While there wasn’t much to shout about at the other end, AC Milan’s defensive resilience remained against Borussia Dortmund last night.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes this morning how Milan’s defensive wall help up under the pressure of the Yellow Wall at Signal Iduna Park, which pushed Dortmund’s every attack throughout the game.
The real good news from the second game of the Champions League group stages was at the back. Stefano Pioli will have to work before the PSG game on unjamming an attack that hasn’t scored in four Champions League games going back to the semi-finals against Inter, but the rearguard held firm.
Brick by brick, a wall has been built. Mike Maignan makes the right saves at the right time, while Fikayo Tomori and Malick Thiaw rarely trembled in the face of their opponents both last night and against Newcastle.
On 25 October, the Rossoneri will take the field at the Parc des Princes against a PSG side looking for points after the defeat in Newcastle, so the bar will be raised because Kylian Mbappé will be fired up.
The night in Dortmund said that Milan’s defence is ready to level up. Between yesterday’s clean sheet and that of 19 September at San Siro against Newcastle – which Maignan shared with Sportiello, who came on in his place – Milan conceded one goal across three league games.
The beauty of this story is that the iron defense was rebuilt from the rubble of the derby. That afternoon Tomori watched from the stands because he was suspended, then the Englishman resumed his place at the centre of the defense and the whole department changed.
With Tomori back in command, Milan gained in aggression – yesterday Tomori recovered 9 balls, more than all his other team-mates – as well as in speed and in aerial duels too. A
An in-form Tomori looks more and more like the unbeatable one in the Scudetto-winning season, and playing alongside him produces beneficial effects for anyone alongside him as happened to Pierre Kalulu two seasons ago and as is happening to Thiaw now.
Milan and Barcelona are the only two teams to have not yet conceded a goal in this edition of the Champions League. Then considering only the group stage of the tournament, the streak of matches without conceding a goal for Milan extends to four matches.
Milan also kept a clean sheet in the last two matches of the 2022-23 group, against Dinamo Zagreb and Red Bull Salzburg. It hasn’t happened since 2002-03, a magical year which ended with that Old Trafford triumph over Juventus.
Just 1 mistake is all it will take for this ungrateful fans to start roasting him once more like the best defenders out there are perfect.
Some are racists in disguise.
🦍💨 fart on your faces.
he did make that one mistake.. first half.
And it was a basic one. Pro players should not make that kind of mistakes…
And yes, the best cbs dont make mistakes, thats why they are the best!
But apart from that blunder last night he did great
Pepe’s 3 Champions Leagues suggests it doesn’t really matter….
I have no idea what you mean by that or why mention Pepe at all.
Pepe was/is a butcher, Tomori is a technical cb. You’d figure a technical cb to be, well, technical not blundercal
Mention the best CBs and wait for my response to give you a link to watch their mistakes.
In summary, No one is above mistake, even Paolo Maldini as 1 of the best CBs of all time and as the best LB of all time made mistakes.
Tomori has been great.
Great to see him back and saves us a real headache in the centre.
Hopefully he and Thiaw stay fit and they can really form a solid defensive partnership.
Tomori’s form ALWAYS indicates Milan’s. ALWAYS!
Good observation