Rafael Leao has returned to the AC Milan starting lineup for the crucial Champions League clash against Newcastle United this evening.
The Rossoneri have been without the Portuguese winger in recent matches due to an injury but Stefano Pioli will be thrilled to welcome him back to the team on a night where Milan simply have to win. Not only that, they also need Borussia Dortmund to beat Paris Saint-Germain in the other game.
Only with those two results will Milan get into the Champions League round of 16.
Given the injury crisis that Pioli is currently dealing with, few changes, if any, were expected to the team that started against Atalanta at the weekend.
Leao comes in for Samuel Chukwueze, and that means Christian Pulisic moves back to the right wing. The midfield three remains as Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Tijjani Reijnders and Yunus Musah, whilst Theo Hernandez will have to be a central defender again alongside Fikayo Tomori.
Alessandro Florenzi is playing at left-back and Davide Calabria will take up his usual place at right-back. Mike Maignan will be in goal.
Official Newcastle XI (4-3-3): Dubravka; Trippier, Lascelles, Schar, Livramento; Guimaraes, Miley, Joelinton; Almiron, Wilson, Gordon.
Bench: Karius, Harrison, Dummett, Isak, Hall, Burn, Longstaff.
Official Milan XI (4-3-3): Maignan; Calabria, Tomori, Hernandez, Florenzi; Loftus-Cheek, Reijnders, Musah; Pulisic, Giroud, Leao.
Bench: Mirante, Nava, Nsiala, Bartesaghi, Adli, Pobega, Krunic, Chukwueze, Okafor, Chaka Traore, Jovic.
The question is would Calabria be worse as a cb than Theo? Or a right back for that matter. Makes more sense to me to play Theo and Florenzi in their natural positions and shift Calabria to cb but I’m not on the training pitch so who knows what goes on.
I agree, but it is what it is. In reality we have almost our entire first team available with Thiaw the exception.
Bennacer has been out since May so that’s not really an excuse
What we need is a performance
I suppose Pioli is counting on Theo’s speed to mitigate the lack of a proper CB. Besides Theo in his natural position moves forward a lot! , it would expose even more our lack of a CB.
Savičeviću, Calabria is too small. He cant be CB. Theo is strong full back.
This. Theo is taller and clearly has more upper body strength. Your putting your biggest remaining defenders in the middle. Otherwise you have two big guys on one side, and two small guys on the other. The opposition would just blast our right flank.
Theo is taller and faster than Calabria. So he’s more fit as CB than Calabria.
I believe in miracles
Hope is the last to die
Forza Milan
Let’s go lads!!!!!!! Forza Milan always! Win, lose or draw, forever 🔴⚫️
I feel sorry for Reijnders, he seem talented and lively but really exhausted. He played every game since the start of the season.
This is the ugliest kit I ever seen
10 mins in and i dont think Milan have put 2 passes together!
Given how we rattled them in the 1st leg we should be the confident team.
My word 20 mins in against a poor, injury ravaged side and Milan are being taken to school.
Disgraceful stuff
It’s awful, they are not capable of stringing together two passes let alone build something. It’s not like they lack tactical basis but rather look unmotivated and uninterested.
Its not they are not motivated or uninterested. Midfield looks overwhelmed again, byt tracking back. Also, nervous i think. Pulisic. Calabria have been making silly mistakes.
Midfield is non existent as usual but even our backline and front line don’t really put any effort in. They lose every ball up front.
30 mins gone and it is unbelievable how Milan simply cannot keep the ball at all.
We are lucky not to be behind.
This Newcastle team are 7th in EPL and going through a crisis of form and injury, yet we make them look like Real Madrid. Disgraceful
If Maldini had been in charge, we’d be playing this as a final and be up 2-0 already. /s
1-0 to Newcastle.
Deserved
This is the worst I have seen Milan (not) play.
Pathetic. Been parking the bus as if we are a small team. Hell even small teams put up more of a fight than this.
A deserved lead for Newcastle
Get this bald donkey out of my club. He looks more lost than these players, and if they don’t believe in you, you’re lost. Any other manager would be able to squeeze SOMETHING out of this squad, but not this Mr. Nice Guy who has no tactical awareness whatsoever. Also, as crap as Pioli is, 90% of these players are almost as bad. We spent over 100 million and we’re still going into important matches with a 37 year-old as our main striker, no left side, two idiots (Calabria and Florenzi) as full-backs, and injury problems out the ass once again with this disaster of a medical team, and some of the ugliest football ever played by AC Milan.
no right side, I meant to say*
I was about to write: We should be giving Jovic more looks. He scored in two straight games and was beginning to look lively. Instead we have GIroud the Statue. Yes, he scores key goals now and then, but in a match like this you need pace and energy.
