AC Milan made it three wins on the bounce yesterday as they swept aside relegation-threatened Empoli 3-0 at the Stadio Carlo Castellani in the early kick-off.
La Gazzetta dello Sport (as seen below) have analysed the win and Milan’s performance, starting with remaking that the ‘Real Milan are back’. After the wins against Sassuolo and Cagliari a further sign was needed against Empoli, and it arrived.
Milan are becoming a team again under the eyes of Zlatan Ibrahimovic as they are playing with confidence again and scoring goals with ease. They netted three times yesterday after four goals against Cagliari in midweek.
It isn’t just scoring goals that is the positive, though. Ruben Loftus-Cheek was back to his best and probably the man of the match, while Rafael Leao, Tijjani Reijnders and Theo Hernandez – in his new centre-back role – all did well.
Pioli can enjoy watching the young players grow quickly too, like Chaka Traorè who scored again within three minutes of coming on, and with a much better goal than the one in the Coppa Italia match.
Inter and Juventus remain nine and seven points ahead, but in truth Milan have been traveling at their pace for seven rounds. However, there is the usual problem: as soon as the pace drops, and the thread of the game is lost.
There was half an hour of blackout in the second half and only Empoli’s problems in finishing chances prevented the then-closed match from being reopened. If Milan don’t learn to play dirty and manage games, they won’t go far.
Back to the positives. The opener came after 11 minutes after Reijnders elegantly switched flanks, unleashing Leao who beat Ebouehi and laid an intelligent assist to Loftus-Cheek that seemed to surprise Empoli.
In that first goal there was also an element of fragility from the home team, forced to reinvent their line-up due to seven absentees, some being important. Gyasi as a right midfielder isn’t the best, Baldanzi as an attacking midfielder is in physical difficulty, Luperto has to improvise as a full-back.
These are situations that explain but do not justify Empoli’s free fall, only five points and five goals at home, plus worst attack in Serie A (10 goals).
There is little doubt that Milan would have won, but Empoli gave Pioli a good hand, or rather Maleh did as he raised his to block Loftus-Cheek’s overhead kick. The ball scraped his fingers, perhaps his nails, and while the trajectory of the ball did not change a penalty had to be given.
Ebuehi, overwhelmed by Leao, then got injured and in the emergency Andreazzoli invented an interesting move: Ranocchia moved into the midfield and Gyasi at full-back. A more courageous second half is what followed.
Cancellieri came on for Baldanzi, moving to a 4-3-3 in the process, and Jimenez really struggled to deal with the new introduction. Empoli pushed, attacked, had shots, but did not go beyond getting them blocked or generating rebounds.
Milan finished with a flourish. In the 40th minute of the second half Chaka came on for Leao and immediately broke alongside Pulisic’s very fast counter-attack, offering support and then bending a shot around Caprile.
