Just from watching last night’s game, many would deem AC Milan’s performance to have been average at best and the Italian papers agree.
Rafael Leao’s late goal was almost made to mean nothing, thanks to the last-minute penalty. However, fortunately, Stanciu missed and Milan added another point to their tally. Despite the events, though, it feels like two points dropped, rather than a point gained.
Read SempreMilan ad-free and get access to exclusive news. Click here for a free trial!
Naming a MOTM in our player ratings was difficult, with seven players each getting a rating of six, which tells you an awful lot about the game. However, this feeling was shared by the papers, with no particular standouts.
With that said, most agreed that Youssouf Fofana had the poorest performance of the night, an unavoidable fate, really. Corriere dello Sport and Tuttosport both gave him a 5/10, but Gazzetta gave him a 4.5.
Gazzetta dello Sport’s ratings
6.5: Pavlovic, Bartesaghi, Leao.
6: Maignan, Tomori, Loftus-Cheek, Fullkrug.
5.5: Saelemaekers, Modric, Rabiot, Pulisic, Athekame.
5: Gabbia.
4.5: Fofana.
Corriere dello Sport’s ratings
6: Maignan, Tomori, Athekame, Pavlovic, Modric, Pulisic, Leao.
5.5: Saelemaekers, Fullkrug, Loftus-Cheek, Rabiot.
5: Gabbia, Fofana, Bartesaghi.
Tuttosport’s ratings
6: Maignan, Tomori, Athekame, Modric, Pulisic, Leao, Loftus-Cheek.
5.5: Gabbia, Pavlovic, Saelemaekers, Fullkrug, Rabiot, Bartesaghi.
5: Fofana.
Gazzetta dello Sport was watching a different game yesterday
GdS are notoriously anti-Milan and *always* try to damage the team by stirring controversy up. I rarely pay any attention to what they say about Milan. They are a bunch of juventini and interisti. See how Athekami got praise from the other newspapers but was failed by GdS, despite having had an excellent participation in his limited minutes. He came in and was dangerous, focused, and helped the offense a lot. There is no reason whatsoever to fail him. GdS probably just wanted to mess with his head, because he is a young player. Also, well, unfortunately Bartesaghi could have cost us the game by naively committing a PK (although the PK was a bit controversial), so it is fair to fail him like the other newspapers did. I do not understand why or how GdS thought that he was one of the best players. Not sure if it was to protect him because he is Italian; that doesn’t make sense because they did fail Gabbia and he is also Italian. I do not understand the motivation behind scoring Bartesaghi higher than others. Otherwise, GdS is garbage anyway.
The Italian papers will always protect their own, Gabbia is as poor as Fofana.
Bartesaghi could have cost us as well, their rating was generous.