AC Milan clinched qualification for next season’s Champions League with a 1-0 win at Juventus this evening, courtesy of a lovely Olivier Giroud header. Down below are the player ratings for the Rossoneri.
Starting XI
Maignan (6): He was tested quite a few times by Juventus this evening but did well to save the attempts and, above all, not invite any rebounds.
Calabria (6): A decent display from the captain this evening. He got beaten in defence a few times but also did well on others. His big achievement, of course, was the assist for Giroud as it was a really good cross.
Thiaw (6): Solid and strong in the duels and that’s exactly what Milan want from him. He was also calm in possession and that was a huge plus since the Rossoneri were able to play out of press.
Tomori (5.5): He was quite poor in the first half, truth be told, struggling with his position and getting beaten on more than one occasion. The final 45 were much better but nothing stunning.
Hernandez (6): A quiet but solid game from him this evening. He won most duels with Cuadrado on the right flank, as well as Chiesa, and did what was needed when going forward.
Tonali (6): His passing was needed this evening as one or two good passes was all it took for Milan to play out of Juve’s press. He has certainly found his role in this Milan team, also offering his presence in attack.
Krunic (6): It would’ve been a higher rating if it hadn’t been for a few dangerous giveaways this evening. However, he was stunning in his positioning and did a lot of good in defence, as well as remaining calm while in possession to find the best pass.
Messias (5): Another poor performance from him. He tried to have an impact on the game but failed.
Diaz (5): He actually did win a few duels but the attacking output wasn’t there from him tonight. Like day and night, if we compare it with the Sampdoria game.
Leao (5.5): Not his best evening with many lost balls in the first half, even though he improved slightly in the second half. Milan need more from him especially when the right flank isn’t doing well.
Giroud (7 – MOTM): Stunning header from him, bagging his first-ever goal against Juventus. He also won many duels against the Bianconeri defenders and helped create more chances.
Substitutes
Saelemaekers (6): He had an effort saved by the keeper from a good positioning, but helped run out the clock towards the end. All in all, okay from him.
Ballo-Toure (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Pobega (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Origi (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Kalulu (N/A): He didn’t play enough to get a rating.
Krunic was poor but messias was the flop of the match for sure. Diaz isn’t worth it, send him back
Still a decent overall display by Krunic. His cool and collective is something else. He even got the highest rating from several other sources.
90′ Minutes played
73 Touches
49/58 (84%) Acc. passes
1 Shots off target
5 (5) Dribble attempts (succ.)
10 (8) Ground duels (won)
2 (2) Aerial duels (won)
10 Possession lost
1 Fouls
1 Clearances
1 Blocked shots
3 Tackles
He lost the ball via bad passing inside our area. The fact that Juve didn’t score shouldn’t matter. That’s Match losing error…
I know, that why I said overall.
CL next year!!!!!what a relief. Great win today. Congrats all around.
I’ve heard we’ve got a war chest of 70mil for next year. This depends on sales as well but not bad at all.
congratulations boys
Messias over Alexis is an utter joke. Brahim should go man, really we can’t spend 20M+ on him when there are many cheaper and better alternatives.
Hi there, do you think Milan will be dominant with Pioli at the helm next season or will they be the same given squad change?
Oh man finally this torture is over. Can’t wait for the next season, cheers guys!
Father time is catching Junior, it was fun while it lasted and he achieved a dream some in his previous position could only dream of.
Lifting Champions League Trophy?
Diaz Krunic Messias has excellent working rate. They are not decisive players, but kind of player who fight, much more than Di Maria.
Still Milan needs much more quality players on many positions, to make bigger difference in the league.
Thiaw and Theo were excellent tonight, also with Oli. Thiaw is learning how to properly clean the space.
Krunic, disastrous decisions,
This ain’t track and field. Work rate needs to be combined with quality in a club like Milan, and the example is Tonali.
Messias has no business playing for Milan. Krunic is a squad player and the bench should be his best friend, and then Diaz needs to take his work rate and fly back to Madrid as soon as possible. Milan won’t go to the next level with these kind of players starting matches.
