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It just had to be him, didn’t it? A few days after turning 40 years of age, Luka Modric was the match-winner for AC Milan against Bologna.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport (seen below) write this morning, ‘forty is the new thirty’. There’s no shortage of clichés to celebrate the first goal at 40 for an extraordinary player like Modric. In Serie A, he’s the sixth to achieve it, following Piola, Vierchowod, Quagliarella, Costacurta and Ibrahimovic.
Vierchowod, Costacurta, Ibra and Modric all wore the Milan shirt, a sign that the club value that veteran experience. Ultimately, the goal from the Croatian won an important three points in a frustrating game, one in which the Rossoneri hit the woodwork four times.
Milan’s victory was hard-fought, but deserved. Bologna’s attack was nonexistent: Vincenzo Italiano’s team dominated possession but despite their long periods on the ball, they failed to get a shot on target. The shots on target total was 7-0 and that speaks volumes about the true balance of play.
The Diavolo avenged their defeat in the Coppa Italia final against Bologna in May and climbed to sixth place in the standings, three points below Juventus and Napoli. Regret is beginning to grow over the three points dropped at home against Cremonese on matchday one.
A mixed first half
It was a strange opening 45 minutes, open in the first 20 and in injury time, but quiet aside from that. Few pay for tickets to wonder whether Milan defends with three, five, or four men but Allegri’s tactical-strategic plan itself was interesting.
A lone striker in Santiago Gimenez and a battery of attackers trying to get in behind was what he went for. The problem was how these raiders attacked Bologna’s penalty area. They did it mostly with impromptu initiatives, individual runs.
Loftus-Cheek and Fofana, Estupinan and Rabiot tried. The surprise effect lasted as long as it took Italiano to understand the game. Around the 20th minute, Bologna took control, began to dominate possession and forced Milan to retreat in front of Maignan.
Perhaps that was what Allegri wanted: Italiano’s Bologna doesn’t excel at building out, they’re used to feeding on spaces on high counter-attacks, and if they’re kept in control, they get tangled up. If we count the chances, Milan would have finished the first half ahead on points.
Gimenez shot weakly when one-on-one with Skorupski, after having created a good finishing position; Estupinan, at the end of one of the aforementioned runs, grazed the post with a curling right-footed shot; Gimenez again, moments before halftime, rattled the woodwork following a corner.
Perhaps the ball had gone out of play and the goal would have been disallowed due to VAR, but the referee didn’t intervene at the time, so it remains. It can’t be said that Milan enchanted, but neither can it be said that they did nothing.
Like fine wine
Allegri was right to insist with the midfielders. Bologna began the second half as they had ended the first, in control of the ball, but the Rossoblu’s possession seemed like an attempt to freeze the score at 0-0 in the hope that sooner or later a crack would appear in the Milan wall.
Around the 60th minute, Allegri’s plan paid dividends. Loftus-Cheek, a midfielder masquerading as a second striker, took the ball and ran. The Englishman, however, didn’t stubbornly sprint forward, passing to the right for Saelemaekers, and the Belgian fed Modric who fired in.
It was the kind of quality and composure that the game needed; a world-class goal, a difficult one in its simplicity. It’s not a contradiction, but a way to underscore how certain goals seem easy but actually aren’t.
Going behind forced Bologna to move beyond the mere play of possession and put Allegri in his preferred state: counter-attacking. Ricci – who came on for Fofana – hit the post with a long-range shot. Gimenez rounded the goalkeeper and his the post too.
Then came the blunder of the penalty on Nkunku. It was awarded by the referee and removed on review, a decision that cost Allegri a red card for protesting. The penalty was taken away, the three points arrived anyway, and Nkunku seemed worthy of the San Siro.
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