Last night’s 0-0 draw against Borussia Dortmund means that it is two Champions League matches and no goals for Stefano Pioli’s side, plus only two points.
This morning’s edition of Tuttosport (via MilanNews) writes how if you add the semi-finals against Inter last season, that’s four consecutive goalless matches in Europe’s top competition for the Rossoneri, which is a worry.
Rafael Leao admitted that the team squandered some big chances over both games of the group stages so far in his post-match comments.
“We dominated against Newcastle too. We created chances, but we didn’t score. In the Champions League you can’t miss these chances and if you don’t score, it’s a problem,” he said.
The problem with the Champions League is its unforgiving nature. If in the league there are 38 games for the law of averages to do work, in Europe there are six group matches to reach the knockout stage, and failing to get early wins can be fatal.
Although the performances were positive in terms of attitude, the two draws leave a very bitter taste in the mouth, especially if we consider the difficulty and unpredictable nature of the group.
After a crackling start to the season, Olivier Giroud suffered from the Champions League pace yesterday. The French striker never managed to get into the game and in the only two opportunities he had, which are often enough for him, he stumbled and missed the target.
It’s not just about the wasted scoring opportunities – which still had their weight – but also about the build-up play in general. Due to the injury issues it was a makeshift midfield of sorts, but there was no real link-up between those three players and the attacking trio, particularly Giroud.
Helping Giroud to be more incisive is an important, if not crucial, issue for Milan’s season. Leao was the real number one danger, maybe a little intermittently as is his usual way, but every time he surged on the left he caused problems.
Mr. Pioli should bring back the 4-2-3-1 system for the next games. That’s where Rafael Leão shone for the last few seasons as an inverted winger and Theo would overlap him during the offensive phase. I miss Scudetto winning Milan side so much.
Leao is shining this season as well. He is by far the best, what is missing is that the rest of the team isn’t converting the chances he created. 4 of them missed them yesterday.