The fact is that it’s a bloody miracle Juve didn’t score 2-3 goals from those HORRIBLE Krunic gifts. You simply cannot lose the ball like that. THREE TIMES!!!
Milan won an away game against Juventus and the defence was solid all game. But you gave one player more then 6.
Thiaw is truly a monster in this game, having full control of all the crosses from Juve. Deserves an 7,5 for this game.
Agreed.
Thiaw has solved a major problem for us at CB.
We now don’t need to worry about that position over the summer.
Thiaw has been so impressive and my only regret is that we never used him sooner. He’s so strong, smart, amazing aerially, and decent passing too!
For real! did you see his crosses dureing the game? IMPRESSIVE young lad. He is our future CB for years to come thats for sure.
Important win, UCL qualification secured, great cross by Calabria and great goal by Giroud. Big game player usually steps up in big moments and he had plenty of big moments these 2 years.
The rest of the game was awful by both teams.
Now win the last game vs Verona, hopefully Torino and Man City will beat Inter, and this season will finish as a positive one after all.
We got lucky. Now we better splash the cash on some good players. We can’t afford any more garbage like CDK or Origi. Unfortunately Pioli stays, so it will be another tough fight for top 4.
Another tough fight for top 4? Yes that’s how it works. You fight for top 4. No one guarantees top 4, it’s a dog fight and Pioli is the only coach in the last decade and a half to make Milan reach top4 for 3 straight seasons. So when u say unfortunately Pioli stays then say another top.4 fight you clearly don’t know anything about football or Milan for the last 10 years
We 100% should not keep Diaz. Also Messias is a huge joke every game, please sell.
Great result but a lot of work is needed heading into the new season. We relied heavily on individual brilliance from Leao and Theo to decide games. We need to work on other weapons. 1. Crosses: Very few and low quality but as seen against Lecce, Roma, Sampdoria, and Juve today, a simple quality cross can unlock a defense. 2. Right wing and playmaker upgrade. 3. Shooting from distance: Only Pobega, Theo and to an extent Tonali can shoot. The front four really need to improve in that respect. 4. Free kicks and corners: A huge problem. We pose absolutely no threat so teams have no problem giving up set pieces to us. The only reason a team as poor as Juve is near the top of the table is because they can score from set pieces. All in all, if the points penalty holds, top four and a CL semi-final is a good season. I just hope we make good investments for the next one
Yes that shooting from distance is really lacking in this team. That’s y they find it difficult to score against a low block team often. Also if we have more players that can dribble pass his markers in midfield positions, it will really unlock more goal scoring chances as seen against Napoli what Diaz did, unlocking space and goal scoring chance for milan. But unfortunately only Bennacer and Diaz can, but they get bullied often especially the later.
So you confirm Maignan faced many challenges and that he gave up no rebounds. He ended up perfect with a clean sheet.
And yet you rate him a 6? If literal perfect performance doesn’t earn a perfect score then what’s the point in even writing these articles? Your lack of understanding of how ‘ratings’ work negates the point of anyone reading these articles to begin with.
He only got 6 because he didn’t even give an assist or two. Poor, poor Maignan. Pathetic.
Champions League secured…. the awful decisions on the pitch still baffles me, these are supposed to be professional players who train together everyday. Pioli needs to do a lot of work on player synergy and overall team play. A lot has been left to be desired this season and I hope we get them right next season starting with this transfer mercato.
It seems Tomori will be a huge disappointment for Milan next season!
This krunic,I found it difficult too know why this krunic is better than Adli too me till now,today match he almost cos us a big problems with his back pass always without moving forward…
Apart from him overplaying it at the end,.Krunic was a beast. I don’t know where u get it that Adli is better than him
Not even the same type if player bro.
2 very ordinary teams out there.
Leao really needs to be more consistent to be a top player.
Thiaw is certainly our find of the season and worth more than cdk now.
Our lack of threat in attack needs addressing.
Great header by Giroud but before that he was horrible and gave Juve a great chance to score.
