AC Milan missed the opportunity to leap above Juventus into second place in the table as they were beaten 4-2 by Monza at the U-Power Stadium last night.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write, the title is now virtually already in Inter’s hands as they are +9 over Juve, +11 over Milan and they have a game in hand.
It was said of Milan that they would reduce the distance only by acquiring the consistency of their rivals or by learning not to collapse as a group, yet against Monza they took further backwards steps.
It was a match that began with boredom and ended in a way that could be written in an adventure novel: 2-0 for Monza, a red card (after VAR check) to Jovic which seemed to close the game, back to 2-2 after Pioli made changes and then 4-2 for the hosts after two goals in added time.
Now it’s better to focus on Rennes so as not to squander the 3-0 from the first leg, finding the balance that was certainly missing after the six changes made from the midweek victory.
Pioli’s rotation has its justification given the amount of games coming thick and fast, but up to a certain point. The coach decided to field Okafor, Jovic and Chukwueze all at once which meant no Pulisic, Giroud or Leao from the start.
If we add that Thiaw has been absent for almost three months, and Adli really struggled to get up to the pace of the game, it is not difficult to explain the 2-0 deficit after the first half.
From there Jovic’s moment of madness appeared to put the game well beyond Milan, but then Giroud and Pulisic somehow clawed it back to potentially gain an unlikely point. From there, things unfolded and Milan left empty handed.
As with Juve, from today the objective becomes not to fall below fourth place. Then we will see the consequences of this defeat, starting from Thursday night.
whoever scouted Chukuwueze, should be fired immediately – a worse than average player
man, he’s good but as someone pointed out on a different article. He just came back from AFCON, even before that he (along with Okafor and Jovic) barely got minutes, let alone a start. It’s one thing to put one of them with the regulars, it’s another to put them together. how often have they played together? or start a game, let alone an AWAY game. it was a dissaster waiting to happen. This one is all on Pioli