Lazio-Milan Preview: Capital Offense

Milan head to the Italian capital on Friday looking for three points against the eighth place Lazio side. After a great run of form in the league, Milan were left disappointed in their last two matches, and will be looking to take all three points at the Stadio Olimpico. Despite a fantastic offensive performance and holding Atalanta to only three shots on target on Sunday, some questionable refereeing once again left the scoreline lacking for Milan, while Lazio were completely overrun by Fiorentina on Monday. So, on Friday, Milan will be hoping for better refereeing and the perfect offensive performance in the capital.

Going to the capital to score goals.

Milan 1, Atalanta 1: Referees, Rage, and Conspiracies

The referee should never be the center of attention. The calls a referee makes should support the game, not change the outcome. And VAR was created to decrease the margin of human errors, not highlight them. Yet this match, despite having some of the most experienced referees in Italy, who have worked UEFA matches and World Cup matches, was decided by poor refereeing, inappropriate use of VAR, and a referee who became the talking point instead of a team who came back from a tough Thursday night away match and played a very convincing match in front of over 70,000 fans. That this was the second match in a row against this same opponent that this happened only increases the amount of indignation and rage toward the referees. And it is impossible, given the number of times this has happened to Milan, as well as the number of favorable calls a certain rival has received, to not develop certain conspiracies. Yet the biggest crime is that none of this is about the actual football.

How did this fantastic performance only earn a point?

Milan-Atalanta Preview: Sunday Bloody Sunday

For the third time this season, Milan will face off against our other Nerazzurri nemesis, Atalanta. Milan fans will remember the "galvanizing" (read: soul stealing) 5-0 Christmas massacre Milan suffered back in 2019. It was like in those movies when the main character loses every single member of his family and everything important to him, and spends the rest of the movie getting stronger and exacting a very painful revenge against those who destroyed his life. That loss created the mentality that drove Milan to their return to the Champions League, then their Scudetto victory, and the Champions League Semifinal this past season. However this season, we have once again fallen victims to Atalanta, with a 3-2 loss in December in Bergamo, and referee Di Bello helping them knock us out of the Coppa Italia with a 2-1 win in January at San Siro. So this one will not be pretty. Either Milan show up and exact a revenge, or we once again fall victim to our Kryptonite from Bergamo. Whichever way it goes, it is undoubtedly going to be a Sunday Bloody Sunday.

Whomever ends up taking on Atalanta, they will be ready for battle.

Stade Rennais FC 3, AC Milan 2: Hospitality

Milan are through to the Europa League Round of 16 by virtue of having gone into this match with a 3-0 win over Rennes last week. So, in spite of Rennes' valiant 3-2 home victory over Milan on Thursday, Milan took the tie with a score of 5-3 on aggregate. In addition to the remarkable fighting spirit and overall strong performance by the seventh place Ligue 1 team that won the match today, though, was an even more remarkable display of hospitality. In stark contrast to the horrible Ultra behavior, and sometimes even warfare with police and rival Ultras that often accompanies European fixtures, Rennes offered Milan fans free galettes-saucisses, a local specialty, ahead of the fixture in France. Rivalry was replaced with beautiful hospitality.

When you still win in a loss.

Podcast: Uncharacteristic Optimism, Anniversary Edition

This week marked the thirteenth anniversary of the Milan Obsession Blog and the eleventh anniversary of the Milan Obsession Podcast. To help mark the occasion and help recap recent matches and discuss all things Milan, I invited Sal from the Curva Mundial Podcast back on. We took a quick trip down memory lane, talked about the amazing new fourth kits from Los Angeles streetwear company PLEASURES, then talked about recent matches and the current state of Milan, and more.

The LA designed fourth kits are a sign that things are looking up.

Monza 4, Milan 2: Comedy of Errors

Humor is a great coping mechanism in the face of tragedy, and apparently, our team believes this as well. From Pioli's squad rotation that went one rotation too many, to the defensive errors of a young player just coming back from injury, to a player wanting in on Milan's red hot red card action this season, the tragedy turned farcical. All of which were impacted by a freak accident involving two Monza players as well as a freakishly long stoppage in play to treat them. And, despite Pioli doing well to compensate for and correct the errors, as well as some killer instincts that got Milan back into the game, a couple of heartbreaking late goals turned this match into a travesty as Monza finally got a 4-2 win over Milan. Some people are angry, that is their choice, but if you step back and look at how absurd the events of this match were, you could also choose to laugh at the actual comedy of errors.

Giroud is all of us after this one.

Monza-Milan Preview: Into the Light

Last week, in their match vs. Napoli, Milan debuted their new fourth kit, "Out of the Shadows" by Los Angeles Streetwear designer PLEASURES. The outfield players wore the black kits, and Maignan wore the white kit. Sunday, against Monza, they will wear the opposite. And opposite is what Monza will be hoping for. Because they have not been able to get a win against Milan since their promotion to Serie A, not even in last summer's Trofeo Silvio Berlusconi friendly. But Milan have scored in every match in 2024, and have won nine league matches in a row dating back to our home match against Monza in December (plus their midweek Europa League match.) It is almost as if their entire season has come "out of the shadows" and into the light.

