AC Milan owe a lot to Mike Maignan for his role in yesterday’s Derby della Madonnina win against Inter, which was probably his best performance since arriving from Lille.
Calciomercato.com reports that Giroud was the main protagonist and will take the headlines for his match-winning brace, but Maignan is to thank too because he made at least four crucial saves to ensure the Rossoneri remained in the game until the 75th minute.
He got his gloves on everything from high crosses to low shots and wicked deflections, even taking it upon himself to go outside the box to tackle Hakan Calhanoglu, and he emerged victorious in the positional battle with Samir Handanovic who might feel like he should have saved the second Milan goal.
Mike Maignan is ‘certainly the strongest goalkeeper in Serie A’ as per the report and for Milan it was also a great deal from the point of economic point of view as he arrived from Lille for €13m plus €2m in bonuses. It was a ‘masterful operation’ from the management who had struck a deal by the end of April to evade the attempts of Roma and Borussia Dortmund.
Maldini and Massara were so convinced of the operation that they had no difficulty in communicating the decision to Gianluigi Donnarumma last May that they would not be waiting and they had him replaced.
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