Last night’s game between France and the Netherlands was one for AC Milan fans to keep an eye on due to the presence of four players across the two teams.
Three of them started the game, namely Mike Maignan and Theo Hernandez for France and Tijjani Reijnders for the Netherlands, while Olivier Giroud came off the bench although he is only a Milan player officially for a few more days.
As PianetaMilan report, the media is full of praise for Maignan after what was an outstanding performance. He made a couple of excellent stops to keep the scores level with Les Bleus rocked at times, and got his second clean sheet in two games in the process.
Il Corriere dello Sport gives Maignan a well-deserved 7, but without comment, while La Gazzetta dello Sport give the same score and add: “He was immediately decisive with the deflection on Frimpong and then he was also good on Gakpo. In practice, he saved the 0-0.”
Tuttosport praised Maignan’s performance, but only gave him a six: “He is now the leader of the French defence, and he proves it again by responding reactively on Frimpong in the first minute and showing himself confident in the rest of the match.”
MilanNews gave Theo a 6, stating: “Definitely a positive test for the Rossoneri full-back, no mistakes at the back, some gallops in an attacking sense but without making an impact.
“Everyone expected the duel with Dumfries, but this evening’s match confirmed the AC Milan player’s balance in such difficult matches and with his France not the protagonists of a brilliant performance. Overall, a sufficient performance for Theo.”
They gave Reijnders a 6.5, with the following justification: “A protagonist in the first half and of several important defensive interventions but always with the same class and elegance once he won the ball.
“He played the whole match, never shut down and even in the second half he was able to dictate the pace and fit perfectly into the Oranje tactical scheme: he is clearly one of the fittest players of this European Championship.”
Reijnders a protagonist 🤣😂, what the heck he has done
I think what they meant by protagonist is his capability for team build up, i know its hyperbole. His passes rarely intercepted, which means he rarely lose the ball to opponent.
People should not rate MF with only assist and goal. Its not rugby or basketball.
Was waiting for this lol 😂. To be fair, Deers did ok in the first half but was completely invisible in the second half. At one point I thought he got subbed out 😅. He actually played DM (Holland floated in and out of a 433 and 4231 setup so he was a defensive /stay back pivot or DM the entire match) and his performance was interesting. Definitely not cut out as a DM but he made do. He did progress the ball on occasion but others had a bigger impact. You could be critical and say he didn’t intercept the pass to Griezman but he did move towards the passing lane so he half got it right. He also got a few off defensive movements/positioning but overall was par.
Theo did well on the left. He was limited by Holland’s attackers as they were quite quick. He also gets watched closely by other teams and they tend to mark him right like Leao. That early tackle was sublime as was Mike’s save. Mike had a decent night and clearly works well with the French team’s setup.