Watching football should not be so exasperatingly exhausting. Particularly when we pull up with world class players like Luka Modrić, Adrien Rabiot, Mike Maignan, and Rafa Leão to play a team that is a mere formality away from relegation. Everyone talks about how Milan needs a new striker, but Allegri leaves his actual strikers on the bench, instead, severely hindering his top wingers. Like seriously, he is the only person in the universe who thinks Leão should play center forward. And even with the 1-0 win over Verona, it felt like we had survived a massive natural disaster instead of just watching a football match. And that's not even taking into account the racist abuse from Verona fans, which, of course, went unreported and unpunished. Because the only thing worse than being racially abused in front of 21,000 fans is for the powers that be to dismiss it entirely and for no justice to be served. Honestly, I'm just tired of the torture.
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I have mentioned this before, but Allegri's addiction to corto muso football is basically a gambling addiction. I don't understand how someone could be addicted to watching such dreadful football and living every 90 minute match on the edge of their seat with a €50 million+ Champions League spot on the line, but for those who truly understand addiction, they know that the the bigger the risk, the bigger the high. Only I'm only obsessed with Milan, not addicted, and I did not choose for my team to play this dreadful, outdated, anti-football. Not the first time, and certainly not this time.
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| Whatever I did in a past life to deserve this, I know I didn't do it twice. |
But here we are. Again. And this match was sheer torture. Verona's defenders henchmen were at it from the beginning. In just the 13th minute Rabiot was fouled hard by Edmundsson just outside of the box, like just barely. Such a minute difference between a free kick and a penalty. But the worst of it was that Rabiot's shoulder took the worst of the collision and subsequent fall, which was incredibly worrying.
Five minutes later, Nelsson fouled Leão, whose trailing foot and boot injured Oyegoke's leg as they all went down, and the latter was injured badly enough that he had to be subbed off. Meanwhile, the Verona goalkeeper, Montipò, was being called into action, but not intensely so. In the entire match, Milan were credited with only six shots in all with only three on target. Verona took 13 shots, albeit with only two on target. And when you think about arguably Milan's worst match of the season, the 3-0 loss to Udinese the previous week, even then, Milan took twelve shots with six on target.
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| Where have all the goals gone? Or even all the shots? |
To be fair, though, as dreadful as these matches are, there are still gems within the torture to be grateful for, if you watch for them. One I noticed was probably around the 30th minute or so, Modrić put a perfectly weighted long pass forward for Athekame. And while nothing came of it, if you know how difficult that is to achieve, you can appreciate the beauty of such a pass, and also be grateful that we have a player like Modrić, even if Allegri has done his best to ruin football for us all.
After a warning shot from Rabiot that Montipò had to save, Fofana clumsily fouled Nelsson in the 33rd minute, and, since he was not really calling much of anything, Chiffi did not card Fofana, either. Which is huge, since Fofana would have been suspended for the next match. But the laissez-faire style of refereeing definitely benefitted Verona more, like when Pavlović was elbowed in the face in the 36th with no call.
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| Leão linking up with a marauding Frenchman is what we have been missing. |
However, five minutes later, Milan finally broke through with a great give-and-go play between Rabiot and Leão, with Rabiot eventually slamming it past Montipó to make it 1-0 Milan. Which also demonstrated, yet again, that Leão is most effective on the left, and added to his tally of assists this season. Just before the halftime whistle blew, Maignan was challenged, though, with not just one but two Verona players having made it past Milan's defense. However, he made a great save on Gift Orban, and all was right in the world.
Unfortunately, the second half was slightly delayed. When I saw Maignan talking to Chiffi and gesturing into the stands, I knew exactly what was going on, but I waited for the confirmation in hopes that I was wrong. I wasn't.
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| Racism is wrong, but the authorities dismissing it is even worse. |
Maignan was pointing out some racist chants from the Hellas Verona fans. Not a surprise to anyone who has followed Italian football, but sad nonetheless. And even though the match eventually resumed, ten minutes later, there was an announcement in the stadium asking fans to stop racist chants directed at Maignan. It was also reported that they chanted against Leão later, calling him a "figlio di putt**a."
That these were reported as not "particularly serious situations" by both the referee and the representative from the FIGC prosecutor's office tells you all you need to know. It's bad enough to be publicly discriminated like that, but when that racism is completely dismissed, then it is like also dismissing you, too. Disgusting. And keep in mind that Milan were fined €8,000 last month when some of our fans chanted against a couple of Inter players, calling them "uomo di me**a." And, while I don't condone that behavior, either, it wasn't because of the color of their skin, something they could not change. It was about the team they chose to play for, something they absolutely could change.
