Team news: Milan were without Sergiño Dest, Aster Vranckx, Yacine Adli, Tiémoué Bakayoko and Zlatan Ibrahimović who were out of the Champions League list, as well as without Rafael Leão, while Inter had a full squad at their disposal. Kickoff time for the first leg of the Champions League semi-final is 21:00 CEST at Stadio San Siro.
Goals: Džeko (8′), Mkhitaryan (11′)
AC Milan (4-2-3-1) – Stefano Pioli
Mike Maignan; Davide Calabria (82′ Pierre Kalulu), Simon Kjær (59′ Malick Thiaw), Fikayo Tomori, Theo Hernández; Sandro Tonali, Rade Krunić; Brahim Díaz (82′ Tommaso Pobega), Ismaël Bennacer (17′ Junior Messias), Alexis Saelemaekers (59′ Divock Origi); Olivier Giroud.
Unused: Mirante, Nava; Ballo-Touré, Gabbia; De Ketelaere, Rebić.
F.C. Internazionale Milano (3-5-2) – Simone Inzaghi
André Onana; Matteo Darmian, Francesco Acerbi, Alessandro Bastoni; Denzel Dumfries, Nicolò Barella, Hakan Çalhanoğlu (78′ Roberto Gagliardini), Henrikh Mkhitaryan (62′ Marcelo Brozović), Federico Dimarco (70′ Stefan de Vrij); Lautaro Martínez (78′ Joaquin Correa), Edin Džeko (70′ Romelu Lukaku).
Unused: Cordaz, Handanovič; D’Ambrosio, Zanotti; Asllani, Bellanova, Gagliardini, Gosens.
Referee: Jesús Gil Manzano (Spain).
We are going to war without our most effective weapon! Only a good tactic can see us through at this point. I expect Milan to sit deep and wait for counter opportunities considering our weak attacking options. Trying to play an attacking game will leave us extremely exposed. I hope Pioli learnt some tricks from Ancelotti last night on how to contain attack minded teams.
to Be honest we don’t have bench at all the depth is not enough we just been lucky but in as much we have come this far and the luck that brought us this far will take us to the final wish Rafael Leo quick recovery hope the boys win on his behave
LEAO !!!!!! where are you ????
Why have you left us in this hard time ?
Can’t blame him if he has second thoughts.Its an insult to the achievement to keep playing Mess ias, the owners refuse to spend
They’d be all over Leao if he played tonight, leaving him no space and our play would suffer greatly. Alex-Bennacer-Diaz is more unpredictable for Inter defence.
Lord Calabria !!
Fuck me , twice like butter
pathetic
Not entairly his fault. Terrible organization, how can a midget be asainged to mark Dzeko during set pices.
Fucks sake switch on
Calabria continues to be our weakest link in this team and you had him defending Dzeko. Very interesting coaching assignment.
Yeah. What was that all about?!! Shockingly stupid. Cover the biggest guy from inter with the 2nd smallest guy in our team. Idiotic at best.
Pretty sure we aren’t that advanced we have assignments. In order to mark dm’s pioli uses a cm as attacking midfielder instead of actually drilling the team to do it as a whole. Allegri 2.0
Bro I don’t understand how stupid coach is still there, which kind of football, ac milan weakness is they given you to play but others never give them to play
This is not a match!!! It’s a f*cking ambush and we are humiliated
Fuck that was a third one from monkeytharian!
embarrassment
Lol finally the bald fraud Pioli is exposed, it’s a terrible shame it had to happen on such a big stage to humiliate us but it was coming.
#PioliOut
What a horrible horrible start.
Shocking absolutely shocking I’m gutted
F..ing calabria.
Our right side of the field is waek bro, no different
They should take the captain from this uncomfortable player with the ball
Calabria doesn’t have confidence and the coach cannot give him confidence, look at the others teams theirs full back play, we need to improve the way we play
I freaking hate shinter. Ugly, disgusting team.
Disaster, penalty now. Wth. Good job pioli for.prepping your team right.
Thank god.no pk
We need half time this is disaster go 3 at bk try something, anything but this. Without leao we have no pace for counter attack if pressed bk like this.
One goal can boost the moral of the boys and try savage something here or we concede again and it’s all over
Whoever our fitness coach is needs to get fired asap. We always look tired as hell. Run out of gas to quick. Shinter have not played less games than us.
Calabria on Dzeko? Who’s bright idea was that? Guy is twice his size. This is a total blackout, they are outplaying us in every aspect.