Get Leao off the pitch!!
He is walking around doing nothing and when he gets the chance 1 v 1 he falls over his own feet.
Forget about the end of the season. Fire this fool before the second half. Same with those bankers that claim to know the beautiful game. Bought 3 of the same midfielders, when they only needed a true dm and true am. Wait to hear about the imaginary stadium tomorrow to calm the fans, that’s their pr team.
Sorry SJF, didn’t mean it as a reply.
No worries. You make good point.
Shameful performance.
No fight or leadership in this team. They look like loosers
Let’s get back to basics ie playing players in position – get the sub CB on, get the useless Florenzi off and get Theo back on the left with Leao – Giroud is his usual self – unable to hold the ball up or link an attack – so bring Jovic on – it’s not rocket science!!
True!
In mast win game only 1 shot wide…
That’s explain a lot…
No ideas how to play at all…Slowrenzi, Musah, Slowtus Cheek just rubbish…
Giroud not run at all…
No midfield, no defense , no attack…
To even think that Newcastle is not trying too hard 😂. This is just shameful. Let’s just focus on getting the top 4 in the league. Pioli might just resign before he is sacked 🌝
I think the pairing of RLC, musah, and tij don’t work well. There’s no creativity at the middle.
Tomori the only one out there who has my respect tonight. The rest are a shambles
Half an hour in and it’s painful to watch, we have no press, we just sit back and invite teams onto us for wave after wave of attack. If we had the pressing game of Klopp you’d understand the injuries but we don’t.
Phenomenal goal line tackle by Tomori. Horrendous miss by Leao. You have to score those on big CL nights
Leao is lazy, this he’s ready to spring into action nonsense doesn’t wash. Track back and get the ball
Newcastle got battered at the weekend and we can’t get near them
We are light years behind tactically
At this point it’s just feels bad for Tomori, seriously what is his fault, plays every game like a wall, but football is a team game. One player cannot determine the teams success. I hope everyone plays like him but I guess that’s too much to ask.
We are at least a yard off the pace….you expect high intensity Klopp teams to get multiple injuries but we are lazy and pedestrian without the ball, we have no press at all…we invite teams onto us.
Remember the fan boys claiming this midfield is better than Tonali, Bennacer and Kessie…..we are already looking to reinforce it in January
Even Krunic and Tonali in pair last season were far better than what we have today.
Krunic Tonali and Brahim>>>
I stand corrected
Exactly
This is the worst half I’ve seen all season. Can’t even make a pass. I’d love to know what pioli does in training midweek. I swear pioli better be gone tomorrow morning we have completely lost the plot.
Not even Tonali-Bennacer-Kessie would be able to save us from Pioli. Leao prefers fashion week and the recording studio to a football pitch.
Not sure whether to laugh or cry but you’re right
The next managerial appointment needs to be a sensible one. The names of Palladino and De Zerbi worry me. We need experience, a respected name. Not sure who that is, I’ve said it time and again we should do everything to get Carlo back…..Mancini would be good, Emery, none of those are available. Zidane would be a dream but we aren’t getting him. Our squad is good. It’s underperforming, the sad thing is Pep got Leao he’d turn him into a ballon d’or winner….
Pep would never buy Leao. He pushed out Ronaldinho
Exactly. Pep wants serious players, not slackers, regardless of talent.
Mancini is a charlatan, no thanks. Carlo is past Milan, at least this Milan. In terms of experienced coaches I was hoping for Spalletti at some point, but he took the national team. I still think Motta could still be the type of manager to whip these players into shape. The management also needs to grow a spine and realize that if Leao is going to continue playing at 50% that it would be better to cut him loose. Lots of folks here were adamant that we extend his contract…
I love to read the comments here seeing everything I talked about from the beginning of the season is manifesting! When I said 37 years old Giroud shouldn’t be leading our attack, when we lost all our pre -seaon matches, many football professors claimed it’s only to get minutes into their legs, I bet they haven’t gotten enough minutes yet right? Silly football ignoramus – now I can’t wait to hear your excuses tonight for this very bad football show on display once again! Enjoying yourselves with your dear Pioli geniuses while you all rot into relegation come season ending.
Mike is sooooooo getting sent off tonight
Yeah if he shows no leadership we have none
All given away by Rafa again and he just walks back….!!!!
And dortmund are leading against psg. We just can’t even help ourselves
1-1 now.
This Newcastle team not that good with injuries, and milan are throwing this away with psg losing. What is up with these players, fight!!!only tomori playing like he wants to win, shocking.
Currently Dortmund are leading against PISSG, we are ourselves to blame if we didn’t qualify.
hahaha… and to crown it all up, they are putting on this clown Jersey…
Spare me, please.
An hour in of utter dross and no subs from the idiot Pioli, bring on Jovic or Okafor…All Leao does is kick and run
Yeah, that is football. You run and you kick the ball.
Hell yeah the devil has awoken
Martin please, this team are an embarrassment to the colours
Tonights first half was an embarrasment No question there but i was also just hinting that we had equalized ;D
Well we scored somehow. Hope that wakes them up.
😀
Great play by Giroud and Pulisic but we are so outclassed still…
Great play? Giroud wanted to shoot. 😀 It was one of the luckiest goals ever. Still a goal but…
F in leao gotta pass that ball.
Get the joker Giroud off
Pioli won’t take his new bf off tho – another player out of position
Ffs Pioli, if you’re bringing on Jovic take off Giroud not Pulisic!!!!!
LOL, Jovic for Pulisic not Giroud! Pioli’s on fire, a dumpster fire.
Horrible subs
So one more lucky goal and they are through. Both teams are not really defending properly.
Leao. That was it. Plus PSG won’t lose at Dortmund. Oh well.
OMG LEAO. What a miss.
Take Leao off!!!
What a miss, he looks slow and rusty.
Bring on Okafor!!!!
Chuck yeaahhhhhhhhhh. Chuck the norris
That’s what happens – Giroud off and all of a sudden we offer a threat
Childs Play Chucky’s Revenge 😛
Okafor already looks our best player
So, in the end, will it be the BS penalty UEFA gave Mbappe in the Newcastle match!?
Nah it will be us not winning first leg match against Newcastle.
Psg would still have 8 points and better than us head to head.
WE DID NOT DESERVE IT
Apologees, my calculations were wrong.
Psg and Newcastle would have been on 7 points.
Stressful night, the game and the beer have me muddled.
All in all a very disappointing campaign.
Unbelievable composure by Okafor, Jovic and Chukwueze for that goal 👏
Overall we’ve been second best and we’ve been chasing shadows.
I’d rather see us go completely out of European cups and put all effort on domestic competition.
My words… i See a lot problems because we have so much injuries…
But lets see. Maybe its not Bad from a financial point.
Isnt it funny that pioli always wins, when he is about to get Kicked of
Dortmund drawed against PSG so Europa League it is. Still acceptable considering being in the group of death, YES, sometime the smarter ones fools the dumb 😛
Later.
Newcastle could have been out of sight, we got lucky.
Newcastle were the better team.
Milan were a disgrace!
Its the 1st time I’ve said it but id fire Pioli
Milan were a disgrace?
We just went to one of the most daunting places to go to in Europe, where they’ve only lost 2 or 3 times all season, with like 5 centre backs out due to injuries, and we won. In a match the Newcastle team wanted so bad and played at intensity from the start.
What exactly were your expectations? That we’d go and dominate them from start to finish? Name one team that has gone to dominate Newcastle at St. James Park this season.
Honestly, y’all suck.
Milan could have won 3/4 – 0 in the first match, leao misses a sitter as well in the first match when he thought he was ronaldinhoi so on so on.
Well, Pioli lives to fight another day. He’s got 9 lives.
Yes, everytime 😂
I swear… that bald headed man knows how to save his ass…
Keep crying
Right on.
Jovic is smart player.
All our past mistakes have come to hunt us.
Imagine we played like this in the previous matches. These players are not that bad. We just need to make few more additions. One of the reasons we won tonight is that Newcastle played to our pattern of football..No parking of bus.They attacked us from start to finish. We need to get players who can shoot accurately.
Here we go now we are saying we played a great game. The truth is Newcastle ran out of gas in the 2nd half. We couldn’t string 2 passes together until the last 20mins of the 2nd half. I understand sometimes opponents play full speed right away and it’s hard to hold on to the ball but gotta be able to make a few passes together.
Because they played with insane ferocity from the start, backed by their fans. (Almost) no team can sustain that. So the tactic was to withstand the early pressure and take the chances later on.
“I think it is very mental, you have to be in it in these games. We know what intensity they will bring, we know we can have difficulties. The matches are long, they change, we have to be in it until the end.”
That was Pioli before the match.
Y’all really suck with your perspectives and unrealistic expectations.