AC Milan’s mission to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League were dealt a big blow as they lost 3-0 away from home against Paris Saint-Germain.
The home side got the opening goal in the first half as Kylian Mbappe produced a clinical finish that he had threatened to before that, and it was to get even worse in the second 45 minutes.
Randal Kolo Muani buried a rebound from a corner routine to make it 2-0, and Lee Kang-In added some gloss to the scoreline in the closing stages to make sure of the points.
Milan are now bottom of the group after Dortmund’s win against Newcastle United, with no wins and no goals scored in their three games and a minor miracle needed to progress.
Stefano Pioli made four changes from the side that lost to Juventus at the weekend is Mike Maignan, Theo Hernandez and Pierre Kalulu came into the rearguard while Rade Krunic resumed his place at the base of the midfield.
After receiving a red card a few days ago, Malick Thiaw went into the book inside five minutes for hauling his man down on the break. Less than three minutes later, Krunic joined him for a mistimed tackle which again thwarted a counter.
PSG were well on top in the opening minutes as they pressed high and gave Milan no time on the ball, but Pioli’s men settled a bit and won a couple of corners after a good spell, the second of which was played to the edge of the box in a routine and was fired wide by Leao.
The opening 20 minutes were played at a high intensity but with little quality as PSG struggled to get Mbappe on the ball, but he had their first shot on target from 20 yards which Maignan easily saved.
The Rossoneri had their first big flash of danger in the 26th minute when Leao went on a darting run in off the left, drifting past two men and curling a shot the evaded the crossing path of Giroud and just bounced wide of the far post.
In the 33rd minute, the threat that Mbappe had provided ended up resulting in the opening goal. Zaire-Emery fed the ball to the French winger whose quick feet were too fast for Tomori, allowing him to bury a shot inside the near post with his right foot from just inside the box.
The home side continued to look more likely to score and Thiaw was called on to make a crucial block after Mbappe fed Kolo Muani down the right side of the box.
Pioli decided to make a change at the break as Thiaw – who was on a yellow card – was withdrawn in favour of Davide Calabria, meaning Kalulu moved over to centre-back.
It looked like a nightmare start to the second half for Milan as PSG thought they doubled their lead. A tough challenge in midfield saw Musah lose possession, and a three-on-two break ended with Dembele curving a shot inside the far post past Maignan, however VAR picked up the foul and the goal was disallowed.
Things went from near-disaster to near-heaven for Milan when Maignan put Pulisic in behind with a superb long ball, yet the American tried to square for Giroud instead of shooting and the striker hit the side netting from a tight angle.
In the 53rd minute it was 2-0, and there was no doubting the legitimacy this time. A short corner routine seemed to take Milan by surprise and Dembele was allowed to fire a low shot that Maignan could only parry to Kolo Muani, who had an easy finish past Tomori on the line.
When Mbappe got the better of Calabria and got onto his right foot it looked like the game could be over before the hour, though he hit his shot straight at Maignan to let Milan off.
Milan managed to test Donnarumma for the first time when Pulisic was given space to run down the right wing and he took on a shot with his left foot that had plenty of power but was straight down the middle.
With the game slipping towards a comfortable home win, Pioli decided to bring on two more midfielders as Yacine Adli and Tommaso Pobega replaced Krunic and Musah.
Hakimi produced an excellent intervention to stop Leao’s shot putting Donnarumma in danger after he had been found by Pulisic and the ball deflected into the side netting.
When a corner swung in from the left side was met by a powerful header from Giroud at the far post but was saved by Donnarumma, it was clear that it wasn’t Milan’s night.
Maignan produced a simply brilliant fingertip stop to deny Mbappe his second and PSG’s save after another counter ended with him cutting inside again and firing towards the far corner.
With less than two minutes to go, the third goal was added to seal it by Lee Kang-In. A wonderful counter-attack ended with a cut-back that was dummied and the South Korean finished past a motionless Maignan.
Pioli is a heartbreaker
Leao is a lazy ass
Krunic is
Juve: lost
PSG: lost
Napoli: …
Just let this UCL go. Focus on the league. Maybe we can scrap something there.
Does this mean that Pioli is gone
This big team smash Pioli again
He ‘Pioli’ is out of his depth
Bring in Dezerbi now!
I said it and I’ll say it again. This is a do or die season for Pioli. Where he should proof his worth without the presence of Maldini and Ibra. Where he got ‘full’ control over the market.
Have you actually tracked DeZerbi’s progress? His team isn’t that stellar and often get beaten at home by a considerable margin. DeZerbi needs more experience. SO far he’s just a trendy name.
It was such a shameful game to watch.
It’s high time we call a spade a spade, Leao is not a top player. Too much pampering got into his head.
Pulisic could have brought us level and that could have turned the game around.
Too many tactical errors from Pioli I must say.
The players deserve a better coach that can develop their level into super starts. Can we stop with the inverted left backs. Leao was horrible. That second goal was an embarrassment 4 players standing in the box. Very questionable defending today. Serious question though, when was the last time Milan scored from a freekick or corner?
