Milan 3, Chievo 1: Flawed Victory

We were playing the 20th place team. In our house. We should have dominated. And we did, with 68% possession and 20 shots, although only six of those on target. But if we were ever going to keep a clean sheet, this would have been the game. And we couldn’t. It was a flawed victory.

A win is always worth celebrating, but there are concerns on the horizon

I think Chievo had one decent shot in the first half, from our former friend Birsa. Milan, on the other hand, had shots from Kessie, Suso, and at least three from Bonaventura. In the 27th, Higuain scored from a Suso assist to make it 1-0 Milan. And as if that wasn’t enough, they did it again in the 34th. 2-0 Milan.

The second half saw Abate with a great shot that was saved. Yes, you read that correctly. Bonaventura decided that if Abate could get a shot on goal, then he could certainly score. So in the 56 th, he did. 3-0 Milan The problem with that is Pelissier also wanted to get in on the action. And with Zapata marauding as a center back, that’s just what he did. Pelissier’s goal in the 63rd spoiled our clean sheet. 3-1 Milan.

A brace for the dynamic duo

To add insult to injury, Higuain earned himself a yellow card for dissent in the 69th. And then there were Gattuso’s subs. He tried bringing on the known injured Cutrone in the 76th and playing a 4-4-2 again. Whereas doing it twenty minutes earlier when we were down one vs. Olympiacos was a game changer, this time, it was a head scratcher. Why risk injuring the kid more? And his other subs made no impact, either. It was back to normal for him. Barring Calhanoglu’s stoppage time goal that was called off for offside, the second half was kind of a downward spiral.

"In before Abate" isn't really a thing

We got the three points, and that is very important. But we didn’t show enough character to play a solid 90 minutes still, and we couldn’t even keep a clean sheet against the bottom of the table team. How are we supposed to be ready for the Derby? Or the rest of the season? While it was great to win the game, our third in a row, this match was more of a flawed victory.

This match inspired by the music of The Fixx’s “One Thing Leads to Another”

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