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AC Milan’s Coppa Italia curse will continue on beyond 23 years after they were knocked out at the round of 16 stage by Lazio.
The narrative going into the game at the Stadio Olimpico on Thursday night was about ‘revenge’ for Lazio, who felt injustice after being denied a late penalty in their Serie A defeat to Milan a few days prior at San Siro.
The first half did indeed suggest only one team were fired up for the rematch, but going into the closing stages Massimiliano Allegri’s men had generated the better chances. Yet, with 10 minutes left, captain Mattia Zaccagni headed in the only goal to send Maurizio Sarri’s side through.
It means that Milan now have just Serie A and the Supercoppa Italiana left to compete for, and the cup drought will continue as they have not lifted the trophy since 2002-03. Ivan Stoev has five things we learned from the game.
1. Centre-back issue highlighted
The Rossoneri have been very solid defensively and the Tomori-Gabbia-Pavlovic trio has been superb thus far. Against Lazio, however, Allegri opted to rotate his lineup which is normal given the upcoming schedule.
Matteo Gabbia was dropped in favour of De Winter which was the only change in the back three, but it was definitely felt with the Belgian dropping a rather underwhelming performance.
The former Genoa man hasn’t really made the most of the chances he has had this season and this was no different. He made mistakes on the ball and was partly at fault on the goal as Zaccagni was left unmarked.
Even though a zonal system was used, it seemed like it was De Winter’s job to pick up the Lazio captain. This highlights the need for a solid centre-back to be brought in January to add some much needed depth and experience to the department.
2. The duality of Leao
The Portuguese was the difference make when the two teams played on the weekend having scored the only goal of the game. Thus, the expectation was for him to be the main man on Thursday night too, but he failed to reproduce his performance.
To be fair he did open up space in attack and linked up well with his team-mates for the bigger part of the game. Yet, in the second half he had a very good chance to open the scoring from Estupinan’s cut-back and he sent the shot over after snatching at it.
All in all, Leao failed to be decisive this time around. The blame is not fully or even mostly on him though as his supporting cast didn’t help him much either, and the Portuguese is not a natural number nine anyway.
3. Back in action
A positive from the game has to be Jashari getting back into the starting XI, six months after the last game that he started (for Club Brugge, before his €33m summer move to Milan).
The Swiss had a very solid game, all things considered. He had a difficult start but grew into things, demonstrating decent positioning and passing as well as winning quite a few duels in seemingly effortless fashion.
He also picked out Estupinan with a lovely long ball that pierced Lazio’s lines, and was unlucky to not be involved in a goal since Leao failed to hit the target following the Ecuadorian’s cross.
It’s definitely refreshing to see Jashari back on the pitch and this first glimpse suggests that he could have what it takes to seize a starting spot, as he continues to shake the rust off.
4. A tale of two flanks
Alexis Saelemaekers struggled this time around, as he had quite a few sloppy first touches and failed to make an impact in his usual way as an outlet on the right side.
The Belgian was not lacking in confidence as he tried to create things, yet the execution just was not there. At times Lazio did shift their press well to sometimes double team him, perhaps knowing that Milan were toothless up front so they could commit more bodies.
On the opposite flank, Estupinan was actually quite solid. After a rough pass to start off the game the Ecuadorian picked up the intensity and was quite good both in possession and going forward making it one of his better performances since joining, although the bar is quite low.
He was also unlucky to not get an assist as mentioned above, but it was a decent improvement compared to his other games. He needs to improve further though if he wants to battle it out with Davide Bartesaghi for the spot in the starting XI.
5. Questionable changes
We saw a lot of rotation from Allegri and to be fair he had little to work with in terms of depth. However, one could argue that his substitutions were a bit late and failed to make an impact on the game.
It was also interesting that Milan had the more of the possession this time around but that resulted in lack of creativity going forward, as the Rossoneri were not certain what to do with the ball.
In previous games Milan had no trouble dropping back, managing to absorb the pressure they hitting their opponents on the counter. Against Lazio, Allegri’s side took the initiative – especially in the second half – and the script was flipped.
Milan have dropped quite a few points already against teams in the lower half specifically because they sit back and force Milan to create something in limited space which they almost always fail to do, especially without a recognised No.9.
So, while the lack of squad depth and the gaps in certain departments is a fair mitigating circumstance for Allegri, he must find solutions in games where contain-and-counter is simply not enough
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