AC Milan’s worst nightmare came true as they crashed out of the Champions League in the play-off round, losing to Feyenoord over two legs.
After losing the first leg at De Kuip to an early Igor Paixao goal, Milan levelled the tie inside a minute at San Siro when Santiago Gimenez was on hand to finish from close range after Malick Thiaw’s header back across goal.
Everything fell apart for the Rossoneri when Theo Hernandez was shown a second yellow card for a dive inside the box, then Julian Carranza came off the bench to equalise on the night and send the Dutch side through.
Given that Milan also squandered the opportunity to directly qualify for the last 16 by losing the final league phase game to Dinamo Zagreb, it has been a nightmare three weeks in Europe. Below is Rohit Rajeev‘s tactical analysis from the game.
First half pressure
Milan’s first goal came from a set piece routine quite different from the usual ones under Sergio Conceicao so far, as explained below.
— Rohit Rajeev (follow @keralista) (@keralista_v2) February 20, 2025
Milan used man-oriented pressing and a high press to put Feyenoord in difficulty in their attempts to play out and even keep the ball in general. The aim was to create turnovers and spring quick transitions.
Feyenoord tried to play out of Milan’s press by forming passing diamonds and with quick one-touch passing combinations.
Pulisic often drifted inside and occupied a mezzala role. This was to create a midfield overload to try and outnumber Feyenoord’s three-man midfield and to stretch their defence.
The Rotterdam club then in turn would be forced to play more narrow, freeing up space down the flanks.
Milan also used a lot of transitions, going from defence to attack with lightning speed. Theo Hernandez and Leao were players at the forefront.
Despite all the efforts, Milan lacked the final pass or somebody in the right positions, to get the second goal and perhaps kill the tie early. Here we can Felix whipped a cross in but there was no player to tap it in.
The turning point
After the red card, Conceicao had to re-shuffle the pack. He went to a 4-4-1 formation with Joao Felix sitting back into the double pivot with Yunus Musah shuffling to left-back.
As expected, Feyenoord started to overload Milan’s left side and this meant that everyone – even including Leao – had to stay back. This helped Feyenoord pin Milan back in their own half.
As Feyenoord had a man advantage, Milan started getting outnumbered all over the pitch, but with the work rate of Felix – who isn’t a defensive midfielder – gaps opened up in the centre.
This is why Conceicao subbed off Santiago Gimenez and brought on Youssouf Fofana, to try clog up the middle and make things harder for the Dutch side.
Having reduced the space in the middle, the main problem was on the wings and it showed for the winning goal which came from a cross.
Musah had by now shifted to being a right midfielder, and a 2v1 opened up because Kyle Walker already had a man to mark.
This gave Hugo Bueno time and space to pick out a pinpoint cross without any interference, and Carranza scored having nestled between Strahinja Pavlovic and Davide Bartesaghi.
