Team news: Sassuolo were without Mert Müldür, Filippo Romagna and Hamed Traorè, while Milan had to do without Rade Krunić, Ante Rebić, Divock Origi, Marko Lazetić and Zlatan Ibrahimović. Kickoff time was 18:30 CEST at Mapei Stadium – Città del Tricolore.
Notes: 21′ Maignan saves Berardi’s penalty.
U.S. Sassuolo Calcio (4-3-3) – Alessio Dionisi
Andrea Consigli; Jeremy Toljan, Martin Erlić, Gian Marco Ferrari, Rogério; Davide Frattesi (69′ Abdou Harroui), Maxime Lopez, Kristian Thorstvedt (69′ Matheus Henrique); Domenico Berardi (52′ Grégoire Defrel), Andrea Pinamonti (84′ Agustín Álvarez), Giorgos Kyriakopoulos (84′ Riccardo Marchizza).
Bench: Pegolo, Russo; Ayhan, Tressoldi; Obiang; D’Andrea.
AC Milan (4-2-3-1) – Stefano Pioli
Mike Maignan; Alessandro Florenzi, Simon Kjær (80′ Pierre Kalulu), Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernández; Tommaso Pobega (57′ Sandro Tonali), Ismaël Bennacer; Alexis Saelemaekers (57′ Junior Messias), Brahim Díaz (57′ Charles De Ketelaere), Rafael Leão; Olivier Giroud (73′ Yacine Adli).
Bench: Mirante, Tătăruşanu; Ballo-Touré, Calabria, Gabbia; Bakayoko.
Referee: Giovanni Ayroldi.
Forza Milan! Hopefully Berardi will not do too much damage.
Vranckx would be great if he comes in.
Tonali-Bennacer-Pobega-Vranckx to cover for double pivot
CDK-Adli-Brahim for #10
We still need an upgrade in the RW though.
Berardi does not perform well on big games; however, this is not one of those big games just like the last year’s finale.
Please any link where one can stream this match live?
Our team played with no sense of urgency and now we committed a penalty. The best keeper just saved us.
Very frustrating display. All the possession for 20 mins, created nothing. Got very lucky not to concede and now under pressure. Where are all those people who kept saying all summer, be patient bla bla We have no kessie replacement. Theo has to play every game. Our right wing as always is a disaster and we have 3 strikers who are either old, injured or both. If u add rebic thats 4 ( if he is going to play striker regularly we cant rest Leao) Yes we have 3 attacking midfielders but the holes in the squad are huge and… Read more »
Alexis Saeelemakers needs to be benched for the remainder of the year or sold. He brings nothing to the table except lost balls, and long shots that never hit the target.
He does bring a lot of running. Even when the ball is not in play, he is running. Half time break and he is running again. Not that there is any purpose to his running. But the boy likes to run.
He does like to run doesn’t he!
Why doesn’t Pioli play adli on the right ?
Or play adli am instead of Diaz ?
to many rotations for this game
to worried about the derby and keeping players fresh
Alexis, Diaz and Florenzi should be replaced immediatly. Diaz is the worst of the lot. Zero impact. I don’t know why Pioli insists on that guy. Adli should come in if the coach wants to give CDK some rest ahead of the Derby
Florenzi is doing OK. He’s actually better than Calabria anyway
He did nothing actually. All Sassuolo attacks came down his position and he didn’t make a single cross. There’s no way in hell that he’s better than Calabria. Now that he’s injured, he can go on Sabbatical leave. Kalulu should come in As right back if need be.
