Rafael Leao came off the bench in AC Milan’s 3-2 win against Lecce and with two assists, the winger was decisive. Speaking to the media after the clash, he stated that they had an ‘incredible desire’ to win the game.
Sergio Conceicao decided to start Alex Jimenez in place of Leao for this game, moving Christian Pulisic to the left as a result. However, the Spaniard struggled in the first half and with Lecce 1-0 up, the manager decided to bring in the Portuguese international.
It ended up being a good sub as Leao assisted the first and third goal, in addition to running down the clock at the end. Speaking to DAZN after the game, as transcribed by MilanNews, Leao shared his thoughts on the performance and the team spirit.
Tell us about this crazy game…
“We all came in with an incredible desire to win, unfortunately we had two goals disallowed. We all believed together and in the end, we won the match because we gave it our all.”
How did you experience this week?
“Our team spirit has always been strong. Unfortunately, we are out of the European competitions, but we had the opportunity to work longer and it was totally different.”
When will we see you play for 90 minutes?
“I came in with the desire to help, we succeeded and we are happy. Now we will continue to work, there is another match at our home against a difficult opponent.”
Como are up next for Milan (scheduled for a week from now) and it’s likely that we will see Leao from start in that game. Conceicao will be hoping to fix some more issues in training at Milanello next week, as today’s performance was far from brilliant still.
How does one get an assist on an own goal? Not only are they not awarded thusly, if they were, it would be the (poor) shot which was deflected by the defender who would get the “assist.”
Enemy of progress
Well… People love to credit Leao for “occupying 3-4 opponents” just by being on the pitch and therefore making it possible for players such as Pulisic score. So, obviously he should be awarded with one or two assists for own goals too.
The Own Goal was produced by him crossing unless the wind sent it to the box
But Felix was the last to touch it before the scorer scored… So, it would be an assist for Felix, if assists were given on own goals.
Exactly.
If you don’t want to call it an assist, don’t. But you can’t deny that with Leao, our team moves much faster on the left.
U think God crossed that ball…
The last player to touch it before the scorer received it was Felix, not Leao.
Bro??? The goal scoring action came from Leao wtf. Forget who got credited for the assist (btw, officially no one as it’s an own goal) but you can’t deny the person who set it up was Leao. Just as he did for Pulisic
“you can’t deny the person who set it up was Leao.”
Not how it goes though. Even if the “hockey assist” was pure magic and the final assist was just a simple tap in to a teammate the assist goes to the one who actually gave the last assist. So, irrelevant if Leao did all the work for the goal as Felix was still the last Milan player to touch the ball.
Abraham plaid perfect passes that resulted into those two last goals .
Leao should always play as a substitute. He is much better coming from the bench. Put Scottil or Jimenez as LW. They both can help Theo in defence too.
Also, Theo was like a new player in the 1st half as he didn’t have to defend for two. Could have had two assists too.
Watching the match, I would say Leao had his impact but his fallibility is inability to track back and also he gets into absent minded mode:
For me, the coach should get a balanced 11, reserve jimenez as a second to walker, rest Gimenez till he understands the league and he should work better on his hold up play…
An eleven like this should work, gabbia, palvovic, walker, Theo, bondo, fofana, reijnders, Leao, pulisic, then Abraham or swap reijnders with Felix and Leao for still
The game will be much balanced
Like I said before, please start leao come off the bench then he will explode. Like Milan v Cagliari. He’s rescue Milan.