The first leg of the Europa League quarter-final tie went to Roma, but AC Milan can feel a little hard done by given the decisions that went against them.
Of course the performance itself was flat and the failure to defend a set piece saw Gianluca Mancini net the only goal of the game, but there were two controversial decisions which ultimately decided the outcome.
Firstly, Romelu Lukaku looked offside in the build-up to what became the corner for the goal. Sky replays after the game drew lines that were inconclusive, but because there was no VAR review the evidence stops there.
Le immagini di SKY sul fuorigioco di Lukaku (dicono che secondo loro era in linea anche se non ne hanno la certezza) pic.twitter.com/jWRJSpnZJm
— M4rk (@M4rkPhilips) April 11, 2024
Then, the Rossoneri appealed for a penalty kick late in the second half when English striker Abraham appeared to touch the ball with his hand from a corner kick. VAR did take a look at that one and deemed it to be ok, but the images look pretty damning.
🧐 Should this have been a penalty for #ACMilan? pic.twitter.com/toVr8WLxh1
— SempreMilan (@SempreMilanCom) April 11, 2024
It is possible that the VAR chief believed Abraham was in the process of tucking his arm in, but at the point of contact between his arm and the ball it is certainly outstretched. After the game, Matteo Gabbia made it clear that he thought it should have been a spot kick.
It seemed to be a penalty.
The Roma goal also shows the limitations of VAR. I just wish they’d do away with it as it’s not exactly delivered much more accurate decisions and it’s broken up goals and exciting moments.
Right…but none of this matters to some peeps because we “should’ve done better.” No one’s arguing with that but if the ref is making the score 0-1 instead of 1-0 ON HIS OWN, I don’t get how Pioli is 100% to blame here.
Because the Milan fan base is terrible. Milan could win 20 straight matches and then finally lose one and they’ll all beg for the manager to be sacked.
I don’t know what to tell you other than watch the games and watch how we play. Beating mid-table clubs in a league that is at it’s all time low is great, but it’s not enough and not what we’re aspiring to.
All the praise and grattitude to Pioli for what he’s done so far. Best Milan coach since probably Carlo. And I’m with you that the hate and blaimg him for everything is way out of proportion (i’ve battled people blaming him for all sorts of ridiculous things myself)
But this is as far as he can take us and we need to recognize that.
And if we’d won 1-0 last night you’d be saying the same thing?
In the alternative reality Im a billionaire sailing my private yacht between my private islands, so i dont really care.
In this reallity we lost, and we played depressing football.
have you tried watching the games of the godly De Zerbi and Motta? they have similar shortcomings of Pioli, so why do people pretend like some sort of heaven exist if they take over?
If you expect Milan to win the league or the double/treble instantly if Milan hires one of them you are living in cuckoo land
There isnt a manager that can elevate Milan at this stage thats within the budget
Nothing happens instantly, so stop strawmanning. Im expecting fitght for league titles and being serious in UCL in the long run and with Pioli we are plateauing and he is very much stuck in his ways, so it doesn’t look like our play can improve under him.
I agree partially with you. Im not in the “sack him right now and hire whoever” camp. All im saying is that to move forward we need to upgrade.
Motta and DeZerbi are gambles. Whether you want to take it or not depends on your tolerance for risk. But i’m 100% sure none of them would make so many mistakes as Pioli yesterday.
Sarri is available and he has a clear style of play. Why not consider him.
De Zerbi literally got trounced 4-0 because he refuses to play conservative when the opponent has better players, Motta has same in several games
why are we ignoring that? Clearly people frustrated with ‘no in game tactics’ and then pine for managers that stick to their one gameplan no matter what
makes no sense
Seems like you should be talking to people who advocate for Motta and/or De Zerbi.
I’m talking about accountability. About Pioli’s horrible performance yesterday which deserves a lot of criticism. Huge glaring gaps between the lines (as usuall, but most teams in seriea are not good enough to punish that). Before the goal we had like 35% posession and we were still getting countered time and time again. I dont understand how the f*** is that even possible!
He plays Gabbia and Thiaw in a super aggresive line like they are Tomori and Kalulu, without any adjustments to consider their differnt characteristics.
He insisted on playing 1000 crosses into the box with Mancini and Smalling (both A+ aerial defenders). This is his only strategy aginst strong and semi-strong opposition. As a result of that he insisted on keeping RLC and Giroud on the field (both had a stinker), instead of opting for more technical and mobile options, who could have an upper hand against the physical Roma defence.
He could have played Adli from the start instead of off-form Bennacer. He was late to intorduce Chuck and Okafor. He removed Pulisic, instead of moving him to #10 even though the only space we were getting was outside the box, where Benny and Tij and Adli were getting long shot chances, which Pulisic is the best suited to take in our squad.
