AC Milan ended a nine-year wait for a home Champions League win as they beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 at San Siro last night to move top of Group E.
Corriere della Sera (via MilanNews) recalls how it was back on 18 September 2013 when Max Allegri’s Milan defeated Celtic 2-0, thanks to goals Zapata and Muntari, but the wait of nearly a decade came to a close with last night’s victory against the previous group leaders Dinamo Zagreb.
It was certainly far from an easy game to face on paper as the Rossoneri came from the draw in Salzburg where the performance was not insufficient but certainly was not dazzling, so the result and the indications of the second group game were very important to understand the ambitions of the team.
Milan did well against the Croatian champions who sat deep and had 5,000 fans roaring them on, as Pioli’s men managed to dictate the tempo of the game, moving the ball around well, keeping possession and remaining patient while waiting for an opening.
There was not an exclusive contribution from a single player but rather the whole team got involved, as Rafael Leao won the penalty that Olivier Giroud scored, the Portuguese winger then set of Alexis Saelemaekers again as the Belgian got his second goal of the groups so far, and then Tommaso Pobega slotted home from Theo Hernandez’s cut-abck.
There are multiple players contributing on the big stage and this also bodes well for the game against Napoli, when the Rossoneri take the field without their strongest forward in Leao.