Now that Leão scored midweek, will everyone let him just be Leão again?

AC Milan 3, Stade Rennais FC 0: Emphatic

Milan's performance in this initial Europa League match was the polar opposite of their prior European experiences this season. In a match they were favored to win, Milan showed up, created twice as many shots on target as their opponent, scored three goals, kept a clean sheet, and never let anyone doubt the outcome of the match. Their 3-0 win over Rennes at San Siro may have been elementary compared to the difficult opposition they faced in their Champions League group of death, but things have shifted in the team as well. Goals are being scored consistently as injuries decrease and the time spent together as a team increases. The response to this new challenge was different, it was emphatic.

This is how we do it.

Europa League Playoffs • AC Milan-Stade Rennais FC Preview: En Garde

After missing out on the knockout round of the Champions League, Milan are going into the Europa League Playoff round with high aspirations. They do so with a run of form of nine league matches unbeaten, two draws and seven wins. Their opponent, Ligue 1 side Stade Rennais FC, or Rennes, as they are more commonly known, also come to the San Siro Thursday evening with an eight win streak in all competitions. Clearly, it will be an excellent sparring match. En garde.

Ready or not, Europa League here we come.

Milan 1, Napoli 0: Back in Black

Milan extended their unbeaten run in Serie A to nine matches on Sunday with a 1-0 win over Napoli. What is most extraordinary about that is that Milan had not managed to beat Napoli at San Siro in a league match in ten years. What made it even better was winning wearing the new fourth kits, because nothing is better than winning while looking your best. Not only do Milan truly look to be back in form, but they are back in black.

When you look good, you feel good, and it makes winning that much better.

Milan-Napoli Preview: Shadow Puppets

Napoli arrive at the San Siro tonight a shadow of their Scudetto winning selves, having changed coaches twice since lifting their first league title in 33 years. Milan, on the other hand, seem to be finally gaining some consistent form again after changing nearly half their squad last summer. They are unbeaten in eight league matches, but more importantly will be debuting their insanely popular new fourth kits for this one, a concept called "Out of the Shadows." The kits were designed as a collaboration between L.A. streetwear company PLEASURES and Puma, and feature both a black and a white variation. For this match, Milan will wear the black kits, while Maignan wears the white kit, and next week vs. Monza, the colors will be reversed. I have always said that when the players look good, they feel good, and thus play better. And these are the best kits Puma has ever made for Milan. But this match could be tricky, perhaps more of a performance of shadow puppets.

How il Diavolo celebrates Carnevale when Napoli come to town...

Frosinone 2, Milan 3: Momentum

Milan are unbeaten in the league since just before Christmas, a streak of eight matches with six wins and two draws. I lead with this because the media and fans on social media have already declared this season over and have moved on, regularly discussing who will be managing the team next year. This, in spite of the fact that Milan have the same points total as they did the same week during the Scudetto winning season. But, as Mauro Suma pointed out in his editorial on Friday, the league runs through May. This comeback 3-2 win over Frosinone at the Stadio Benito Stirpe after being down 2-1 was an important win for multiple reasons. For one, Frosinone's form at home has been daunting this season, and only two other teams have managed to win there all year. Secondly, it displayed an improving mentality that Milan have been lacking for much of the season in the second half of matches. This is the perfect time of the year for Milan to be building momentum.

An increase in goalscoring and a decrease in injuries has produced some momentum.

Frosinone-Milan Preview: Reality Check

With the end of what seems to have been yet another disappointing January mercato for Milan fans this week, the media needed something to do. So they went with rumors of a coaching change at Milan, claiming that Ibrahimović was involved in negotiations for a certain expensive ex-Inter and ex-Juve manager. These are rumors, of course, that they had been propagating for some time, but given the double disappointment of the draw with Bologna last week and the lack of any last minute transfers to report on, they whipped fans into a frenzy with their pathetic need for clicks. So much so that Ibrahimović himself made a statement endorsing Pioli and denying the rumors. Just like the trip to Frosinone should be, this week was a reality check.

"Remember when we had clean sheets? We should try that again."

The Unwarranted Contempt for Pioli

A dark secret was recently revealed to Milan fans who hate Pioli: He won his 100th Serie A match last week vs. Udinese. This is something only four other Milan managers accomplished – Carlo Ancelotti, Nereo Rocco, Fabio Capello, and Nils Liedholm. To make matters worse, only Ancelotti did it faster, and only by one game. After the abject horror, as if someone had murdered their babies, came the sheer and utter denial, then the tired old excuses as to why such a dreadful manager could have ever reached such an important milestone. Even still, as they spun out and rewrote their own history of Pioli's time at Milan, they refused to mention his name in the same sentence as the other legendary Milan managers. Because Pioli Out has been their narrative since before he signed his contract, and they were not going to change their tune now (hoping everyone forgets their "Pioli is on Fire" days.) Their behavior toward this amazing milestone exemplifies the unwarranted contempt for Pioli.

Calmly writing Milan history against all odds.