AC Milan lost their first game of the season against Benfica on Wednesday night, but there is already a fatalistic narrative.
Corriere dello Sport recall what Ruben Amorim said after the Europa League defeat: “We create few chances and don’t fill the penalty area.” This is just a brief summary of the game, the Rossoneri’s first ever defeat to Benfica.
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Better start under Max
It was also a litmus test in a start to the season that brings with it even more questions than certainties. After the first defeat of the 2026-27 season, comparisons with the previous season under Massimiliano Allegri are already being made.
The record for Amorim already seems merciless when compared to what Allegri’s Milan achieved at the start of the 2025-26 season. A year ago, the Diavolo had racked up four wins and one defeat after five games. They had nine goals scored and just two conceded.
This was a team, moreover, capable of subsequently stringing together 24 consecutive unbeaten results, before a decline in the second half of the season and the failure to qualify for the Champions League.
Under the Portuguese – who has the Europa League to deal with – the Diavolo have so far recorded two wins and two draws, plus one defeat in their most recent game. In total, seven goals have been scored and six conceded. The result: eight points in Serie A, zero in Europe after 90 minutes.
In the same period, Allegri faced Cremonese, Lecce, Bologna, Udinese and Napoli (three out of five at San Siro), while Amorim has so far faced Torino, Venezia, Juventus, Lazio and Benfica (three out of five away).
We didn’t have a better start under Max
We lost to Cremonese at hime in the first match playing with 11 players in defense
Stop giving promotion to these parasites
What are we doing now, being nostalgic for Allegri ball?
It was the results against the small teams that sunk Allegri. Win against Lecce and Milan are 9 points from 9 against the so-called sure wins. Draws in the head to heads on the road are to be expected.
Not time to panic.
Pretty much. Not only that, but apart from Napoli Allegri had to face average teams and he still lost to newly promoted Cremonese. You could argue that Bologna and Udinese were not pushovers. Meanwhile, Amorim had to face Torino (similar to Udinese), Venezia (similar to Cremonese), Juventus, Lazio (that had 3 wins in a row) AND Benfica in EL. People should stop comparing Amorim with Allegri. Not only that, but Amorim needs to win using more or less Allegri’s team.
Exactly. And the Napoli win was just dumb luck. I’d rather give time to Amorim to build his project and suffer in the meantime, then to ever have to watch an Allegri game again.
Btw, it’s really negatively amazing for me how the Italian media are trying to frame Amorim. In the pre Benfica interview he said that it is only logical that the club does not have all the tools for his 3421 yet. That would be a utopia. And in the media it’s being twisted so that Amorim would have admitted that the players don’t suit his style of play. Also that Moretto BS about a clinch with some of the ‘senator players’? What? Any non-Milan follower reading the media reports would think we would be in a Fiorentina like position. But we’re not, and not at all. Why are the media and the so-called ‘fans’ already demanding Amorim’s head after 5 games??? What’s wrong with people.
It’s not how you start it’s how you finish etc etc.
Lets not be such massive drama queens, eh.
One of the most misleading things about Allegri was that “unbeaten” streak. It’s good for TV Shows or Inside NBA, but we ALL knew the team was headed for disaster. There was not a single dominant game or brilliance of football maybe except a few random games. By January only delusional people thought we are in for title race. Also at least Allegri is a proven coach even though I dont like him. Amorim has no idea about Serie A.
Complete rubbish. In all but 3 games, we had better XG during that 24 game run. Stop pretending we all knew the team was headed for disaster. We were nailed on for the UCL. After beating Inter, the team fell apart.