AC Milan produced a dramatic late comeback against Udinese at the Stadio Friuli on Saturday night, with two substitutes making themselves heroes off the bench.
Milan took the lead in the first half through Ruben Loftus-Cheek’s nice first-time finish, though not long after the players left the field because Mike Maignan had been subjected to repeated racist abuse.
That break seemed to rock the Rossoneri as Udinese then came from behind, equalising through Lazar Samardzic before the break and then taking the lead through Florian Thauvin in the second half.
Luka Jovic came off the bench to head in an equaliser late on from the goal line, and then it was Noah Okafor who smashed home a flicked-on corner at the near post three minutes into added time to steal the points.
Stefano Pioli chose to name an unchanged line-up compared to the team that beat Roma last weekend, with Matteo Gabbia partnering Simon Kjaer at the back and Yacine Adli keeping his place in the deeper-lying midfield role.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek was the main protagonist during some feisty early exchanges between the two sides, with the English midfielder playing a slightly more advanced midfield role yet finding himself involved deep in both halves.
Those who are not fans of short corners might have suffered from a bit of high blood pressure when Milan’s first two set pieces were taken short and failed to produce any danger at all.
Milan created the first big chance of the game on 15 minutes when Rafael Leao had a dart inside off the left and played a lovely through ball to Olivier Giroud, whose effort from a fairly tight angle was saved by the chest of Okoye.
Giroud had another chance not long after when a gorgeous cross from Theo Hernandez found his compatriot’s run in behind, yet he stabbed a weak first-time effort into the goalkeeper’s hands.
Udinese had their moments in the opening half-hour, and Kjaer made a vital intervention to deny Lucca getting an easy tap-in after Ebosele had burst past Theo Hernandez and rolled a ball across the six-yard box.
Pioli and his staff were up in arms that Milan were not awarded a penalty when Christian Pulisic seemed to be flattened by the arm of Lucca when jumped to meet a clearance from a corner, yet VAR did not intervene.
The Rossoneri did get themselves ahead just after the half-hour mark, and it came through Loftus-Cheek. A similar move nearly yielded a goal not long before, and this time Leao’s feed for Theo Hernandez’s cut-back was met by the English midfielder who finished with a first-time sidefoot.
There were some sad scenes not long after the goal as Maignan walked over towards the tunnel clearly very angry and upset with some abuse he was getting from behind the goal. The players went off the field before coming back on after a few minutes with the goalkeeper clearly still furious.
Rather than those Udinese fans getting the misery they deserved, the home side instead levelled the game. A dribble from Samardzic floored Kjaer and he fired a low shot inside the bottom corner that left Maignan rooted.
Udinese nearly found themselves through on goal in the early stages of the second half but a quite simply brilliant challenge from Gabbia on Ebosele denied them. Had he mistimed it even slightly it could have been fatal, but it was a Baresi-esque intervention.
Milan’s first chance of the second half came just before an hour had been played when Pulisic stood up a cross from the left side that Giroud met well with his head yet Okoye made a rather comfortable save.
In the 62nd minute, Udinese’s comeback was complete and it was a very poor goal for Milan to concede. The substitute Thauvin somehow emerged with the ball after going between Reijnders and Theo Hernandez, then he fired in from a narrow angle when Maignan really should have done better.
A change came midway through the second half with Reijnders withdrawn in place of Noah Okafor, marking a clear shift towards playing with another striker.
Moments after Leao’s ball across the six-yard box was not converted, a double change was made as Luka Jovic and Alessandro Florenzi came on for Pulisic and Calabria.
Jovic’s impact was instant as he levelled the game inside the final 10 minutes, though in truth he could hardly miss. A Theo Hernandez pull-back from the byline fell to Giroud whose shot rattled the cross bar and bounced right on the line, where the Serbian was waiting in an onside position to nod home.
In the third minute of added time, Milan got the winner and it came from a corner kick. A delivery to the near post was flicked on by Giroud and the substitute Okafor was waiting at the far post to control and blast home, sparking jubilant scenes.
So. Is this proof enough we need to start Jovic more and possibly start Okafor now too? Leao… whatever happened to him. Maybe he needs to leave and go start his music career already.
I’m happy for the win, and this Udinese side is always trouble especially away.