He will always be able to score headers but aside from that he offers nothing.
Should be 3rd choice next season behind Mr. X and colombo.
We didn’t earn a champions league place on the field this year, juventus lost theirs in the courtroom.
We have been given a lifeline, please don’t waste it!
Krunic.. obviously played his best game in Milan shirt today. Except that one slip where he almost costed us a goal.
Giroud shouldn’t be a 7. He should be a 5. It’s not like he intentionally put the ball in the net. He didn’t even see where the ball went. Most of all, he costed us a sure goal with missing a golden opportunity to pass to diaz who was in front of the goal, not that diaz would 100% score but would have a much better chance.
Agree with the rest of the rating.
I really do not understand anything about Pioli’s decison making. If any of you guys has any insight, feel free to share. What was the point of Benching a player who was reaching his peak form by beating the league champions back to back in two matches with MOTM performances? Talking about Saele here. Was Saele injured or anything?
Also.. Adli.. Is he That Bad? I mean so unplayable that we don’t even use him as a Sub? Or did he insult pioli or something?
I think Pioli should try these two things in training or preseason. Kalulu as a RW and Tomori as a CDM. Moreover, it’s not like we will be losing anything anyway by trying them in one match or one half, right? Sounds ridiculous I know.. But here are a few things to consider.
Kalulu is unbelievably good at crossing. His passing is good. But what’s surprising is.. he can just move past players with a Kakaesque balance and pace. That’s insane. He is worth a try in the RW in preseason, might just unlock a hidden gem.
Then Tomori as a CDM. He is insanely fast, great long balls, good passing, fantastic at tackling, can read the game fast and the best part .. is his anticipation. If he can be used properly, opponents attacks can be neutralized in midfield before they even begin if Tomori can adjust to the responsibilities. His weakness is he tries dribbling in the box and goes too forward losing his mark in the box. But that will be his strength as.a CDM because dribbling and going forward is what he would need to do.
Also, Saele should be tried as a CAM. Whatever he is.. he is no winger.
If Tomori and Kalulu clicks in CDM and RW.. it’s gonna be insane.
Just my opinion.
Forza Milan.
Kalulu has a lot of talent but rw, seriously?
Bro this isn’t Fifa or FM. But just to humour you, why not put Thiaw at CDM? He’s played there before unlike Timori. Just saying.
And don’t ever write Kalulu and Kakaesque in the same sentence pls, it decreases your credibility..also you don’t need to see goal to score the goal smh
This comment started crazy and just got crazier by each line.
Yes seriously! Lets discuss objectively guys.. Why not try Tomori/Kalulu as CDM and RW?
Do our RWs score tons of goals at the moment? No. Can they assist? No. At least Kalulu on RW would get quite a few assists with his pin point crosses, specially when we have someone like Giroud up ahead with incredible airball strengths. So what’s the problem exactly? I don’t really see us signing a good RW this summer because NONE exist who fits what we are looking for. No young talented RW
As for Tomori, he already plays like a CDM and hence all the mistakes as CB. All of his mistakes as a CB is he goes too forward. So why not try him as a CDM and see what happens?
I could be wrong with trying these two options. I need someone with enough knowledge to tell me why. Instead of crazy this, crazy that.. argue objectively can we?
Bro Timori doesn’t have the skill for the DM role in our formation. That role requires technical skills of a midfielder which Timori and all the other CBs dont have. Like I mentioned, only Thiaw has played that role and might be better suited. I also notice his passing is alot smoother than his counterparts.
Btw our right wingers had 8 assists and 8 goals for a total goal contribution of 16 goals. Not bad but Im not sure about Kalulu being a pure winger. You need some guile and trickery in that role which Saele and Messias have
I see where we disagree. Yes.. traditional CBs don’t have the skill to be a CDM naturally. The reason I mentioned specifically Tomori, is because he is unique. You can watch his previous games.. He actually is really good technically. I am sure you noticed he can dribble out of most attackers that chases him when he has the ball. That’s not easy.. NOT a single CB in the entire Serie A and EPL can do that. When you dribble.. it’s a 50/50, you often win you often lose as well.. And hence Tomori’s mistakes as CB materializes as he attempts dribbling in the box. If we Put him in CDM, his mistakes become his strengths.