Expected. This team cant play against stronger teams since it dosent have any game plan. They can only beat smaler teams cause they have induvidual quality.
Adli is slow as turtle haha
But Pulisic ?!?!?!
What was with that chance ???
One on one against Dollaruma and he even not make a shoot ?!?!?!
They called him captian inconcistent in Chelsea. One good game than 5 bad games.
Yes but in serie a he should be fine hahaha
So we can see real difference now. Milan is in half way journey to become strong team. It takes us 300 million in revenue per year more than we have, and players more expensive to PSG.
Adli might be a slow turtle, but he is a far better option than Krunic, at least Adli is comfortable on the ball and is accurate with his progressive passing.
is #pioliout too soon /too late? 😅
wow, this “league farmers champion” bully us real good.
never understand the choice to play krunic whenever he is available at coach disposal.
I guess he shared his salary with pioli 😆
Leao is not at the level he is supposed to be. I think he’s overrated sometimes. Theo seems out of shape.
We need someone that can do passes in the midfield. Krunic is not this guy. When maignan is the most dangerous player with the passes AC Milan has a big problem
Pioli waits until 75th minute to do something. Come on man do something and stop being clueless
Not bad. Not bad at all. Except we lost. Krunic playing couldn’t save Milan. You know you’re poor when even krunic cant make it happen
Milan can’t go anywhere with Pioli still in. Sack Pioli now or else the club would be in banter once again.
Utter nonsense from milan.
Really tough to watch, that. Comprehensively outclassed in every area.
Our movement in the final third and our defensive transition are both so bad at the moment, and that’s a recipe for continued trouble.
Dortmund have kept the group alive tonight but man is it going to take a big shift for us to stay in the hunt.
AC Milan are the first Italian side to collect 5 games in a row without scoring in the UEFA Champions League history. Abstinence.
We came from a so called European DNA to this.
We keep braking records with Pioli lol.
Stop it Ibrahim. The owners told us we have a more European team 🤭
every time strong opponents face us, we see krunic. Then we see why our comment section that criticizes him are justified in their opinions, he is limited, useless and mediocre. should have sold him
Leao is a big problem this year. He doesn’t do anything excepted thinking he can do everything himself. He’s overrated.
Theo is not the Theo he was couple years ago and he seems out of shape
Pioli doesn’t know what to do and wait the 75th minute to do something. Come on man wake the fuck up
I feel Theo’s waiting to be sold in Janury or summer and doesn’t want to get injured. Definitely far from his best form.
Leao played a bad game as well …
The injury to Loftus-Cheek, Okafor and Chukwueze, in addition to no real backup for Theo has left us in a very bad shape.
I have some doubts that Pioli knows how to defend deep. We should have tried harder to not let PSG score in the first half.
Pioli is definitely not the manager to let Milan progress as he’s tactically very poor . Krunic shouldn’t be a regular as its clear to all he’s a big liability, yet the maanger sees differently. Why again is a 37 year old hardly mobile Giroud leading the Milan frontline, when a younger Okafor is left on the bench. Pioli is the reason for Milan’s heavy defeat, the signs have always been there
Okafor is injured. There’s a news that Jovic got injured to during warm up.
Okafor got into a car accident during international break according to some reports, so he is injured. And jovic, doesn’t really matter as he sucks. That’s another issue with our menagment. They transfer a deadwood like jovic and others in the past and don’t give our primavera boys a shot.
After our initial 2 yellow cards in the first 6 minutes I actualy thought we overall played better than them but after the 30-35 minutes and the goal it whent downhill, it could have been at least a better result had we known when to weld when the iron was hot.
In the end it shouldnt come as a surprice though as psg as a team has a double valuation than our team but i was still hoping for a good result or at least draw.
Gonna be difficult now but not completely impossible either,
It really is astounding to watch the same game plan over and over again. If it doesn’t work, just keep doing it in case it somehow works. Our guy has his moments but unfortunately, they are few and far between. He generally loses the ball or falls over (not sure he’s fully in control of his legs when he starts running). Theo is having a poor season – I think he’s still on vacation in his head – more is rightly expected of these two ‘leaders’ – the less said about our ‘defence’ the better – only Tomori was trying and he was woeful against the strong PSG attack… sticking by my prediction that Pioli will be gone by Christmas
Acmilan fans our problem is not leao is just Geroud I prefer Noah Okafor to start instead of Geroud now this line will help us for now
M.maignan
Calabria, kalulu,Kjaer, Hernandez
Krunic, rejnder
Chukwueze, pulisic/musah,leao
(Romero).
Okafor
Pobega for krunic then jovic for leao
If Pioli has four sight he should try this remember we have Napoli and Milan need to win that match
Don’t you read the news about Okafor?
Leao played a bad game, … someone should tell him to stop shooting from outside the box when we’re countering
We went all in on Leao, passing all balls to him and the result was mediocre.
The lack of another center forward is killing us.
