There was a surprise hero at the end of AC Milan’s win over Hellas Verona last night as Malick Thiaw put his body on the line for the three points.
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Calciomercato.com report how Thiaw’s debut for Milan was undoubtedly a high-intensity game as he came on for the final 7 minutes (plus 6 stoppage time), making two decisive interventions to prevent Verona equalising.
The first one came on the right side of Milan’s box as he sprawled out to block Depaoli’s shot that was heading for the roof of the net, while the second came on the other side of the area as he stopped Djuric’s attempt almost on the goal line.
Of course it remains too early to draw any concrete conclusions after less than 15 minutes of action but it is clear that for Milan it is important to be able to insert a new player in the defensive rotations in view of the crowded schedule between now and the World Cup.
Simon Kjaer is close to returning but Davide Calabria and Alessandro Florenzi are injured and Sergino Dest is struggling for form. Pierre Kalulu can play either as a right-back or in the middle, and he is likely to do the latter against Dinamo Zagreb due to Tomori’s disqualification.
Thiaw is not in the UEFA squad list but he could come to the rescue and let players breathe in the league, with seven games to come in the space of a month.