Secondly, he is aggressive, likes to go forward which would suit him to be a box to box midfielder perfectly.
Now Kalulu. He pretty much has the trickery part sorted as well. We all saw him play RB, right? He takes on his opponent and breezes past them easily. I am sure you saw his darting runs through the middle quite a few times dribbling past multiple opponents. Its worth a shot for Kalulu to let him try that in the RW and see what happens is all I am saying! He possesses all the skills the Saele and Messias does. + Pinpoint crossing.
Giroud has pretty much been the best in the world at headers for a decade, yet for you his goal was “unintentionnal” ? How ignorant.
The rest of your comment is just as lunatic. You try to sound knowledgeable but you just come out as a fool. Get off the marijuana bro we’re not in Fifa.
I fully acknowledge that Giroud is one of the best headers in the world. But that header, was just luck. It’s not like he intended the ball to go there.. he wasn’t even looking at the ball, he just got his head to the ball and it went into the net. Watch the replay my man. And I AM Knowledgable.
You don’t seem to have any argument besides some elementary school level personal attacks like ‘your ignorant’ and ‘your comment is just as lunatic’. lol So much knowledge right there.. damn.. lmfao
It is time to test cdk on the right wing just like he did at his previous club
I hope Pioli use Verona game to test it. I hope Pioli give CDK and Adli a chance to play for the whole match instead of wasting it for Diaz.
Cdk will suck at RW, guaranteed. He’s slow and has trouble beating his man. Not what you want on the RW but I’d be happy if he proved me wrong
Thiaw motm, he was truly amazing tonight.
I just want RW and new coach
Goodbye teacher’s pet Diaz, you fraud. He just reduced his value by €10 million.
It must be devastating for some of you “fans” that Milan have qualified for the Champions League and we’ll have the same owners, directors, managers and players for next season….and we’ll even have the same name.
The owners, directors, managers, players and name notwithstanding, we only qualified for the Champions League because another club made an error in judgment and were docked 10 points. End of story.
Who cares.
We didn’t qualify for the champions league for nearly a decade and we’ve done it three times in a row now, whilst pickling up a Scudetto and reaching the semis of the champions league, all with a young team.
It’s been nothing short of remarkable.
I find it amusing that the same “fans” who write off players then also criticise the manager for not getting the results. Either the players are at “Milan level” or they’re not?
Given where we’re at I think we can say the owners, directors, managers and players all seem to be very close to “Milan level”.
Our head to head against the top 6 has been excellent. Our Achilles heal has been against the teams we should’ve beaten. That’s an easier fix than trying to figure out how to beat our direct competitors.
Let’s just forget about being beaten 4 times by inter in 2023
Yes it happens in football that there are teams that a side struggles against.
Maybe it’s a psychological issue.
There was a period in the early 00s where we always beat Inter and lost to Juve. Now it’s the reverse plus we have good records against Napoli and Atalanta, and really should’ve beaten Roma and we got our revenge against Lazio.
Overall the heads to heads have not been the issue. A little focus and perspective is always helpful.
And we beat Napoli the champs like 4 times too and Juve twice this year which we haven’t done in many years smh 🤦♂️
@maldinisheir…..i truly admire your optimism towards this team and while I am happy at how far they come don’t you want them to make thee step up in quality? As milan fans, we were accustomed to being one of the top clubs for over 20 years and I personally want that level again. While I don’t agree with many who want the whole management and team gone, don’t you want the team to improve?
Yes we won the scudetto last year but does that mean we can have the excuse that we won it with a young team and perhaps got lucky? What I didn’t like most is that we won serie a(maybe ahead of time than most have thought). We won serie a and we should have improved as a team and yet without doubt, we got worse. We let two big guys go and for the midfield we didn’t replace him, We suffered from it. It should have been signing 2-3 big players that are guaranteed to start and improve the quality but we didn’t. This summer I fully expect to let go of some players and improve the starting 11. A midfielder, a right winger, and a striker of top quality is needed.
