AC Milan won their third consecutive Serie A game on Monday night away from home against Genoa, beating the Rossblu by two goals to one.
Monday’s fixture was certainly a bit of a shock to the system, considering Milan are yet to drop after a run of good results. We have seen it so often, and now the Rossoneri are seemingly going from strength to strength, even if some issues still exist.
Despite Genoa taking the lead through a Vitinha volley in the second half, the Diavolo came back to earn all three points, scoring two goals in less than two minutes. Rafael Leao got the leveller, then forced an own-goal, before Milan saw out the rest of the game with relative comfort.
It is a big result – an eighth comeback under Sergio Conceicao – even if it is more about building confidence for the Coppa Italia final, but the proof will be in the pudding in the next two games. For now though, let’s take a look at five things we learned.
1. Maignan’s renewal now a must?
Despite conceding last night – something which we’ll get to – Maignan was superb for Milan, and this is a trend that is starting to form again. Of course, he has been more regularly criticised this season, but the latter parts of the campaign have been a good reminder of his quality.
We need only talk about his two big saves on Norton-Cuffey and Pulisic (who turned it towards his own net). It looked almost unnatural how the Frenchman got down to his right so quickly for the latter one, and frankly, it is a save that probably wins the game for the Rossoneri.
Talk about a renewal is still ongoing, with the management seemingly still making decisions about his year, but his recent form certainly has to swing things in his favour.
🦅 Mike Maignan was simply UNREAL last night 🛡pic.twitter.com/P0uHSOSDVj
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) May 6, 2025
2. Big returns in big moments
The big return this week was for Ruben Loftus-Cheek, who actually played his first 90 minutes since October – just as a reminder, we are now in May (horrible, we know). Questions about his future are ever-present, though he put in a solid shift on Monday, and we can’t really complain.
Additionally, Kyle Walker was welcomed back to the team and played some minutes late on. His future is also a topic of interest, and whilst he would be an expensive bit-part player, he proved that he is more than capable of offering solidity from the bench.
There are a lot of questions to be answered about the English pair in the next few weeks. However, their presence will be significant in the final weeks of the season with games coming quite thick and fast.
3. A problematic trend
For what feels like the nth game in a row, Milan were again caught napping at the far post, when Genoa scored their only goal of the game.
It came from an unlikely source in Vitinha who hadn’t scored a league goal all season, but was rather calculated and homework had clearly been done. The ball was crossed into the area between Strahinja Pavlovic and Theo Hernandez, and they were caught out, as they have been regularly.
Of course, there would be teething problems, if they were new players. However, they have played in this same combination (Pavlovic as the left-sided central defender and Theo at left-back/wing-back) for large parts of the season.
It is a problem of communication, and until it is fixed, it is a constant threat that is not only being targeted, but more importantly exposed.
4. Leao: a team player
At the start of the year, Rafael Leao being benched was a HUGE story. It happened once, then twice, then became a bit of a regularity. In fact, it even led to reports about him seeking a move away from the club.
Against Genoa though – and in fairness recently in general – Leao has seemed to mature a little. There were no qualms about his position among the substitutes given the need to manage resources in view of the final, and there have been no suggestions of any frustrations.
Perhaps the fact he came on early doors helped. However, he still made as big of an impact as would be expected and was pivotal to the Rossoneri getting three points, continuing a knack of being a bit of an impact substitution.
We speak regularly about Leao, his mentality, maturity, and general impact. Monday was a reminder that he is the true game-breaker in the squad, the all-purpose key for the most difficult of locks.
5. We need to talk Conceicao
The talk about Sergio Conceicao will not die down anytime soon. Since he took the job, there has always been a lingering discussion about his future, largely due to the structure of his contract. So, with bad results, that conversation has grown louder, and it has never been shut down.
In fact, it has grown to the point where the Diavolo have effectively dug their own grave. We reported recently that the Portuguese is going to leave this summer and it is largely due to him not feeling supported. There have been no rumours shut down; instead they have simmered and gotten more fierce.
