AC Milan prevailed at the Stadio Bentegodi in a tough match against Hellas Verona as Sandro Tonali was the hero again.
The first 45 minutes were characterised by two errors at the back as Miguel Veloso put a Rafael Leao cross into his own-goal to give Milan the lead, but then Matteo Gabbia diverted a Koray Gunter shot past Ciprian Tatarusanu 10 minutes later to level it.
The winner came late in the game and in all honesty might have been quite harsh on Verona, but Tonali was again the decisive man just as he was in the same game last season as he kept his composure to score a late winner. Here is an analysis of the win…
Straight into our hands
In large part due to the fatigue that comes from a condensed schedule and injury problems, Milan carried out a very inconsistent press qualitatively. One time the press prevailed was before the first goal.
From a Verona throw-in the player who received the ball had no options to pass the ball, and he misplaced it to Olivier Giroud who was stood in the lane precisely how Stefano Pioli will instruct on the training ground.
The response
What Verona did do was to create simple overloads. Tameze and Veloso would push forward and Hrustic would sit back to guard against potential counter-attacks.
Once Verona had the ball in advantageous areas, Hrustic would push up and create a man advantage.
For Verona’s equalising goal Milan were guilty of committing too many numbers forward. Tonali was sucked into the opposition half by Veloso while Brahim Diaz, Adli, Giroud and Leao stayed upfield.
A poor pass from Tonali meant Verona could counter and the home side easily overloaded the lines, with Koray Gunter eventually receiving the ball as the extra man on the left flank and Matteo Gabbia diverting the ball into his own net.
The difference maker
In the end what proved to be decisive in the outcome of the match was a big error in decision making from two Verona players, starting with the centre-back Isak Hien. He came out of the three centre-back structure to follow Leao, but came very high up the field.
However, Milan moved the ball forward quickly buoyed by the fact they now had Leao and Rebic taking up crucial areas in transition. This is where the second issue comes in, as Tonali spotted the space vacated by Hien stepping out and knew he could outpace Veloso who failed to track him back quickly enough. He provided Rebic with the pass and the Italian midfielder was the match-winner again.
The data
We thank MarkStatsBot for the data provided which shows that Hellas Verona had an xG of 1.82 compared to Milan’s 1.62, had an expected threat higher (1.64 to 1.51) and a defensive line height of 45.7 to 36.9.
In deep completions Verona came out on top 17-7, and a key figure that shows Milan’s sporadic and ineffective press was the Passes Per Defensive Action with Verona coming out on top 11.6 to 10.2. The high turnovers forced was also 2-0 in favour of Verona.
Conclusion
It was not a vintage performance from Milan who struggled to ever get into their rhythm barring the opening 15 minutes when they could have put the game almost to bed had Giroud not missed a glorious opportunity.
However, moments like the winning goal are a reminder of the occasional passages of speed combined with quality that the team are able to put together against weaker sides.
Verona were clearly buoyed by having a new man in charge and were fighting to impress in his first game. On another night they could have got a deserved point or maybe more having hit that bar and seen two excellent blocks from Malick Thiaw deny them.
With seven games left between now and the World Cup break, the hope is that players can return to top condition from injury, bolster the depth and the quality of rotation available, and that the Scudetto defence can grow in momentum with some “easier” games on paper to come.
