Atalanta 5, Milan 0: Christmas Massacre

It couldn’t even be a game at a reasonable hour. Milan’s Christmas Massacre was a lunchtime game, a time that Milan has often struggled with. At three-nil, I saw my life flash before me, but at five-nil, my pulse was gone. Myself and fans around the world were DOA, Dead on Arrival, when La Penna blew the whistle. Amongst the carnage was all of the mentality Pioli had managed to rebuild, the faith of Milan fans everywhere, and the last shred of Milan’s dignity.

This is the intensity with which the entire team played

It’s not as if we couldn’t see it coming. The first shot from Ilicic came in the first minute of the game, forcing Gigio into a save. The shots just kept coming. Conti took a ball point blank to the face, an early casualty. Tiny little Papu Gomez’s fantastic goal in the tenth minute was like getting kicked in the stomach. A stomach that was already nauseous from Milan’s timid play and the fact that we were missing Theo Hernandez and Paqueta.

Milan showed a pulse, if only a weak one, for the rest of the first half. But it was very evident what Pioli had said: Leao is not a center forward. So the chances came from Musacchio, Conti, Suso, Rodriguez, and Calhanoglu. Pioli replaced Rodriguez with Calabria at the half, but it was just a drop in the bucket as to what was needed to pull out of the nosedive that Milan were playing. It looked like we were a lower table Serie A side facing a Champions League side… oh, wait…

Like an innocent child slaughtered, he was never in the game

I don’t know if it was so much an Atalanta blitzkrieg or Milan just dying on the battlefield, but there were four goals conceded in the second half. Each one annihilated a part of my soul until there was just nothing left. To be fair, Pasalic scored his tap-in in the 61st minute, 2-0 Atalanta, and refused to celebrate, although he had only been on loan to Milan for six months nearly three years ago. That was absolute class. Ilicic scored in the 63rd and then the 72nd, then it was 4-0 Atalanta. You saw those goals coming with that opening shot, it was just a matter of time.

There was a moment of bravery in the 81st when Gigio saved a shot and then Calabria made a goal line clearance. One moment of bravery before all of the troops died. Because two minutes later, Gigio made an error when he came out, and Musacchio couldn’t catch Muriel, so he scored the final nail in the coffin into a completely open net. 5-0 Atalanta. A fitting end to the carnage that claimed the lives of Milan players, fans, lovers of football, and also all of the rainbows and unicorns that ever were.

All of the ex-Atalanta players who played were completely neutralized

There is nothing else to say. There is no one left to say it to. No hopes, no dreams, only pain and carnage all around. It was a Christmas Massacre.

This post inspired by the music of U2’s “Sunday Bloody Sunday”