The Curva Sud proved once again that they deserve to be in
the Champions League of coreografia. Their clever, well-executed and amazing coreo
proclaiming “Until the Death” made Inter’s pathetic coreo look like an
80 year-old woman designed it. One was worthy of the fierce battle that would
play out over the next 90 minutes, one wouldn’t even make a Hallmark greeting
card. And so it was that Milan fought to the death, while Inter made their own life
difficult for them and had nothing to smile about at the end of the match.
Despite the fact that Inter physically dominated much of the match, Milan held
them off… until the death.
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| Fierce |
I feel like Inter’s coreo being a flower with the
inscription “and smile through the tough times, the way you never did before”
was more a message to themselves in the future, for after the match. After
Icardi had scored six goals in two matches, his performance today was enough to
make any Interista cry, not that that’s very hard to do.
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| The opposite of fierce |
It was all Inter for the first 20 minutes, up through
Cancelo’s yellow, the first of four for Inter in this match. But in the 22nd,
Calhanoglu took a brilliant free kick that Bonucci just got his head on, only
to see Handanovic make an equally brilliant save. That was our first shot of
the match, and one of our best. Six minutes later, Bonaventura would send a
great little backheel pass in for Cutrone, who took the shot, only to have
Handanovic save it once again.
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| So close |
The highlight of the first half, though, was when Icardi
scored in the 38th. I was already incredibly nauseated and trying to come to
terms with the goal when Di Bello signaled for VAR to review the goal. Miraculously,
he came back to the pitch and called the goal back for offside. No way that
goal would have been called back without VAR. It was delicious to watch Inter
fans start their tears. And it apparently renewed Icardi’s curse of not being
able to score against Milan, too. Thank you, VAR.
Gattuso choosing a striker from our three viable starters is
always difficult, but a death in the family for Silva sadly simplified things for the
Mister, and he chose Cutrone to start over Kalinic. Cutrone repaid that nod
throughout the match, but especially in stoppage time at the half, when he ran
the full length of the pitch to defend a speedy Candreva. Then in the 68th, he
scored an overhead bicycle kick, only to see it also called back for offside.
At that point Gattuso chose to replace him with Kalinic, unfortunately.
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| Not today, sewage snake |
Icardi missed two absolutely ridiculous chances, one in the
56th and another in the final minute of stoppage time. He could have easily
won the game for his team, even could have had a hat trick again quite easily.
But he didn’t. Because he couldn’t. Because he sucks. And he sucks worse than
Milan, who in the second half dominated as Inter fizzled out. All in all we
would take 13 shots with three on goal, whereas they had 14 shots but only two
on goal.
It wasn’t Milan’s finest hour, but it was a testament in endurance
and defending for our lives. For a second time in two games, we saw the
deficiency of our bench, with Montolivo not able to shine Biglia’s shoes while
deputizing for him and our subs a significant downgrade from those they
replaced. Gattuso was complimentary to Inter, saying they deserved more, but I
take issue with that statement. For however much they outplayed us, we defended
harder. The chances were almost equal, and even if they had 56% possession for
the match, they were unable to convert anything and take more than a point.
Which means we earned our point, even if we also didn’t earn more.
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| Battle weary warriors |
It was a fierce battle in the trenches of the San Siro. If
the match were decided on coreo, Milan would have mopped the pitch with
Inter’s losing tears. But the match was decided on the pitch, and as the team
with no bench, Milan’s efforts showed that they actually gave more, even if the
result was even. I personally was very impressed with how they pushed harder
for the last 30 minutes, especially after fading on Saturday against Juventus.
They showed that they were worthy of the fierce coreo their fans honored them
with, and played until the death.
This post inspired by the music of
Cigarettes After Sex’s “Sweet”
Our next match is
Serie A Week 31
Milan vs. Sassuolo
Sunday, April 8 •
20:45 CEST (2:45pm EDT)