With the form we’ve had in the past three matches, or the
complete lack thereof, this match seemed doomed from the start. But just to
ensure our failure, De Sciglio got himself sent off for a tackle on Hamsik in
the first minute. So Milan had to play on 10 men from about 45 seconds in. But
just like losing to Genoa last week, Milan are making history: De Sciglio’s red
was the fastest red in Serie A this season. And so it was, playing the entire
match on 10 men, Milan were like lambs to the slaughter.
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| "No habla gol" as Lopez denies Higuain's penalty in the opening minutes |
Despite the scoreline, it wasn’t quite a slaughter. Lopez
saved Higuain’s penalty when De Sciglio was sent off, worth watching over and
over again in and of itself. Epic. Milan’s three defenders staved off Napoli’s
27 shots for the first 70 minutes, and from the 77th on, too. It was just that
unlucky six minutes in between that killed us. No coincidence, of course, that
Bonera had been introduced nine minutes before for the not-so-convincing (yet
not-so-conceding) Bocchetti. The Bonera Effect™, or as Milan fans know too well
as the conceding of goals when Bonera steps onto the pitch, was in full force.
In fact, he technically assisted in Hamsik’s goal in the 70th by heading it
straight to the striker instead of clearing the ball. 1-0 Napoli.
The next goal would come from a brilliant Mertens pass to
Higuain, who easily beat Paletta, van Ginkel, and… wait for it… Bonera. 2-0
Napoli. It seems he is not a left back, either, he can only play decently most
of the time at right back. Pippo was not impressed. The third goal came just
two minutes later, when Higuain’s shot was rebounded off of Lopez and straight
to Gabbiadini, who was supposed to be marked by… can you guess? Our dear
Bonera. 3-0 Napoli. So technically, Bonny was involved in all three goals. A
great night for him and for Napoli, but not a fair result for this Milan team.
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| Inzaghi's face said it all |
This Milan team had some fight in them. Maybe it was playing
without the egocentric Menez, or the disadvantage of playing the whole match
down a man that kind of woke them up. The captain’s armband weighed heavily
on De Jong, or perhaps he was thinking about moving back to England or
elsewhere, but his contributions were not as visible as usual. Paletta had a
great game, and Poli and Bonaventura played like lions the whole night.
Diego Lopez was once again our savior, with four massive saves, including the epic Higuain penalty save.
But the lamb analogy becomes most evident when looking at
the stats. While I realize the need to sit back and defend becomes a reality
when playing an entire match on ten men, Milan only had two shots, one on goal,
in the entire match. In fact, we had zero shots the entire second half.
Meanwhile, Napoli controlled the ball for 76% of the time, and took 27 shots
with seven on goal. It is also worth noting, as in other recent matches, that
we gave up a lot of corners: Napoli had 15 corners whereas we only had one. So
yeah, more lambs than lions.
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| After some brilliant recent performances with the Primavera, Felicioli was thrilled to make his debut with the first team |
One bright spot for many fans is that Inzaghi finally gave a
Primavera player some minutes, bringing on Felicioli for the battered
Bonaventura in the 84th minute. And despite the stats and especially the
scoreline, this team really did fight the entire match. It’s not their fault
that they were outnumbered and outclassed in every way. As for Benitez, he may
have won the Fight of the Century, but he didn’t
rest many players ahead of their Europa League semifinal, which shows that he
felt he needed his A team to defeat Milan’s sad and withered little squad. Even
on ten men, they were incredibly lucky to pull off the win tonight, what with
their incredibly wasteful shooting against what has been known as one of the worst
defenses in the league this year. Either that or he knew his team needed a big
win after being humiliated against Empoli this past week. Or both.
The numbers will show that Milan were just lambs to the
slaughter, but I was grateful to see some fight in them after the past few
games. This season has been so very painful, and doesn’t look to be getting any
better as we face a coming-into-form Roma on Saturday at the San Siro. If we
had played this well with eleven men, the result and the stats could have been
very, very different. There may be rejoicing in Napoli tonight,
but Milan should be leaving with their heads held high for the first time in a
few matches. Well except poor De Sciglio. And Bonera. Okay, most of the team
should be holding their heads high. As it was, they were like lambs to the
slaughter.
This post inspired by the music of
Garbage
Our next match is
Milan vs. Roma
Saturday, May 9 • 20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)