Following a seven-game winning run, AC Milan headed into the Europa League clash against Roma with a lot of confidence. However, this didn’t quite show on the pitch and below are five things we learned about the game.
Given the form ahead of the game, plus the home advantage, the Rossoneri fans were filled with hope. However, the night didn’t exactly go Milan’s way with Gianluca Mancini opening the scoring just 17 minutes into the game.
The Rossoneri had plenty of time to react, but looked toothless following Roma’s opener and offered very little going forward. In the second half, it didn’t look like Pioli managed to turn things around with the game pretty much continuing in the same fashion: Roma defending deep and Milan struggling to create.
When the chances did come towards the end, Milan struggled to convert with Olivier Giroud hitting the crossbar when he really should have equalised. Here are five things we observed during the game.
1. Unusually toothless
Although Milan have struggled quite a bit defensively this season, their attacking department has fired on all cylinders most of the time. Unfortunately, that didn’t seem to be the case against Roma with Daniele De Rossi finding a way to neutralise the Rossoneri completely.
All of the attacking players struggling in the final third and it didn’t help that Ismael Bennacer and Tijjani Reijnders also struggled to provide key passes. Theo Hernandez looked unrecognisablke when coging forward and this made things difficult for Milan.
Indeed, a reaction will be needed in the reverse fixture, otherwise the Rossoneri will confirm the lack of a troph this season already in mid-April.
2. A ghost on the flank
One of the biggest disappointment of the game was certainly the performance of Rafael Leao. The Portuguese winger has had a very mixed season but at least he managed to find some continuity in recent months. It’s not exactly strange that Pioli was hoping for a strong display on the big night, therefore.
That wasn’t the case, however, with Leao struggling to complete a successful dribble or a shot on target. The winger was arguably the worst player for the Rossoneri (excluding Giroud) and will have to put in a lot of work in the reverse fixture to help his team turn things around.
3. Gabbia and Calabria put in the effort at the back
We did see some positives during the game, mostly at the back. Two of these positive performances were courtesy of Davide Calabria and Matteo Gabbia.
Indeed, the centre-back positive game despite the tough task of keeping Romelu Lukaku at bay. The centre-back won a lot of the duels against the Belgian and when he didn’t, he recovered just enough to prevent anything dangerous in front of Mike Maignan. A really solid performance by Gabbia, who has been impressive since returning from loan.
The captain, meanwhile, started off a bit slow but grew into the game and showcased high work rates in both phases of the game, exploiting the empty space and going into the middle in an attempt to make something happen. That ultimately did not materialise in a goal, but Calabria’s performance was a good one indeed.
4. Horrendous performance by Giroud
Returning to the poor displays, Giroud certainly beat Leao in that contest. The Frenchman did next to nothing throughout the game, with Chris Smalling getting the better of him for most of their duel, whilst failing to have any impact when he got on the ball.
The biggest let-down was towards the end of the game when the striker missed a sitter just a meter from the goal line, hitting the crossbar instead of bringing his team level. A really horrendous miss that you wouldn’t expect from a striker at this stage in an European tournament. Not to mention the striker being Giroud.
The fact of the matter is that it’s probably the Frenchman’s last season in Milan and the big games have proven why that is the case.
5. Pioli got it all wrong
We can criticise the players all we want, but it just seemed like Pioli got the tactics all wrong for this game. Daniele De Rossi did make a few changes that perhaps were a bit suprising, but Pioli still came unprepared to the game.
Samuel Chukwueze, who has been in really good form as of late, was left on the bench and it was evident how useful he could’ve been in the tight spaces if he had more time to work with. Yacine Adli was also left on the bench for too long, as he’s arguably the midfield with the best vision and passing range out of the bunch.
Not to mention that Hernandez and Leao were completely left out of the game. Although Roma did commit a lot of energy to neutralise them, Pioli should have had a reaction to open up space for his star duo or at least utilise the extra space elsewhere.
A really poor tactical performance by the coach, who will have to react in a week’s time.