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| Pulisic's season has turned completely upside down under Allegri. |
Back to the brutal match... Bartesaghi was fouled, no card. Akpa Akpro fouled Pulisic and Leão within a matter of minutes, both of which could be cards, and he was the only one who had been carded in the first half, so really should have been sent off. But this was the way Chiffi was calling this match, so he was lucky.
With the match going absolutely nowhere, Allegri made a triple substitution: Saelemaekers replaced Athekame, Santi Gimenez replaced Leão, and Ricci replaced Fofana. The press tried to make a big deal of Leão questioning why he was subbed, but I had my questions, too. His manager is obsessed with playing him out of position; he has been constantly injured all season, which he never has been before, and seems to be directely related to the first point; and he not only got the assist, but was playing well. So why the sub? The only answer could be the risk of the yellow card situation, which is likely also the case for Fofana.
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| Saelemaekers' strengths have been buried by Allegri's tactics. |
Tomori had a nice block on Belghali in the 68th, but then took a knock and was down injured a few minutes later, that was worrying. Then, in the 74th, Gabbia scored a great header from a nice cross from Saelemaekers. But the offside flag went up, it was whistled and called back, which was confirmed by VAR. In a decision that was slightly confusing, Santi Gimenez's leg was apparently offside, apparently when Modrić's free kick was made, according to the graphic we were shown, even though he headed it backward from there, but whatever. No goal, it was still 1-0. It feels more and more as if the referees are tasked with finding an excuse to chalk off Milan goals rather than award them.
Which made the next nearly 20 minutes completely dreadful. Verona had already had a few dangerous shots, but now they pinned Milan back almost completely. That made Nkunku's substitution on for Pulisic in the 79th virtually worthless. We saw Gabbia defending Orban in an epic manner, putting his body on the line, then Tomori made a nice tackle in the 87th. Modrić made a nice block in the 89th minute as well.
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| Gabbia is relieved, but the rest of us are just exhausted. |
And, of course, Nelsson was still at it, he shoved Ricci in the back, off the ball, with no punishment, obviously. Saelemaekers had a great shot in the 90th minute, but Verona made a goal line clearance. And Al Musrati had the last dangerous attempt, but it went just wide. At the final whistle, Milan had won, but it truly felt more like we had merely survived a horrific disaster.
Our fans from the Lombardy region were banned from attending for no apparent reason, the Verona fans were allowed to attend and racially abused our players with no consequence, and Gift Orban actually got into a physical fight with one of his own fans after the match, too. Thanks to MOTM Rabiot, we took all three points. But Milan fans were tormented with Allegri's horrific football, lack of strikers, forcing Leão to play out of position still, had a goal oddly called off, and barely survived to tell about it all. It's simply exhausting, I'm just tired of the torture.
Milan Primavera With the 1-1 Draw Away to Sassuolo
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| Domniței celebrates his fifth goal of the season for the Primavera. |
Renna's Primavera have gone five matches undefeated now, however, with four of five of those matches being draws, they have slipped to 14th place on the table, tied with Lazio Primavera on points. For a 1-1 draw with Sassuolo away, it was a match with plenty of chances, but lacking all three points.
Domniței scored his fifth goal of the season for the Primavera in just the 34th minute to put Milan up 1-0. However, Sassuolo came back with a goal of their own from Kulla to equalize in the 42nd minute, 1-1 all. There were a number of great chances created, with Plazzotta's chance going just wide late in the match, but the Primavera had to settle once again for just a point. Brief highlights of the match are available. They will host 18th place Cagliari Primavera next week.
Milan Futuro Lose 1-0 to Varesina
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| Oddo definitely has regrets. (But it's all about development, right?) |
After showing such a great unbeaten run recently, Oddo's team have now suffered two losses in their last three matches. This 1-0 loss to relegation-threatened Varesina at home seemed painful, particularly in light of the fact that Milan Futuro created the most chances and seemed to dominate most of the match. Also, because Futuro were hoping to clinch a playoff spot with this match, but now have two matches left to do so. (Personally, I think it's the yellow third kits, which were unnecessary, but that's just me.)
There were multiple great chances throughout the match for Futuro, including one late in the match from Domniței, who played the final 15 minutes after having scored for the Primavera the day before. Torriani made a big save early in the second half, and actually got his fingers on the ball when Varesina's Baud scored in the 77th minute, but was unable to quite save it. Highlights of the match are available. Futuro are a way to 13th place Castaellanzese for their penultimate match of the season, hoping for a big win and other results to go their way to grab that playoff spot.
Reviewed by Elaine
on
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