AC Milan lacked some killer instinct again as they were held to a 0-0 draw by Borussia Dortmund, their second straight stalemate in the group.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes that in the 0-0 draw against Newcastle at San Siro Milan deserved to win and yesterday in Dortmund against Borussia they could have won, a subtle difference, but not too much.
The meaning is the same, Milan at the start of this Champions League are lacking that ruthless nature needed to win games at this level. Against Newcastle it was Rafael Leao who was guilty of missing a big chance, against Dortmund it was Olivier Giroud and Samuel Chukwueze.
Borussia also had some scoring opportunities in the first half but it was in the second half that Milan had the match in hand. The home side attacked without getting much joy, knowing they needed to try and win, and left themselves exposed.
Leao plowed down the left flank, and every move he made terrified the Bundesliga side, but for one reason or another the ball didn’t go in and Milan were left with the consolation of another ‘clean sheet’.
Giroud aside, they are almost all young players and must acquire wickedness at the very top level. The group standings remain open, PSG’s defeat at Newcastle keeps everyone in the game.
For Milan the next stop is Paris, and another draw would not be a disastrous result, but this team has the strength and the technique to compete against anyone, to go to the Parc des Princes without fear.
In the second 45 minutes Milan played a game of resistance and restarting (counter-attacking), not their truest form but a demonstration of pragmatism and resilience.
Dortmund knew the pressure of getting three points at home after losing to PSG and as they went for it more they increased their defensive permeability, a point of weakness that Milan did not dig into enough.
For the first time, Milan ended the first two rounds of the Champions League group stage without scoring a goal and with two draws.
They hadn’t registered two consecutive 0-0s since April 1994, against Anderlecht and Porto, in the Champions League then won in Athens with the 4-0 over Cruyff and Guardiola’s Barcelona.
They were crap. No intensity, no desire to get in the box. They had the beating of a fairly average Dortmund team, but instead of pressing, they played endless triangles in the defensive areas, wasted time and squandered possession. A winning side has to ATTACK.
“fairly average Dortmund team”
😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
Nah, I can’t believe he really said that.
Playing Dortmund is like playing one of the Hungarian 2nd division teams. Or like Salernitana, right?
Come on, they weren’t great. Not as frightening as some of the Dortmund teams of the past.
Let’s be honest, Leao needs to be selfish and not pass when in good position. They proved they aren’t on that level yesterday, and again. The missed chances are ridiculous, and at the same time, I don’t see people talking about those players being horrible and needed to be benched. And they mostly were, especially Giroud. He has been half useless since he came to Milan, the only thing that masked how bad he is is Leao, because he setup half of his goals and also most penalties were made on Leao. 80% of Giroud goals are Leao, and he scores 20 per season. Useless player, he is too old and was too old when he came to Milan. A good 1 year stop-gap solution, not first striker for Milan.
And what I really don’t understand is why is Chukwueze not given play time against weaker opponents, so he gets into match form and starts paying off the fee. He was the most expensive signing off the summer. He obviously needs some adapting, but start him against Spezia or Verona…He shouldn’t go in to waste 100% chances in matches like this, he isn’t ready.
We will score a lot of goals against P$G.
Euromilan 😂
For all practical purposes, Milan is playing without a 9 essentially. I don’t know what role Giroud occupies anymore. He’s an anchor, without the first touch, without the speed, without the muscle. He’s just… there territorially. He’s had grea contributions before, but he’s no spring chicken, and his contributions are more often misses than not.
Basically Milan are playing without a center forward. At this point Jovic will likely be more productive. Hope he can start playing soon.
Lololol u guys missed the whole “Euro” Milan joke 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 well played. Whole summer we were treated to the directors telling us we needed to be more European in order to win in Europe …and we’ve scored zero lol 😂