Not to speak on his/her behalf but I think the point is that the sky is not falling like many of the commenters on here make it seem. The season should be deemed a successful season regardless of the highs and lows. Very few teams historically have had perfect seasons so the occasional struggle is normal. It is just surprising that such a strong fanbase has so many individuals who overreact so easily. It is bizzare that a win against a major rival to clinch a berth in the Champions League next season has sparked such criticism against specific players, managers or owners. It seems support for the club is quite fickle these days from some corners of this fanbase.
I’m not an optimist. I’m a realist.
I take what actually happened and put it into context. Unfortunately many people on here think their fantasies are real.
They talk about wanting to see players who don’t play for us so we can win some imaginary titles.
That’s not realism. That’s fantasy. And far too many modern fans exist in that fantasy and as a result talk down the realities of the club they’re supposed to support.
The Scudetto wasn’t luck. It was the culmination of a sustained period of nearly 2 years where we had title winning form. That gets ignored by the fantasist.
The difference between success and failure comes down to margins. Had any of our new signings clicked in the same way as the Napoli new signings it could’ve been an even more successful season.
Had we not conceded late against Roma we could’ve continued our title winning form from the previous 2 years.
Who knows?
It’s impossible to tell which his why the certainty from the fantasists is so misguided.
I have views about how the team could be improved. It differs from most including it seems even the directors and coach.
I think we need 1-2 truly world class signings: a CM and Attacker.
I think we need to get the squad down to a manageable size of 23 with a core of 16-17.
I think the big mistake this year was Pioli rotating 7-8 players at once an expecting miracles.
It’s often not individual players but how they’re managed that makes the key difference. It’s why the same players perform differently for different managers. Pioli generally gets most of the players to play to something like their potential as evidenced by the past 3 years but that is really going to be key to our future success.
Not even Messi was able to produce the same form for PSG so there’s no guarantees. But the key characteristic of successful sides, including successful Milan sides of the past, are not the number of “world class” players but the stability.
Ambrosini was joy world class. But playing for the club as long as he did made him world class.
Same with Rossi. Same with Galli. Same with Tassotti. Same with, dare I say it, a 40 year old Costacurta who played LB in the 05/06 season.
That’s reality. Not fantasy.
Exactly right!!
I predict Milan will change many players this summer.
Yeah because Juve cheated which effects alot more than just Milan. Also, if Juve loses against Udinese and we beat Verona, we will end up with 11 points more than Juve sooo…
@Maldinis heir. Totally agree with you. Like I said in my comment, I’ll take UCL semis and top 4 every year each year..I really can’t comprehend what these fans really want esp after years and years an years of mediocrity
What fans want is to keep improving the team year on year. Simples
Yes… getting Maldini fired is getting really difficult for these ‘fans’ lol
Congarts to the team and our fans. Sloppy game but we made it. Major overhaul needed in order to compete next season. Central midfielder, am with another back up, rw, and a cf. Thiaw is monster, the only good thing that came out of last summer’s window. Hopefully maldini brings reinforcement this window. One can argue that we got lucky again with the whole juve fiasco.
Well first off, Calabria deserved a higher rating. If Giroud has the game winning goal, then Calabria has the game winning assist which was spectacular with pin point accuracy. Timori alos deserved higher as he made crucial headers as the game went along as that’s not usually in his forte. After all everyone was playing badly at the beginning but him and Thiaw had fantastic games given the quality of the opposition. Krunic was a beast until he started overplaying it but still was superb..he knew when to tackle and take a yellow as well and his passes were sublime. Diaz and Messias were trash. I don’t see why we should be paying 22m for Diaz, it’s not worth it.
Also, I noticed Pioli wanted to throw the game by bringing on the game-forfeiting squad namely Fode, Origi, Slowbega and recently Kalulu lol 😂. Only one missing was CDK that would have gurantee a draw or even a loss. But truth be told, it was effective packing the midfield like that for the last few minutes.
