Ahead of this match, Bournemouth were posting on social media about how they began wearing red and black stripes, inspired by AC Milan an their European success. About how over time the red and black stripes became "part of Bournemouth's identity." But the clubs share more than just that, and more than both being established in 1899. As I wrote briefly about in the match preview, the two clubs' successes also seem to be tied together with some strange kind of duality. Even Bournemouth's mayor was actually born in Milano and is a lifelong Milanista. And on Thursday evening, that power seemed to manifest in a 3-0 win for Bournemouth in the Europa League. One of their club's best nights ever was one of Milan's worst European nights ever. In fact, wearing their red and black home kits, an outsider might not even be able to tell which club was which. It was almost like an identity theft.
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| I don't even know who this team is anymore. |
Of course, anyone following Milan for any length of time could not be completely surprised by the catastrophic debacle that occurred at Vitality Stadium. The time of death of AC Milan's dignity was approximately 20:30 local time. It was a combination of poor decisions, bad Karma, intense weather conditions, and, of course, this odd intertwined fate of the two clubs. (It was also the worst birthday party ever thrown for Alphadjo Cisse, who turned 20 on Thursday.)
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| Worst birthday party ever. |
When Bournemouth were playing in the lower divisions for much of their history, Milan were largely successful and winning trophies for much of theirs. When Bournemouth were promoted to the Premier League in 2015, it was the same year that Milan's downfall began, the first of seven consecutive years they did not play in the Champions League.
And when Bournemouth went back down to the Championship? Milan were rebuilding under Elliott with Maldini over the Sporting sector, and won the Scudetto. That next season, when RedBird purchased the club and things started to go downhill, Bournemouth were once again promoted to the Premier League. And now, playing in their first ever European competition, they are undefeated in their first three matches, while Milan have only won one of three matches. It's uncanny, really.
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| Like father, like son. Only he's wearing the wrong red and black kit. |
Of course, Bournemouth went so far to emulate Milan as to play Dire Straits' "Money for Nothing" from 1985 with pyrotechnics set up on the actual field ahead of the match, which was more reminiscent of Berlusconi's Milan, who continued to use Van Halen's "Jump" from 1983 as Milan's goal celebration song through the time he sold the Club in 2017, I believe. But hey, those opening guitar riffs from Dire Straits do get a crowd pumped, and honestly, the songs Milan use in the stadium now are less than memorable. Plus, it worked.
In just the fourth minute, it was Estupiñan of all people who cleared Evanilson's dangerous cross. But a minute later, Bournemouth's Brazilian striker attempted a header, but De Winter was called for a handball on the play. The VAR review confirmed the handball, and a penalty was awarded to Bournemouth. To add salt to the wound, it was the former Milan star Patrick Kluivert's own son, Justin Kluivert, who stepped up to take the penalty, and converted it. 1-0 Bournemouth. Literally the only person on the field who had actual Milan DNA had opened the scoring against Milan.
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| The hand of De Winter did not stare Milan's night favorably. |
De Winter tried hard to make up for his error. In the 15th minute, Ryan Christie's shot was saved by Maignan, and the young Belgian cleared the danger. But the danger just kept coming. Evanilson took a shot in the 21st, but it was straight to Maignan. In the 27th minute, James Hill's shot was deflected and went just wide. And you could see Maignan getting frustrated, it almost seemed like he was playing 1 vs. 11. Which may or may not add context to what happened next.
In the 28th minute, referee Fotias showed Maignan a straight red card. And the Milan goalkeeper looked as incredulous as all of us fans likely did. The replays showed Tyler Adams repeatedly impeding him, and, while not looking, as the ball was about to swing in from a corner, Maignan shoved Adams away. Only his gloves met Adams' face. Adams, obviously, was on the ground. Whether or not he was actually in that much pain is debatable. He was clearly angling for the harshest punishment for Maignan, but Maignan is very strong and would not have been shoving him softly.
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| Which was worse? Maignan's contact with Adams' face? Or Adams' acting? |
But here is where there are questions. The VAR team spoke to Fotias as they reviewed the red card. The only reason they would have done that would have been to correct a clear and obvious error. Fotias had shown Maignan a red card for "violent conduct," and awarded a penalty. So, the VAR refs would have been reviewing those calls. The likely outcomes they would have been looking at would be to lower the red to a yellow for "dangerous play," based on lack of intent, which would have been more judicious, given that Maignan was not even looking at Adams, and was rightfully creating space where the Bournemouth player was impeding him.
Secondly, they could have been looking to potentially rescind the penalty call, based on the timing of when the ball was put into play in relation to when the contact was made. If the ball was dead when the contact was made, there should not have been a penalty awarded. And from what we saw, that call was very tight. For me, the contact began before the ball was kicked, which would have been no penalty. I would have loved to have seen all of the still images the referees had, as well as to hear their conversation, because these two calls changed everything, and will obviously influence our next Europa League match, where Maignan will be suspended.
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| That moment when you realize that your night is definitely over. |
However, after the VAR review, which Fotias did not even look at on the monitor, the only change was to award Tyler Adams a yellow card in the 30th minute.. This brings up all new questions. Was the yellow for impeding? Was there something else that Adams had done to antagonize or have contact with Maignan preceding the goalkeeper's shove? We were not told nor shown the reason for the yellow card.