With that said, there is time to potentially mend things. Since turning to the 3-4-3, Milan have won four of their five games – including a dismantling of Inter – and they have been effective in each game. The record reads 11 goals scored and two goals conceded.
We are seeing a unified team, both tactically and mentally, and this is something which the Rossoneri cannot just let go this summer. So, perhaps a revision of the situation is needed, especially if a second trophy comes next week.
Point # 5 shows you haven’t learned anything. This was another typical Conceicao performance. Start out terribly, get completely outcoached and outplayed in the first half. Fall behind and then go into all-out attack mode and make a lucky comeback. You are satisfied with that?
It was against Genoa and they looked like we were playing Liverpool the way we couldn’t handle their pressing. This coach has no tactics to deal with anything. This team under Conceicao can not create anything unless they are in all-out desperation attack mode when they are behind. That is not a sustainable game plan. If not for Maignan making some incredible plays we would have been down 2 or three goals at the half.
ANd the previous win was against Venezia who also outplayed us for large portions of the match.
Try looking at performance rather than a lucky result when evaluating.
Anyone thinking of bringing Conceicao back should have their head examined.
This ^^
I echo it below.
Sarge is really a private and is planning to go AWOL.
Too bad we seem capable of deciding only to talk – and talk – and talk … To the candidates that will lift us out of this miasma in SD and coach.
Worse it seems that the tea leaves point towards folks not wanting to join our swamp and lead. Wonder why?
To be fair, Conceicao dismantled the CL finalists a few weeks ago. He probably keeps his job if Milan win the Coppa and qualify for the Europa league.
Switch to a 343 far too late. Play like a mid table team for 80 min and get lucky to come back yet again.
Is that really all it takes for Sarge to keep the job after barely holding serve following Fonseca whom we sacked?
SMH. Again I find the analysis very shallow.
What I learned is that our Italian CEO cannot make a timely decision. Our French technical director cannot direct. Our Swedish consultant has yet to realize he should buy some big boy pants to go with the big boy haircut.
So we are in May without and Sporting Director. Thanks Furlani.
We have no deal or plan to replacewith Magnion or Theo. Thanks Furlani and Moncada.
We have only just landed on a style of play. Thanks Sarge.
The leadership of Milan is not a circus. That would at least be entertaining. The leadership of Milan is a swamp of functional incompetence.
Same poo-fling, different week.
Glad for the win. Horribly frustrated by a lack of direction in the leadership of the sporting side.
The rhetoric around this performance and other recent ones is being determined by the result. We weren’t good against Genoa, a team who recently staged off relegation (admittedly they’ve had good home form). We were slow to start again, exposed several times before getting into the game and left chasing it yet again. This time, the moments just about came off, but the performances are still very poor IMO.
Now, to be fair, he’s the third coach in 12 months and hasn’t had much time – I certainly don’t hold Conceicao responsible – but would I trust him to put in a great pre-season and fix all these issues by August…? I’m not so sure.
The only advantage will be Juve and Inter being in the stupid world club thing (seriously, how did Juve get in there?) and that I don’t think we’ll be in Europe at all next year.
Wow, I thought Milan is bad defensively until i watched Barcelona. They can’t defend to save their lives. How they managed to give up 7 goals to this bum inter team needs to be studied. They have a great midfield and wimg play but their defense is amateur level.
Pedri is the best midfielder in the world. His ball control, especially in tight spaces and IQ are of the chart. True heir of Iniesta.
Lamine Yamal is great but he needs to work on his right foot. He is almost as bad with his right as Theo Hernández.
Barcelona can only blame themselves for this loss. Dominated inter thru both legs but every time inter went in attack Barca let them score.
And how did Bayern “allow” 4 goals from this “bum” Inter? Inzaghi did not care about Italian competitions this season, he only cared about winning vs big teams in Europe. All what he wanted in Italy was the 2nd star; a Scudetto or Coppa more or less is not a big deal for him. lol
Bayern has been also awful defensively since they signed Upamecano and started picking up serie A trash and 1 season wonders like De Ligt and Kim.
