Rafael Leao left the field to boos last night after a difficult game against Roma during the Europa League first leg defeat at San Siro.
La Gazzetta dello Sport recalls the 78th minute, when Stefano Pioli decides to freshen up the attack and called Leao to the bench to replace him with Noah Okafor. There were lots of boos, roughly from three of the four sides of San Siro.
The first question that arises in the press area: were the whistles for Leao’s performance or for Pioli, who took of someone who in theory had the potential to create something from nothing and bring the Rossoneri level?
The question is legitimate because if the answer is the first, the thing cannot go unnoticed and acquires a certain weight: Leao has already been booed in the past by San Siro, but never with this intensity.
The feeling though is that those whistles were more for him than for Pioli (or maybe both), at the end of one of the Portuguese’s dullest performances ever in proportion to the importance of the match.
He was simply never in the game and did not show even a flicker of his usual spark, and ‘not even the feeling that he wanted to try’ as per the report. El Shaarawy and Celik doubled up on him well, while Milan as a team were ‘unrecognisable’.
At a certain point in the second half Maignan also shouted and gesticulated at Leao for not having followed the Giallorossi’s counter-attack. Mike went to the edge of the area to make his thoughts known, without getting any reaction.
When he left the pitch under the boos (exiting very slowly, despite the 0-1 scoreline, which also may have annoyed the fans), the Curva Sud then intervened and sang their song about Leao, so as not to make him feel alone and not to let this bad performance generate a plenary condemnation.
They were whistles that must have left their mark on the Portuguese, who did not join the rest of the team at the end of the match under the Curva. Of course, this is often the fate of those who have such a weight of expectations.
Leao seemed on edge after the game too as he had a verbal altercation with a journalist in the mixed zone, although the background behind what happened is not fully known.
For the record, before this match he had amassed three goals and two assists in the four previous outings. Now, he must put things right in a few days and – above all – next week in the capital.