Jovic injury during warmup (facepalm)
This team lacks the mentally of a top team. We play so well against smaller teams but when facing big teams we are always a foot behind. I don’t know if it’s the coach or the players, but it’s horrible to watch whenever we play a big team and they score before us. That’s just the end of that game. The players lose the intent, motivation to make a comeback and just at that point give up. Against Inter, Juve, and now PSG all follow the same pattern. There’s no drive to get back into the game. It’s so painful to watch, the only game this season we have made a comeback is the game against Cagliari and guess what that’s a small team.
I believe we have good players who can go all the way only if they put their minds to it and have a champions mentally. This is why I miss Ibrahimovic a lot.
I agree, there is this lack of desperation from the team to do whatever it takes to win, maybe partly due to the coaching mentality set by Pioli, but it is truly becoming a huge problem
Is this supposed to be the more ‘European Milan?
Seems Mister has run his race, so many years with one team happens in modern football unfortunately.
This was supposed to be the year we take a leap. But it seems we’re still operating at the same levels.
I’m not gonna rejoice at this loss, but I do think it’s time to respectfully part ways with Mister…
Forza Milan
Truth be told Mr. Pioli has offered the best he had and we appreciate that it’s high time we move on from him, also I think the ref was biased in his officiating he was a bit harsh on Milan players.
Yep – I’ve seen better refs at pub games – not CL level
Don’t change anything, tactics, late subs, leave 37 old Giroud to die on the pitch, leave Krunic the Son on for most of the game, Genius.
We’re out at the group stages, it’s time to reset, fire Piolo, get a good coach and spend the cash on real quality. Despite enormous amounts of luck going our way we have failed at every real test.
We should’ve done this immediately in Summer 22, thank Pioli and let him go, pursued Ancelotti, De Zerbi etc, held on to or gotten large sums for Kessie, Romagnoli, etc. And built the team up with worldclass players.
Listen, we all know Pioli’s limitations as a coach/tactician. He will make it through the summer most likely because our team is good enough domestically but definitely not in Europe and it shows. We were never gonna beat PSG and will likely not beat them at San Siro either.
If that’s good enough for management then that’s what will happen every year. But at some point management will need to evaluate Pioli and his limitations and upgrade. If not for sporting results, then for financial reasons and greater monetary returns.
The results reflect the investment AC Milan made on players and coaching staff. The current players can only provide so much which doesn’t take Milan to a higher level. The midfield is very weak and the forwards are offered very little to work with. Milan desperately needs a good playmaker. All this boils down to what the coach does with picking the right players that can deliver positive outcomes.
If you are a midfielder and cannot pass or spread the ball comfortable or link up with teammates on the pitch in 2023, you have no business being on the pitch playing as a midfielder, whether as a DM or CM. I am tired of seeing Krunic play ahead of Adli, Milan midfield looked better with Adli. Krunic must be permanently dropped for Adli, he helps our midfield In holding possession and in playing progressive passes.
The so-called superstar of Milan isn’t even an average player in the UCL – way below that. Wasn’t it supposed to be the superstars Mbappe against Leao yesterday? Like the commentators noted, the got similar balls to their feet but Mbappe showed why he’s world-class and Leao why he isn’t.
What is more concerning than relying on an average player is that Milan lacks team play. The attacks rely on the wingers doing their thing and the midfielders take zero part in the attacks. But then again, what do you expect from the trio Musah-Reijnders-Krunic in the last attacking quarter? Just look at what the PSG midfielders did in the goals. And look at Celtic’s first goal against Atletico. Maaan, when have we seen such defense-opening passes from Milan midfielders? Probably when Pirlo was still playing and who was that Celtic player – just someone no one’s ever even heard of.
The very first 5 minutes showed the enormous difference in quality last night. After 5 minutes I though we’d be lucky to lose only by 2 or 3 goals. We had zero hope of winning the match.
The only player who is world-class in this team is Maignan. CLEARLY, that’s not enough.
How on Earth Pulisic wasted THAT chance when the match was still open? And Milan showed their lack of quality also in the 5 against 2 attack where we didn’t even get a shot on target. Or shot at all! PSG would have scored from that kind of chance with 100% efficiency.
I held on a little longer until we have played matchday 3 of UCL to make the 10-game assessment of this season, bringing in context the signings (and Managerial changes) of last summer.
1. We brought in a lot of players who have individual quality, but need time to make their full contribution to the team. Injuries and indiscipline are not helping. Who was in charge of squad discipline the past few seasons, Ricky?
2. Pioli is still Pioli. I don’t understand what’s sometimes going on in his head. First team selection, substitutions, game management, motivation, tactical nous? He seems to lack a bit of everything when it comes to big games.
3. Cardinale was wrong to sack Paulo Maldini/Ricky Massara. It would have made sense if a manager/coach who had managed in PL (not Mourinho) had been appointed. Someone with experience in making player selections on the market, direct management of squads, coaching, game preps all at the same time. Right now, Pioli is exposed.
4. Champions League is played with a significant dose of Pedgree and History as key factors. In Maldini we had someone who would personify those factors, pass them to the young players with class and commanding awe! How do you lose such an asset over egos?
5. Prediction? We are not going to get out of the UCL group stages.
Forza Milan…