😆 LOL. Stop lying to yourself. Up until a couple weeks ago Inter players and fans were talking about a treble, but now they didn’t care about anything else but UCL. 😂 Sure thing buddy.
“Stop lying to yourself” who says that lol
Silly of you to try to trash another team. Reaching the UCL final is a big thing, it is in the UCL where the big guys show their worth. If Milan were in the place of Inter tonight, I would praise their effort. Anyways, I am leaving you with your silliness.
Milan trash team reached the semi-final of the UCL 2 years ago where they lost to an inter trash team. Both teams were awful. I don’t have to lie to myself to think that Milan belonged in the semi-final that season just because they got that far. They scored 3 goals in 6 knockout stage games.
Stop lying to yourself say people who read something that someone wrote who tried to lie to others and lied to himself. Inzaghi did care about Italian competitions after they got knocked out of those competitions. But prior to getting knocked out the talk was about a treble. 🤣
You are very funny. The treble talk was to push players to fight hard, no one with a sense of reality ever believed it. Anyone who checks Inter fan sites, e.g. SempreInter, knows that the vast majority of fans never believed this team could win 3 competitions at the same time. Last season it was obvious that Inzaghi did pay the main attention to Serie A and in some UCL games bench players were started, while this season rotation was always done to the benefit of the UCL. Anyways, since you are calling Milan too “trash”, I guess it is a mental thing. Good night.
For once I will actually salute inter. I didn’t watch the first leg but damn this was an entertaining match and even if they was lucky to a large extent it was also down to both Yann Sommers amazing saves and reflexes but it was also down to the teams tenacity to fight throughout the match despite that some of their players looked extremely tired.
First half Inter certainly was the best team for me even when also disregarding the goals they scored. Second half Barca clearly was the team that ran the show and the match easily could have gone the other direction.
I’ll not be cheering for Inter in the final but better than seeing Barcelona getting closer compared to Milan as you guys are still only at 3 cl wins 😀
Anyways long time since I was this entertained by a match.
I dont buy the premise though that Inter wasn’t fighting for all 3 trophies as that clearly was a dream as it would be for evereyone still fighting for it but assuming you win cl then I personally would gladly trade a scudetto or for that matter a super coppa and a potential coppa italia for that.
@Martin My first comment ends with a “lol”, so it should not be taken literally. The point is that Inzaghi’s main target this season has been the UCL, the Italian competitions being secondary. Both his rotations and player efforts and game planning make this clear.
I doubt Inzaghi really believed in the treble, as he is supposed to be aware of the team’s limitations. Then ofc if Inter would win it, Inzaghi would not say “no”, but overall Inzaghi has put the main effort in the UCL this season, and in many games in Italy the team apparently entered the pitch without a proper plan. I mean, they played better vs Barca, BM, MC and Arsenal than vs Monza or Como.
Marotta too some months ago noted that the UCL is more profitable than Serie A. Btw I suspect that one of the reasons why Milan did not want Conte last summer was his overall bad record in Europe. To make money, clubs need to put an effort in Europe, and Conte is not seen like the right coach for that.
Missed the lol part but I’ll accept that the Coppa Italia was secondary for them but probably losing out on the scudetto so late in the season is a tough pill to swallow even for Inzaghi and the managment.
Potentially Inter can still end up with nothing even if reaching a cl final also is an accomplishment.
Sure everyone knows the money is in Europe. Maybe they didn’t hire him for that reason maybe they just didnt want to pay his salary or something which is suspect to exceed Milans coaches wages twice this season. Another thing is that Milan didnt want a “manager”.
Milan in 5 games this season vs Inter allowed 5 goals, barca allowed 7 in 2 games.
Also, Denzel Dumfries, the guy that eats Theo’s lunch every derby, in 2 games vs Barca of the UCL semi-final, 2 goals and 3 assists. But some of our fans are hyping up Theo like he is something more than just a guy who can run fast.
No one in Spain can defend. It’s all about attacking football there. Always has been, always will be that way.
Inter will a nice budge in the summer.
WP Inter, there could be even easier for them with playing Maignan instead Somer and Depay instead Thuram IMO