Not his best game. Still an acceptable performance for me. He’s lacking consistent playing time. Another day you’ll see Calabria playing much worse.
i agree , Diaz should have been sent back to real
after signings of adli & de keteleare
but Pioli loves him
needed to sign ziyech for the right wing
Saelemaekers decision making is the worst and he doesn’t know when to cross and when not to cross, when to release the ball and when not to, when to tackle and when not to… We definitely need an upgrade in the RW position. we’re not going anywhere with him and Messias as our starting RWs. Also, I won’t be surprised if Leao leaves Milan, I have been saying this since last season, we don’t have a tactics or tactical playstyle. all our players do is pass the ball backwards and kick it up to see if someone can run up… Read more »
Diaz should be the RW now that we won’t buy one. With CDK and Adli sharing the AM.
Sorry, but Diaz is absolutely not good enough. Starting any game with Diaz and Saelemaekers is like having two men short. Diaz has no football sense. He didn’t really do anything in the first game. He was just in the right place to score and assist. He did not create as an AM.
Saelemaekers also has problems with decision making. Several times, he failed to find Giroud. Pioli should have at least started Adli as AM. Or he could have started CdK.
He’ll probably do better as a winger. He holds the ball for too long which is not good for a midfielder especially when having to be the main source of feeding the strikers. His courage in taking men on is ideal for a winger.
We need to make changes before 60th minutes. Half of the bench team is just not good enough.
The first half was nothing to show for I hope second half make positive difference salamakers and florenzi hasn’t find there footing yet
I think no shot on goal till 90mins like seriously what really happened to the boys or was it the formation or not the right starters or fatigue it’s weird for defending champion not to have a goal on target till 90mins maybe additional time we might but let’s see
Pioli’s starting eleven was not strong enough. Having Brahim Diaz and Saelemaekers in the starting 11 was terrible. Two forward players with poor decision making. Hopefully, Milan can recover Origi and Rebic before the derby. Milan needs quality on the bench and not Diaz. Leão had to play 90mins. Bennacer had to play 90mins. There’s shInter at the weekend and UCL at midweek. Signing of Vranckx need to be closed, because there’s need for depth in the midfield. Hopefully, Thiaw can catch up quickly, because Kalulu will have to move to RB with Florenzi injured. Adli has to be the… Read more »
Totally agree with all your points Nino
Well, that’s an eyesore to say the very least. Zero-shot on target sums it up. Florenzi should have been replaced before he got injured. The right flank is Milan’s biggest weakness but that’s a cliche. Pioli has to be more creative, you can’t stick to the same formation always. Diaz should be placed on the bench permanently… A terrible game of football.
Boring game. 1st half bad, 2nd hald just as bad. Either pioli has told them to take it easy because of the derby in 3 days or they think they can win a game by just walking up and downand slowing down. I dont even wanna talk about individual players this time around. On both cases thats wrong. CANNOT DROP POINTS BECAUSE OF A TOUGH SCHEDULE. Thats not how champions should behave. Well, its only the beginning of the season i guess. Im still not ok with this lazy play.
What a waste of points. Sassuolo who we hammered a few months ago have sold some of their best players and others injured and we can’t beat them!! Once again where are those people who kept saying we’re fine be patient bla bla Why do we have 3 am and no rw!? Why have we nobody to play consistently up front? Why have we no replacement for kessie? Why must theo/leao play and rescue every game? Now Florenzi is injured we have kalulu to alternate with calabria, hes also our starting cb. So that is why you need to bring… Read more »
Salamaker can be and should be the sub RB.
RW should be Messias, sub Diaz
AM: CDK sub: Adli
Saladman probably be a good wing/right back alright
Rw i give up. We need a new player there
Am well covered now
I’d do that.Although Diaz would be my 1st choice RW. Messias is rubbish. And fullback could even suit Salad. He’s energetic and hustles and more importantly would be relieved of much attacking decision making. Thought he was better than Messias but maybe that’s wrong. Salad was awful today. Should’ve gotten Ziyech and this mess is solved.