I don’t know about STARTING Jovic but definitely giving him more minutes as he clearly deserves them.
Great comeback, FORZA MILAN!
Holy f!
This is probably one if not the most roller coaster match of this season for Milan.
We played well until Mike and Theo sleeping on Udinese goals. But Pioli made great subs with Okafor and Jovic which made the comeback!
Udinese also played well especially their GK.
We deserves this win!
Leao is just soo predictable when he has the ball, doesn’t bring anything to the team. He shouldnt start in my opinion, Okafor is doing better and has scored more, maybe it will shake Leao a little to improve his work ethics and his grinta that is nonexistent in Leao
The thing is whenever Leao got surrounded by 3 or 4 opposition player, we still couldn’t find space too move the ball around. This has happened so many times with other teams that we played too. I think different coach could help us solve this.
Okafor should get more minutes against Bologna and then be a starter against Frosinone. Let Leao find his form and motivation from the bench.
Too much goals conceded.
This team can score, but needs to play more solid defence .
Too bad Leao looks like he is not interested. But Pioli should bench him and put Pulisic on left with Musah on right.
Musah is not proven as a right winger, or right anything for that matter.
Okafor is a LW by default, sometimes he can play as an SS but LW is his natural position. Pulisic stays in RW because he is used to it now. We have Leao/Okafor for LW, Pulisic/Chuk for RW, and OG/Jovic for CF. Do not mix it up by putting players in weird positions like what Pioli did to Theo and Simic. If you need reinforcement then call up youth players who play in the positions you need, mis-positioning players will only do damage.
If we had lost this game, I would have excused Pioli, but again with the subs and the players trying hard, it’s a 101% effort. The way Udeniese defended, it’s easy to see why Leao was absent and I feel he is nursing a knock. Forza Milan
I don’t know how much I can criticize the team because of the racism that Maignan endured, I think it’s easy to say that this did influence our players mentally.
Anyhow, big win considering the circonstances.
Very happy for both Okafor and Jovic both of whom, have now more league goals than Leao !
Definitely a roller-coaster game. Great to see us actually complete the come back. Hasn’t been happening much lately.
I think the criticism of Leao’s performance is over the top. Not his best game but he was still involved in a lot of key moments. Including build up to some of the goals.
Udinese clearly had a plan to load up the defence on him.
Again service to him from midfield was often poor.
Pulisic had more time and space and did less with it tonight.
Two of the three goals came from plays initiated by Rafa, one needs to point this. Furthermore, it’s always good to see the depth of our squad, this is vital throughout a season.
Totally agree.
The other wing was not taking advantage of the space created by the Udinese defence loading up on the left side.
I don’t think musah should start on the right. Okafor or chuk.
Not enough offensive power with musah there.
Leao should take a seat for a game or two and come in as a sub.
What has happened to leao? He can’t do anything right and looks lazier than ever. Maybe it’s time to bench him for okafor until he smartens up because he’s just brutal.
Kudos to grandpa Giroud for delivering in crucial moments! Another decisive performance, even despite the fact that he didn’t do much for most of the game.
Yeah. One a good day he would have scored three but now “only” got two assists. If his name was Leao people would be saying how he’s carrying the team all by himself, lol. 🙂
Yes just don’t be to negative about Olivier Giroud last night ,,yes he didn’t score ,,but he was involved in all three goals ….so in my opinion he still gets a good rating,that said master class from pioli in the use of the substitutions as all did well when coming on ,none more so than okafor,,,he seemed to have a point to prove and looked extremely effective and indeed scored a goal ,as did jovic ..We don’t need another centre foward at the moment ,,,Giroud /jovic are both capable,,,indeed I think there are times when both can play together…Loftus cheek gets my man of the match .he won so many tackles and got forward on many occasions and indeed scored a fine goal ..
We have turned the corner now …
We have a very good squad of players and great coach
Let’s have no more nonsense spoke about him ..
The only way forward is to have confidence in our team ( I said team ) as it is team effort that brings results…..
I am looking forward to the next match against Bologna …They are a good side ,,,so of course we will have to be at our best .
We are AC Milan …..United together as a great fan and football club .
Just want to ask some of you fans how you think we should line up against Bologna .