But it was harsh to maintain the "violent conduct" call, which allows the sporting judges the chance to award more than a one match ban if they feel necessary, particularly when Maignan himself came out and said he absolutely did not intend to push Adams in the face. There is a significant height difference, and had Adams been a taller player, Maignan's gloves would have connected with a shoulder or chest instead, and this entire event never would have happened. So a lot of questions here. But Milan's dignity was officially declared dead after this event.
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| Why pull him off, Amorim? |
So, Maignan was sent off, handing the armband to Pavlović, and Torriani replaced him in the 31st minute, at the expense of substituting Hutchinson off. This was a bizarre choice from Amorim for me, as Hutchinson had been one of the only Milan players making any kind of impact at this point in the match. In the 32nd minute, Tavernier converted the penalty to make it 2-0 for Bournemouth. Again, Fotias' decisions here were massive. Milan were going to be on 10 men for an hour, and the game went from a 1-0 match to a 2-0 match, which is a huge different in football.
In the 35th minute, Estupiñan was shown a yellow card for fouling Gannon-Doak. In the 40th, Kluivert elbowed Pavlović who was down in actual pain. But did Fotias call that violent conduct? No. Did he even give him a yellow card for dangerous play? No. Did the VAR team review that play? No. It wasn't enough for Milan to be suffering from such an identity crisis and a double call from the referee team that was definitely harsh. The calls just kept piling up against them harder than the wind and rain were pummeling them.
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| Pavlovic worked hard to try to make up for the two penalties, but was unable to make enough of a difference. |
At halftime, Amorim attempted a band-aid fix for a team that was bleeding out. He sent Bartesaghi on for Estupiñan and Rabiot for Loftus-Cheek, two players that should have maybe played the first 30 minutes to start the game off right, then could have been subbed if necessary. But what do I know? I've only been watching football since Amorim was in middle school or whatever. But the second half started much like the first, with De Winter making a couple of clearances on Gannon-Doak.
In the 63', Tomori was shown a yellow card for a foul on Evanilson, Milan's second of three yellow cards. Three minutes later, already down to ten men, Amorim used up a very valuable sub to send Diawara on for the cautioned Tomori. If he had not already, it seemed like this was when the Milan manager threw in the towel. This became more clear when he chose to send Comotto on for his season debut, replacing Moreira in the 76th. Why would you throw an 18 year-old on to this tragic capitulation? How does it affect his mentality or development to have his only minutes all season be a futile 15 minutes in the worst team performance of the season?
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| Bartesaghi was helpful in the second half. |
And even though he only had a single sub left, why not send a game changer on for the last 15 minutes, like Modrić or Pulisic to at least try to get back into the match at only 2-0? I mean, I was happy to finally see that Comotto still does exist. But I also did not want this humiliation to be so utterly comprehensive. De Winter, who had tried to redeem himself from the early handball all match long, was shown Milan's third yellow card in the 81st minute for a foul on Gannon-Doak. And in the 84th minute, as if to punish Amorim for giving up, Amine Adli scored an exquisite free kick. Like I couldn't even be mad, it was so perfect. 3-0 Bournemouth.
Of course, Amine Adli had replaced substitute Alex Tóth, who had only been on the pitch for 15 minutes before being injured and having to be subbed off himself. Because that is how this entire match went for us. Every twist of fate that could work against us did. Even their one injury, since his replacement put the nail in the coffin for us. Not that we ever showed up. The second half was better with Amorim's initial subs, but we were still on 10 men. And Milan took three shots in the entire 90 minutes, with zero shots on target. Zero. Their Juve-owned goalkeeper mocked us postmatch, saying that he was cold, because he had nothing to do all night. No one can blame the referee calls or even being down a man for that kind of performance.
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| Torriani did well enough when he came on. |
One little highlight was in the 88th minute, when Torriani came up with a massive fingertip save on Rayan. In fact, UEFA put it in their reel of top five saves of the week for the Europa League. While I worship Maignan, Torriani is good enough to be his successor, and he needs to get some playing time somehow. Last season, they had him playing with Milan Futuro for some playing time, but he needs to be playing at this level. So the silver lining of Mike's red card is that he will get a solid 90 minutes in our next Europa League match.
As a Milan fan, obviously I had to write about the cataclysmic fall from grace for Milan and its legacy that this performance was. Certainly, this point was obvious even to the English press. However, as a football fan and human being, I also want to take the time to congratulate Bournemouth. Not only is their first every European season, they are crushing it, 3-0. Sure, their league record deserves much to be desired thus far, as their first win came just this past Sunday.
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| Impossible to hate this, so happy for them. |
But as poor as Milan were in every way, Bournemouth were excellent on every single level. And I am happy for them, I truly am. I know they were excited to be facing a team like Milan, and they should be so pleased with their performance, they got everything right. They showed immense respect for Milan coming into this match, and honestly, I'm not sure Amorim or even the players approached the match in the same way.
As a Milan fan who has been suffering these many years of downfall, as the Bournemouth fans have been enjoying their rise from a more humble and down-to-earth football history, it was incredibly painful to watch my team crash and burn in real time like this. After Amorim seemed to learn something with the match vs. Lecce, and the very positive results this past week vs. Salzburg and then Atalanta in the league, I had hoped that we were building something. Little did I know that the fates of these two clubs, that seem to be remarkably intertwined, would pull Milan straight toward a performance and result like this, almost like some kind of identity theft.
Milan Futuro vs. Club Milano
Sunday, October 25 • 14:30 CEST (9:30am EDT)*
Sunday, October 25 • 20:45 CET (3:45 EDT)*
Reviewed by Elaine
on
Rating:
