The AC Milan fans who attended San Siro for the Coppa Italia game against Roma hoped to see the debuts of Santiago Gimenez and Joao Felix, and they were not disappointed.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recalls, the first treat of the evening came from the PA announcer ‘Gegio’, who called out the names of the winter additions even if they were not among the starters. First Gimenez, then Joao, and the crowd went wild.
Gimenez and Felix were welcomed like this for their baptism at San Siro, but in the end it would have all been in vain if it hadn’t ended the way it did. The Mexican and the Portuguese ended up coming off the bench and providing something very encouraging, thankfully.
Fever pitch
One figure, meanwhile, already made it clear how the atmosphere was: 12,000 tickets were sold from Monday (transfer deadline day) to the day of the game, or an average of 4,000 per day.
It is the mercato effect, with the five signings having restored enthusiasm and even having the power to stop the recurring protest. The fans would have liked to see them from the start, but a bit of caution was needed.
It is partly for tactical reasons – especially against of a Roma side that have been much better under Claudio Ranieri – and partly because Gimenez was coming off a muscular issue and Joao Felix has a limited amount of minutes in his legs.
They made their entrance with half an hour remaining with the game at 2-1, not too long after Dovbyk had halved the deficit. In short the game was in the balance still, so it wasn’t just a good catwalk to introduce them.
The perfect entrance
It took just one minute to see San Siro rise up while Gimenez quickly escaped Hummels and then didn’t quite win the foot race with Ndicka to get fully through on goal. It took just four minutes to admire the Mexican’s assist for the almost namesake Jimenez, before the flag went up.
Joao Felix – theoretically destined for the position behind Gimenez – moved a bit everywhere, with methods that have been seen very little in this year’s Milan. His first touches, quick link-up play and excellent technique are something that has been lacking.
The ‘forbidden dream’ came true in just 12 minutes, when Gimenez tried again for an assist by putting a team-mate through, this time for Joao Felix and this time onside. The Portuguese applied the finish brilliantly, beating Svilar with a lob.
In the pre-match interview, technical director Geoffrey Moncada made the fans dream a little more over Felix: “Permanent deal? It depends on us, on him. There’s always a possibility. We have a really good relationship with Chelsea, we’ll see in the summer”. In the meantime, Milan can enjoy him now.
Was a great window but let’s wait more than one coppa italia victory… remember Fonseca beat Inter in the first Derby and was sacked a few weeks later.
Signings are promising, especially hopeful Gimenez will finally solve our no.9 (no.7 like Sheva lol) issues.
Joao Felix is an enigma. He has never established himself at any club. Finding the right role for him in modern football is very difficult
We have not fixed anything. The defensive phase in the first half was really bad, Roma created at least 4 big chances. No aggression, passive. If we defend like this there is no hope to get to top 4.
…and so because the defensive phase “in the first half” was bad, “we have not fixed anything “…
stop being so negative we played pretty good
Indeed, people keep complaining.
This was the first in long time I really enjoyed a Milan match and ofcourse not everything was good, but their is a sort of new spirit with the new signings that’s really enjoyable.
Feyenoord+ Milan? That’s insane. So what happens when we play them next ? Haha 😂
Lol, take it easy.
We need to build up some confidence first.
If we can play with higher tempo against teams that normally shouldn’t be better and also have better pressing I think Felix will help us unlock those tight Serie A defences.
If Bondo is anything like Kessie then he would be perfect if he was on the CL list. Musah has great physique and is quick but he isn’t a Kessie type of player and Fofana is not good enough to take the defensive responsibility on his own.
We need someone who can protect the back line.
couldnt agree more. I like Musah, i really do, i see potential in the kid, he’s 21. I will say it a million times, he just isnt (and wasnt) ready for a full time gig in a role so important. If Bondo can do the defensive end consistently, our defense should improve a lot. Musah was supposed to be behind Fofana, RLC, Bennacer, Tiji and the DM we never got. If you think about it that way, he should’ve been the guy playing against the venezias, the monzas and the comos of serie a; learning the craft from “established” players like fofana, Bennacer etc. He wasnt supposed to be a CL player right now. The fact that Musah has played so much says more about management than the kid himself.
Good game. Attack has improved so much, defense was greatly exposed. The midfield is still not doing the defensive work well. Also, this style of sending the ball to the goalie allowed a Roma team that showed signs of fear at the start, to come back into the game. We take too many risks with these constant back passes to Mike. I hope Conceicao will change this playing style. Our midfielders can’t seem to make the right passes when they push forward. Musah, Fofana, and Jimenez, are culprits. There’s nothing wrong with getting 5,6,7 goals in a game. We don’t always have to allow our opponents to equalize before pressing forward for more goals.
While I agree that we do pass back to Mike a lot, he doesn’t seem bothered with it and actually seems to like starting attacks.
It may give opposing teams more confidence, but it also opens up midfield, and if we are a bit more dynamic and forward-moving there then continuing to involve Mike is a good strategy.