I wanna know where are all the haters….UCL semis and top 4 once again. I’d take this every year.
Right here. It was a good year overall. CL semis was amazing but the second half of the season was inexcusable. Piolis tactical work, starting lineups and subs are all bad. He has been using players incorrectly for a long time and doesn’t change a thing. He’s a good coach but not a great one. I respect what he’s done here but he’s not the one for the big moments. He gets outcoached and outsmarted in big games a lot. Still I wouldn’t get rid of him unless we were going to replace him with a top coach.
Also, the points penalty was lucky and even with CL semis, missing top 4 would have set us back financially a ton.
Lol you dont even sound like a convinced hater 😂😂😂. Seems like u have doubts that a Pioli replacement might not even do a good job. I think the issue for now for me at least is the quality of the squad. If he actually had a better quality squad I’d say he needed to do better and we should get a different coach. But look at what’s he’s working with. I can’t blame him for much
You know diaz would make a goal if giroud did quick pass to him instead of saladmaker. And he already knew pioli’s system albeit RM will bring him back as replacement to asensio
Kamada in
Diaz out
Nightmare is finally over.
Yea we qualified, but how many matches did we “enjoy” watching ?
I’d vote for change of manager, but who’s the alternative ? Maybe Spaletti?
My ideal (not too crazy! ) signings are Assensio, Sccamaca and RLC (and maybe Richarlisson) … should be manageable with our budget , and considering none of them play in UCL (except Assensio)
Outs: Origi, messias, rebic, Traore plus any other loanees)
I’d really like to see Adli playing a bit more
LOL, I enjoyed the matches against Tottenham, all the matches vs Napoli who we smoked, the double over Juve which we only do once every 25 years or so. Salzburg, Udinese, Zagreb, Empoli, Samp, even the game against Roma as we dominated them but didn’t get the result. I’m not as miserable I guess, I do enjoy seeing the team play🤷♂️
Just how many of you have seen kamada play? Everybody keeps shouting #Diazout, how attempts did leao do I’m this match as compared to Diaz, by of course he can be excused and not criticized, apart from giroud’ header, what exactly were his contribution, @ 6ft4, he gets pushed off easily nor does he won any kick out from maignian, krunic has always been blamed for back passing to the keeper, today, he beat Juve players and wanted to play with confidence and lost it and he’s to be killed? He didn’t lose as much as leao today, and krunic plus tomori, blocked so many shots from Chiesa and gang, Pioli has not shown that he trains players to their strength and perfection, hence we scored 2 goals from corner kicks ( having the cross from the 2nd player, who picks the pass from the person at corner) yet we don’t play it like that, rather cross stupidly and having opponents nod our corner kicks away, some are so poorly kicked, tonali and bennacer guilty of those, we don’t earn penalties cos the coach has not instructed leao and Diaz to dribble and get tripped in the box, nor does he play Adli( our best dribbler), we struggle in midfield cos we have many players who would boss the area only if we played a 3 man midfield (tonali, bakayoko, Adli, vrancks, bennacer, pobega, even Diaz and messias), he brings in CDK and he naturally moves to the right and the coach didn’t notice the player is more comfortable at that wing than in the centre, leaving a hole and pressurising our 2 CDM, thiaw as played as mf before and can be played as CDM, also kalulu, most of our technical play is faulted, Sampdoria is a defensive team too, why did we beat them 5 nil and drawing to others? Simple, all our gameplay has been dependable on the disposition of the players, once they are happy and in the mood, they play well, but sadly, it shouldn’t be so, so many depts need serious attention – the medical team, the psychologist, the physio, sporting directors, coaches and owners, the only dept that didn’t fail this year are the fans that go to the stadium, they stayed fully and I am proud of their support and perseverance. Overall, it was a good season, if we are to consider our qualification for CL & semis at CL,also our books are okay. But Pioli needs to change his approach and over dependant on certain players, also need to infuse new players into the team and not playing about 7 strange fellows together once on a while and expect them to do wonders