Bologna 2, Milan 3: Precarious Win, Strong Victory

This match brought a much needed three points to a team that has worked hard to be deserving of a little more than their spot on the table shows. The players showed a confidence and level of teamwork that is growing quickly now that there is some stability. Both strengths and weaknesses were exposed, both risking and helping to secure the win. And we saw some good football, too. So it was a precarious win, but also a strong victory.

Exactly what Milan have needed

Bologna came out fighting, with a couple of weak shots in the first few minutes. But the game changed in the 13th minute when Piatek was taken down in the box by Bani. Chiffi gave Milan the penalty, and Piatek took it and converted it like an assassin. Pum Pum Pum. 1-0 Milan. Chiffi did give a yellow to Bennacer for a moderate foul on Dzemaili, but a minute later did not give a yellow to Schouten for dangerous play when his boot met Kessie’s face.

It didn’t matter, though, Milan were gathering strength and momentum, and so in the 32nd minute, Theo Hernandez scored a fantastic goal, outclassing the defender and surprising Skorupski after a brilliant assist by Suso. 2-0 Milan. A few minutes later, Bonaventura just destroyed a couple of Bologna players who attempted to mark him ahead of taking a shot that was saved. If Galliani were still at Milan, he would say that Bonaventura returning from injury was like a new signing. Milan fans would say he’s the signing of the season.

Plus one, minus two

Theo Hernandez had never played for Mihajlovic, but I feel like he must have a big heart or something, because after scoring the goal, he also scored an own goal for Bologna from a corner. Either that, or he had something against Danswil and decided to steal his goal from him, I’m not sure. Either way, it was 2-1 Milan at the half.

Bonaventura took advantage of some great play by Milan and a defensive error to score a brilliant goal just after the half to make it 3-1 Milan. However, Milan’s intensity did slowly drop after that, making the win more precarious. Both teams traded shots, Milan only totaling twelve shots to Bologna’s eleven. Milan were more clinical, however, with seven shots on target. That might have been their most clinical match this season.

Great performance, solid penalty

The win was completely put into question in the 81st, when Theo Hernandez, being generous again, took Orsolini down in the box. Chiffi was not going to give the penalty, but after a VAR review, he did. Sansone stepped up and put it past Gigio to make it 3-2 Milan.

This is the difficulty that we have at the left back spot. Theo Hernandez is absolutely brilliant offensively, he’s been the standout of the season to date. However, he is admittedly not as good on defense. This match laid bare that fact, as he made two very costly defensive errors to concede not one, but two goals. Sure, you can try to score more goals than you concede, but that never works out. This will be something he will have to work hard to improve on, or we may see Rodriguez more. He is perhaps half the speed and not as good offensively, but is much better defensively than Hernandez. Luckily, Hernandez is young and will likely do well to develop the defensive part of his game sooner rather than later.

Respect

Overall, though, this match was very good for the soul. We got to see some really nice football, three goals, and a team that are really knit together and more confident with every game. This is exactly what I had hoped to see when we first saw Pioli take over, and is hopefully just the beginning of what we should see this season. We have some really talented players, they are unified, and there is a lot more clarity from the manager on what they should be doing. Pioli’s calm and experience has stabilized the team, and that showed with the strong victory, even if it was a bit of a precarious win.

This post inspired by the music of Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”

Our next match is

Serie A Week 16

Milan vs. Sassuolo

Sunday, December 15 • 15:00 CET (9am EST)