Rome was not built in a day. More importantly, AC Milan did
not become AC Milan overnight. We’ve all talked about what rebuilding would be
like and how long it might take, and our new management have certainly sped
that timeline up by purchasing so many quality players. But it’s still going to
take some time. And we saw that vs. Cagliari. It wasn’t the greatest game. But
the team are finding themselves. And finding Milan.
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| Who says we had no quality last year? |
The match started off with a bang when Cutrone scored, a
nice tap in from a brilliant Suso assist. 1-0 Milan. But Cagliari never sat
back, and Donnarumma had a heartstopping save 1v1 in the 12th minute. Not even
a cooling break would slow them down, and it seemed that Milan were pinned back
way too often in this match. Donnarumma made my heart stop again in stoppage
time of the first half when he came way out of his box, but of course he made
the save. Had he not, it would have been a disaster.
Cagliari were relentless, and in the 56th, it finally paid
off when Joao Pedro scored an equalizer. Milan also had their chances, it’s not
as if they were just sitting ducks, waiting for something to happen. In fact,
the possession was almost even, with Cagliari getting 51%. But the moment of
truth came in the 70th minute, when Suso scored an exquisite free kick to make
it 2-1. We said set pieces were going to be beautiful this year with our new
acquisitions, but we may have overlooked someone we already have. That was
absolutely breathtaking.
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| Another goal from our not-€100m striker |
Unfortunately for Cagliari, their luck got worse when Joao
Pedro’s back collided with Bonucci’s knee, and he had to be stretchered off.
Hope he’s okay. Because it was a back injury, it took a long time for them to
get him off the pitch, which meant that between that and other stoppages,
Pairetto allowed a whopping nine minutes of stoppage time. Nine minutes as in
ten per cent of an entire match of stoppage time.
Cagliari thought they got a penalty, but VAR said no. Then
Varela was cramping, it was all going down hill for them. But luckily for them,
Milan have Montolivo, who absolutely fell apart as the game continued. First he
had a typical Montolivo shot that was wide, then he thought he earned a
penalty, but didn’t, then a yellow in the 89th. He was like Cagliari’s own 12th
man.
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| Even a poor performance is worth celebrating when you get 3 points |
Or course poor Kessie scored a goal late in the match, but
it was called back for offside. Meanwhile, Biglia had come on for Calhanoglu in
the 63rd, Kalinic made his debut in the 78th coming on for Cutrone, and
finally, Antonelli replaced the astonishingly fit Borini in the fourth minute
of stoppage time. But the highlight for me was late in the match when
Donnarumma drew the VAR sign asking for a play to be reviewed. That was
absolutely brilliant. Kids and their technology, you gotta love it.
This wasn’t beautiful football. Certainly it was better than
Thursday’s Europa League 3-5-2 disaster. But it was a game that you could see
growth. And players learning from mistakes. And growing as a team. But most
importantly, they won. And that is only the second time in eleven years that
Milan have won their first two matches, too. Which is massive. It speaks
volumes about the mentality that is already there, and yet we haven’t even
scratched the surface of the talent we now have available. Still, beautiful
football is great, but winning is even better. And with a brand new team (eleven
new players,) to win like that is phenomenal. If I didn’t know any better, I’d
say that they were finding Milan.
This post inspired by the music of Thomas Newman’s “Finding
Nemo” Soundtrack
This Week: International Break