We coutered their 4-4-2 defensive shape with equally flat offensive line, and we had noone breaking the lines and looking for half spaces. Instead we forced the play to the wings where they had a lot of coverage. We never attempted to switch play even though they were sitting very narrow and chances for that were abundant.
But worst of all we are again puinished from a corner kick. We leave Mancini alone right at the center of the box. Mancini!!! We were terrible in mixed defence on corners for so long, so we finally switch to man-to-man marking, and we dont even know how to defend a single simple screen. Unacceptable.
Yeah it’s weird.
Agree 100%
I still can’t believe that wasn’t a penalty..
And yeah Lukaku looked offside too, what a sh*tshow
My feelings exactly. I was so sure it was a penalty as soon as I saw the replay. And just look at Gabbias reaction. He was 1 meter away. He had a front row seat to see tha handball. He totally stopped playing and rightfully so.
My initial feeling was also offside. I was just waiting for the ass. Ref to raise the flag. But somehow he didn’t call it…
And the fact that the refs are so arrogant that they would not even have a var review even after being told by both the players and the manager that it is clearly offside, with Pioli even getting a yellow, is absolutely terrible. Turpin and the linesman should never ref ever again.
Honestly Milan could have done better, if you can’t win, at least avoid losing, besides why is it that when everybody is having high expectation from Milan that they always fail. Look at how Arsenal and Madrid battled to secure a draw, why is Milan always different, I don’t really have anything more to say about Pioli for now, he’d better not lose the second leg, I see no reason why Roma should beat Milan in the return leg.
I hope he considers starting Puli and Chuk together like against Lecce.
This is just looking for excuses. Milan were poor and deserved to lose.
Lukaku was not offside as has been clearly demonstrated by sky sports and others, not to mention VAR.
It was not a penalty either.
People are looking for lucky breaks and decisions to go our way, that are not there, instead of admitting we were poor and deserved the result, if not worse.
Let’s hope they put in a proper shift next week, no excuses!
for you its excuses because you rather they lose so you can complain some more about Pioli Redbird etc
past few weeks was painful i know
You are living in a bubble sir.
I have enjoyed the recent improvement in form. Unfortunately this was our first big test and we failed bady.
Win lose or draw if we play well and work hard I’m happy. I cannot tolerate such a lack of effort, urgency or clear plan.
Pioli has the 2nd leg v Roma and the Derby left. If we do well and show that we are moving in the right direction, great keep Pioli, if we perform like last night, then I’m afraid enough is enough
I respectfully disagree.
1. VAR didn’t even take a look at the offside, because it didn’t happen in the build up to a goal. The action concluded in a corner, which ended that segment of play, and thus made that potential offside unreviewable. If, for example, Lukaku had gone on to cross the ball and that resulted in a goal, there would have been a VAR review.
2. The media doesn’t have the same access to the camera angles that VAR does. There is no way that Sky Sports can conclusively prove that Lukaku was onside.
3. How can it not be a penalty? Abraham his arm outstretched as he contorts to try to head the ball away. He misses the ball with his head, it hit his arm and it changes direction. Clear penalty. This is a clear example of the amount of “interpretation” that still goes into VAR reviews. I’m not even sure they really took a look at it, as I don’t recall play being stopped. But if they did, they interpreted it as ball to hand and because there were no Milan players immediately next to Abraham that it wasn’t a unlawful deviation. I disagree with it, as his arm was in an unnatural position and missing the ball with your head isn’t an excuse.
You are right about the VAR.
However you say the media cannot conclusively prove he was onside, well they don’t need to.
The attacker is presumed correct unless proven otherwise. I have seen the pics and he looks onside to me, anyway it’s just looking for an excuse as opposed to dealing with the real problems.
The media have the images we viewers saw.
Not a penalty. The commentators said decision was correct (ex pro footballer), I thought it was also and VAR deemed it no penalty. So again this is just looking for a desperate call as opposed to winning the match by playing football
We don’t need luck to beat Roma, we just need to turn up next week with the right attitude and some fresh ideas, we have more than enough talent to win. It is in our hands, not the lap of the gods
Don’t understand why journalists keep bringing up these stories; we have lost, and there’s no changing that. Both sides played well, Milan, better. The ref did well. No hard feelings. The second leg decides who goes through. We made it to the Europa league because we beat Newcastle on their ground. We can do it again.
I wouldn’t say the ref did well. He missed a couple. The handball and offsides are really VAR and the AR, but he gave Pulisic a yellow card, when Pulisic didn’t even attempt to tackle, and was probably 1 meter away from Shaarawy, when Shaarawy just loses his balance. It’s obviously not even a foul on anybody, and then he gives a yellow. Now we have one more player who may miss a game if he picks up another yellow and we do advance.