AC Milan crashed out of the Champions League against Feyenoord last night, and the pens have been sharpened for Theo Hernandez.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) writes this morning, football is a team sport where victories and defeats are shared in the dressing room, but there are cases in which a single player can ‘stab a game to death’. This was the case in Milan-Feyenoord.
The Rossoneri took the lead with Gimenez after just 36 seconds, immediately cancelling out the deficit from the first leg. They were in absolute control in the first half and almost doubled their lead several times, without conceding a single shot or conceding a corner.
The Dutch side resembled piranhas in Rotterdam but became ‘freshwater fish’, until the sixth minute of the second half when Theo saw red for a dive inside the box, his second yellow card of the night. From there Feyenoord grew in belief, equalised at the right time and went through.
Conceiçao makes a mistake
As mentioned, football is a team sport and so let’s widen the circle of blame to everyone else. In the dominated first half, against an opponent diminished by absences and by their own limitations, Milan should have closed the contest but were wasteful.
Rafael Leao and Joao Felix were the most involved but did not finish as they should have. Conceiçao was wrong to take off Gimenez, when, with ten men, the team most needed an obvious target man in attack.
Also included in the elimination count are the horrendous first leg in Rotterdam and the wasted chance against Dinamo Zagreb to enter directly into the top eight. The result is a grotesque failure: Milan eliminated by the team they signed the best player from in the winter.
It is a European failure that sees €11m in UEFA prize money go up in smoke and will have a moral impact on the rest of the season. It will also impact the future of Conceiçao, especially if fourth place in the league is not achieved.
A positive beginning
The Portuguese coach immediately launched the ‘Fantastic 4’, without keeping one on the bench to throw on. The message is clear: “Everything right away”. After just 36 seconds, Thiaw’s header back across goal found Gimenez for the equaliser.
The young Feyenoord side seemed overwhelmed by the noise of San Siro. The Diavolo tried to secure qualification for the round of 16 with a quarter of an hour of high pressure that kept the Dutch side pinned in the box.
Wellenreuther saved from Joao Felix and Theo hit the post going for a rebound. The frightened Feyenoord survives and gradually pushed their defensive 4-4-2 up the field, without however managing to get the wingers Hadj Moussa and Paixao involved.
Theo’s madness
Feyenoord hadn’t even had a shot on goal in the first half so everything seemed in order, until blatant simulation from Theo inside the box of the visiting side. The second yellow card became a red after the other one he deserved in the first half and Milan went down to ten men.
Conceiçao reshuffled to a 4-4-1 with Davide Bartesaghi coming on for Pulisic. Then he realised that Feyenoord were getting through the middle too easy, so brought Youssouf Fofana on, sacrificing Gimenez which was a questionable move.
Felix became the false nine and two minutes after that change Feyenoord scored anyway with Carranza’s header. Piling Tammy Abraham, Strahinja Pavlovic and others into the box accomplished nothing and Milan are out of the Champions League.
San Siro was more dejected than angry at full-time, almost resigned, in the awareness that this team are not upholding the values and glorious history of the club. An ‘apocalypse’ cannot be a surprise to the management, and now it will be tough to save the season.
What is realistic is that since Redbird took over this club has been on the way down again. The US “vulture” investment fund Elliot did a way better job. So Redbird is total trash, they are allegedly a sports management company and an investment fund was doing their job better than them.
Ouch you cooked them. Don’t know what the article talking about Milan’s season is over, no way they win the cup in this form even top 4 not guaranteed
Why are you commenting to me? In my real life I don’t even look at cowards like you. “Milan’s season is over”. Great. I suggest you stop following or commenting for this season. It would be amazing. It is over, why bother?
This is a story about how one man’s stupidity cost the whole team/club/fans. Woke up, and all that came to my mind is, ‘we are out of the champions league’. Theo never cared about the effects of his reckless behaviours on the pitch, but, last night, it all came to a close. I wonder how he’s going to face his teammates, drive to the training ground, or talk about higher pay for his contract renewal. Everyone is at a loss because of his stupidity.
It wasn’t a yellow card or a red card coward. I think is a story of how stupid you peopple are. Most of you really are stupid people that don’t have anything in life so you find an opportunity to take it out on a famous person. Next week Tomori or Leao. Giving a yellow card for this in CL match, where nobody was asking for a penalty but the player that was running fell to the ground is ridiculous. You aren’t even Milan fans, you are just bi***s pretending to be and waiting to jump on some player.
He didn’t fall. He dived. It’s even more sad to state that the referee made a mistake.
yes he dived. but come on. as Igor correctly points out. nobody asked for a penalty, the ref doesnt have to act here unless he is a diva, of which we have to face quite many lately.
Atalanta was a disaster. Milan was just a single situation killing a game that was in our hands. then you have 1st leg with Mike donating a goal to them and Leao missing a sitter. Fonseca games were hard to watch because it was like we didnt have an idea how to create opportunities. but with Sergio we create a lot, just ruining our games with single situations.