I totally understand the worries here but let’s just relax it’s a terrible draw but atlist we didn’t lose the game sassuolo are no small team in Italy and we away and have a derby at hand although there are some players need not to play nor start in the team but everyone is been paid so there should contribute the little way there can so we can sell them if possible I still belive the season is very long and a lot of games to play poili is just been careful and don’t want to risk his players always… Read more »
All I know is that our management is our enemy the biggest one in that matter
we refused to buy a winger because we have these garbage serie c players who we got for nothing
no game plan and we lost 3 points which every other scudetho contenders would have collected easily
we are like beggars pretending to be Rich
I would say owners not management but i understand what u mean. Serie a champions scraping the barrel to get some replacements. Its one thing losing first team players who want to leave, its another when its for free and there is no money to replace them. I said some months ago we were at a unique moment, 3 top players from being CL contenders. Now we are struggling to stay at the level of last year. End result = Best players want to leave to win trophies, the cycle starts again Dont be surprised if next summer Leao, Bennacer,… Read more »
Theo has the loyalty, not sure about the other 2 though.
We’ll see. Hes an elite player, all the loyalty in the world won’t stop him craving silverware, and would he be wrong?
Perhaps management would take the payday if the owners give no money to invest.
As i say if you got 80m for gigio you can really improve the squad.
Remember when Juve sold Zidane and bought Nedved, Buffon and Thuram. Made it to cl final, only to be beaten by the mighty Milan.
Anyway hopefully it doesn’t come to selling our best, but there must be investment and a clear strategy to keep them
My God. You are still going on are you? Calling out the people who said to be patient? I am right here. Its week freaking 4 of the season FFS. Relax. That Inter team that did so much in the transfer window is literally 1 point ahead of us. And Juventus who did SO MUCH in the transfer window have won 1 game this season. Theo is signed, he isnt going anywhere, neither is Leao, or Bennacer. The takeover is complete. The renewals will come now. Again. Be patient. You see CDK play? Remember when you said he wouldnt make… Read more »
Most of what you said all summer was nonsense and I can’t even address whatever you are trying to say here.
Yes transfer window is closing and we have some late arrivals who need time. We also have massive holes in the squad which I have already posted about and are clear from our games so far
A very wise decision by Pioli to save his strength for the more important match with Inter which is worth 6 points…so a big point today in ecomode 🙂
Leao is great when he is in the mood. But he never seems to be in the mood for a stretch of games. I would take 150m from Chelsea from him and replace him with someone more consistent. Leao is great when he shows up, but to remain a champion and to make it in the CL, you have to show up every single day. I wish we had gone all in Khvicha. The final third was horrendous today. Brahim will not make it in the Serie A. No passes seemed to connect. RW was ineffective as ever. Hopefully it… Read more »
True. Leao is hard to predict. Some games he is superb some other games he disappears. Hopefully, he realizes that he is not mbappe or messi yet. Saladmaker is ok for for certain situations. Management should have known better, they should have replaced him last season. He does work hard, covering for defense and all but most of the time he runs like a headless chicken. Also, not much creativity from midfield yesterday. A lot of long balls. Midfield Hopefully get it. Its only the beginning and new players got to get set in. Honestly, I’d rather see a slow… Read more »
I think the thing with Saelemaekers is that he is a natural RB, or RWB if we stretch it a bit. He is not going to be an “attacking threat”. He will cover lots of ground and bleed for Milan, but it is wrong to expect final third magic from him. It is true that this will be a crazy year with the WC. Slow starts are okay if we are aiming for top 4, but every point counts if we want the Scudetto again, because at the top, the point difference is probably going to be 1-2 points, as… Read more »
The 0-0 scoreline. In Italy, it means both teams played an almost perfect match. Bravo!!
On another note, Milan do need more Italians in the team. Maldini and Massara, please bring in Zaniolo, Parisi, Scalvini next season.
I didn’t watch this game. But I saw the player rating, which says the performance was below par. But with what I saw Milan play against Atalanta, I won’t mind if we lose badly to Inter… why? The team and the coach need to wake up from their scudetto hangover. We can’t play in the champions league with this game attitude and embarrass ourselves there. This is Milan we are talking about