After what was arguably a decline in performances this season, Amorim's Milan seemed to sort things out vs. Lecce just before the break. Then Sassuolo happened, but they came back better than ever last week in the Europa League. And despite playing just 72 hours later and in the pouring rain, this 3-2 win over Atalanta was some of Milan's best football all season. Well, at least for the first 65 minutes or so. But they did not collapse completely, managing to hang on for the win against a team that has haunted them too many times, giving the San Siro a ritual cleansing.
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| They crushed this, and they knew it. |
Early on in the match, our former De Ketelaere was introduced to Pavlović, who may have caused him to regret leaving Milan. (I really do love a defender who is not afraid to be physical and instills fear in our opponents.) After a Rabiot shot went over, suddenly, Pulisic put the ball in the back of the net in just the 13th minute. Unfortunately, after a VAR review, the goal was called off due to an offside call. The VAR image showed that like half of Pulisic's planted foot was offside, which is obviously a clear advantage. (insert massive eye roll here.)
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| They may have closed down Pulisic here, but Milan were too much for Atalanta to handle. |
De Ketelaere sent a shot over, and Ramos was forced to make his shot, but it made it easy for Carnesecchi to grab. Then, Krstović had everyone beaten and put the ball into the side netting, giving us all a bit of a scare. Unfortunately, Kolašinac went down injured and was unable to continue, forcing Sarri into an early substitution, bringing on Obrić for Kolašinać injust the 20th minute. This would prove fateful for Atalanta almost immediately.
Musah took a shot in the 22nd minute. While Chiffi, who has historically had some poor matches before, did not immediately call for it, the VAR refs Camplone and Prontera called him about a potential handball on Orbić. Shockingly, Chiffi did something that refs usually only do for Inter: he went to the monitor for an On Field Review (OFR.) My only justification for this was that he was at San Siro and he saw the nerazzurri colors on Atalanta's shirts, so thought he was helping Inter. Could there even be any other reason?
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| Even if these were probably the only penalties we'll be awarded all season, I'll take them. |
Whether Chiffi is perhaps nearsighted, and can only see hand balls on the monitor, not from a distance on the pitch, I cannot say. But even more shockingly, he awarded Milan a penalty. That's right, you read that correctly: Chiffi awarded Milan a penalty for Orbić's handball. So, in the 24th minute, Ramos stepped up and converted the penalty to make it 1-0 Milan. Great for him, too, to quiet down his critics by getting another goal.
Five minutes later, though, Ramos was fouled in the back and down in considerable pain. A foul, that while very dangerous, Chiffi did not award the Atalanta player a yellow card for and this time, VAR did not intervene. Pulisic had his shot deflected just wide, and things went back to being rather tense. In the 41st minute, Rabiot was shown a yellow card for a foul on De Ketelaere. After a dangerous shot from Atalanta left Maignan yelling at our defenders, at the other end, Rabiot gave the best response a player can give to being shown a yellow card: in the 43rd minute, he scored a goal, assisted by his bromance buddy, Moreira. Now it was 2-0 Milan going into the second half.
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| Not gonna lie, this is giving me Theão vibes. |
After halftime, Chukwueze sent a sweet curling shot in that was just wide. Atalanta answered with a shot from Krstović that went over, then Amorim subbed Hutchinson on for Chukwueze in the 53rd minute. If you thought the first handball call with the VAR review and OFR was astonishing, then I hope you are sitting down for what happened in the 54th minute. It happened again. Was the whole referee team possessed or something? What was this madness? Making correct penalty calls and using VAR properly?
This time, it was Kristensen, who could not be more obvious about the handball. He had his hands behind is back, opened them up to push the ball away from danger, then put them back behind his back, finishing off the move with an arabesque with his leg as if he was auditioning for the ballet. How or why Chiffi did not blatantly see this in real time and call it on his own, I'll never know. Perhaps it's time to get his eyes checked?
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| Moreira with the Milan-Naruto collab. |
Whatever the reason, his VAR team let him know, he did yet another OFR, and once again, he awarded another penalty for Milan. Ramos once again stepped up, took the shot, this time to the other side, but Carnesecchi saved this one. Ouch. It was still 2-0 for Milan, though. But less than a minute later, Gila came and saved the day, scoring a header from a Rabiot assist to make it 3-0 for Milan. That was his first goal for Milan, and it's hard to know who was happiest about it, him, the fans, or his teammates. And Rabiot was awarded Serie A Player of the Match and also voted Milan's MVP now with a goal and an assist in this one.
Sarri had attempted to curse Milan with the Law of the Exes, having started two of the three available ex-Milan players (Sportiello being the only one not included,) as well as Rabiot's former sparring partner, Jonathan Rowe. This clearly was not working for them, so he subbed off Pašalić, who still professes to be a Milanista, and Rowe in the 59th minute, and to be honest, that's kind of when the match started to change. Maybe revenge is not the best way to go.
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| Keep scoring for us, General Mario. |
In the 63rd minute, Krstović hit the post, then two minutes later, Éderson took out Hutchinson, who was down for a bit. Granted, he got the ball first, but typically, refs don't like it when you also go through both legs of your opponent, it's often a card, but not today. And in the 66th minute, Gaetano pulled one back for Atalanta. Now it was 3-1 Milan. Éderson did earn his card for taking down Musah in the 68th, who also was down for a while, but was eventually able to play on.
Atalanta were now actively creating chances, so Amorim sent Jashari on for Pulisic, Estupiñan on for Musah, and Loftus-Cheek on for Modrić in the 76th minute. I think he was trying to go for a slightly more defensive lineup to plug up the holes that were giving Atalanta chances, in addition to managing his players for two competitions. Unfortunately, though, it was not enough, as Krstović finally got his goal in the 81st minute. 3-2 Milan.
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| Amorim finally getting the best of two of our best players. |
Now it was serious. Milan had not played that well against one of our bogeyman teams and gone up 3-0 to lose or even draw this one. In the 83rd minute, Maignan sacrificed himself (and perhaps any more potential posterity) by saving a shot point blank with the last body parts you want to have contact with the ball. Funny how refs are worried about time wasting, but when a man is down with that kind of pain, we are all sympathetic, and no one is looking at the clock. Hope Mike is okay.
In the 84th minute, Amorim replaced Gila with Tomori. Jashari took a great shot in the 88th minute that forced Carnesecchi into a big save. In stoppage time, it was both goalkeepers who were heroes. Maignan made a massive save on Zappacosta in the 92nd minute, and Carnesecchi also made a big save when Ramos sent a powerful shot in the 95th minute, looking for that guarantee goal. But at the final whistle, it was 3-2 Milan. The San Siro was cleansed.
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| The heroes of San Siro. |
While obviously, it would have been better if the team could have kept their fantastic performance going for all 90 minutes, they managed the win and gave us 65 minutes of great football, so it's hard to complain. Given the insane purge that Gerald Cardinale made in May, and the fact that Amorim is new to Serie A, as well as the changes to the team, it is actually impressive that Milan are unbeaten in the league after seven matches. But even better that there are signs of improvement, that they were able to shake of the ghosts of seasons past for this ritual cleansing.
This post inspired by the music of Ray Parkers' "Ghostbusters"
Thursday, October 22 • 21:00 CEST (3pm EDT)
Milan Futuro vs. Club Milano
Sunday, October 25 • 14:30 CEST (8:30am EDT)*
Sunday, October 25 • 20:45 CET (3:45 EDT)*
Reviewed by Elaine
on
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