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Official: Newcastle vs. AC Milan starting XIs – Leao returns as Pioli’s only change

By Euan Burns -

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.

Tags AC Milan Newcastle Rafael Leao

100 Comments

  1. 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.

    1. 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

    2. 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.

      1. 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.

  7. 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.

  9. 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.

    1. 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.

      1. 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.

    2. 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

  14. 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.

    2. 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.

    1. 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.

  16. 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!!

  17. 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…

    1. 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 🌝

  18. 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

    1. 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.

      1. 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.

  19. Remember the fan boys claiming this midfield is better than Tonali, Bennacer and Kessie…..we are already looking to reinforce it in January

  20. 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.

  21. 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.

    1. 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….

      2. 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…

  22. 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.

    2. 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.

      1. 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.

  45. Unbelievable composure by Okafor, Jovic and Chukwueze for that goal 👏

    Overall we’ve been second best and we’ve been chasing shadows.

    1. 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

  47. 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.

    1. 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

      1. 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.

      2. 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.

  50. 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.

    1. 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.

      1. 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.

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