible again, but he’s out Ranieri, not our Mourinho. Ranieri steadied the ship at Chelsea but it was Jose who made them great and a powerhouse. I don’t dislike Pioli, far from it? But football is abiut resulte and this team is capable of winning the Europa league, especially now Atalanta did a number on liveroool. We will never have a better chance….
I agree with you, if Pioli goes and takes Roma apart after a rethink and goes on to win the Europa league I’ll hold my hands up. We also have the derby and Juve coming and historically Pioli can’t huddle the squad in these periods.
We can debate whether we could or couldn’t get Klopp all day, but if Klopp got these players like Theo, Tomori, Leao, Reijnders, Pulisic, and plays his intense unforgiving style….god help the opposition