Feel bad for Napoli , they would have given a deserving fight than us !
Buy good quality players our management will say no this is the result
Quality definitely an issue. Only 2-3 players can make a good precise pass.
By now our management should have known that the difference between inter and Milan is quality players they have in each position they spent so much money or better out of contract players than Milan did. How could we budget 50m in a season And expect to win cups? football nowadays is money and no good player is coming to a club without money the players tried on their own to reach this stage but tonight they would have given more Giroud was jumping before the ball got to him and Kalulu would have played instead of Calabria Kjær is… Read more »
If we had a decent coach we could mitigate this for the second half maybe get a goal and hope for Leao and Bennacer’s return for the second leg with better tactics.
We have Pioli.
In all seriousness we need to have one hell of a halftime talk and shore up the defense, Zlatan needs to kick their asses into high gear for the second half.
After everyone saying that Milan chance is in counters, because thats the only tactic Pioli can actually implement, Pioli decides to not listen anyone and play open football against Inter. As expected he got hammered. Master strategist. Now he can’t play on counters even if he wants too smh.
I don’t think Milan were playing attacking thou. Inter defenders were playing high line while Milan taking pressure from corners for the first goal and second goal was from a backfired long ball move. Team just not good enough under pressure mentally and physically. Should be more attacking with lot of pressing instead, like they are doing now in the second half
Inter let us go high in the second half, they know we can’t do anything in posesion. Otherwise you can tell if Milan is playing more atacking when Krunic/Tonali goes further up the pitch, which leaves our defense exposed. When we play more defensive like with Napoli they sit closer to our CBs.
How do you play 4 midfielders and concede 2/goals in 11 minutes? Our players are afraid to give all in the game and this is the game CDK will be better
Their attacking plan was letting Inter press high then send long ball to Giroud to flick/drop it for players making attacking run. Guess what ? This is exactly how we conceded the second goal. Half the team was running forward for Girouds flick from Maignans long pass, instead Giroud dropped the ball for Inter players and they just ran through for a early finish. Team should not play long ball tactics in the first place. It’s small team tactic. But guess it’s the only way for this team to beat high pressing seeing its two midfielders Tonali and Krunic who… Read more »
What the fuck , I thought salesmakwe was the only one who showed balls and was running all ground , he’s subbed out !
Agreed why the fuck take saelenaakers off
he’s the guy looking like making something
happen for fucks sake
To be fair to Pioli; he has done a very good job with this team. I am sure no one expected him to get this far. The management kept us in this situation when they refused to make proper signings, this team lack a proper attacking midfielder, a consistent RW.. also, there is no squad depth for rotation.
It was Pioli who was satisfied with Salamakers, Messias, Krunic, Diaz. He has as much fault for those players staying as much as Maldini and Masara have. He also said that they are not loking for Kessie replacment because he preferes a bit different type of player in that role.
100% agreed with what you said Redbird/Elliott are here for business they come to make money they don’t come to build milan
Look at the stupid face of our president.
He must be thinking, I should’ve.
This is the guy who says our expectation is 5th place establishes financial rules for an EL team makes a profit and won’t have the courtesy to make substantial investment on the squad.
Now this team won the league and is playing against a team who invests no matter how imbalanced the books are.
Maldini, Pioli, and the boys deserve better.
The worst guy in this group is Maldini he takes bribe from this owners and lie to the fans most, he always claim milan are in good hands while they can’t afford to buy one quality player for 50ml he always talks nonsense and do nothing
Bribe? Ever since he retired he waited for the phone to ring, Silvio never wanted him. Milan was a duo Silvio and Galliani and they knew how to play with money and expectation Maldini can’t support other club, there is only AC Milan, he only has one chance. Why on earth will be on his best interest to bring the club down? If you’re looking for corruption look at bianconeri and shinter. Maldini deserves respect, he can only get 30m that’s his wage cap. FOFF this is not Almeria this is AC Milan. The books were already balanced before covid… Read more »
Yes i will blame Maldini because he is our legend at least he should tell us the truth that this guy’s are broke he isn’t employer he is our legend everything’s happening today is killing his dignity if he feels this Redbird are not the right people for milan he should leave why did he lie to us year after year you must know we are not alone when it comes to ffp almost every team in this world are struggling for ffp yet they are buying some quality players while some of them spending big money when you look… Read more »
He is killing his dignity. The man manages Milan but with the budget of Monza which spent €46.66m last summer, just like AC Milan who had to play in CL. Mate, he retired and we stopped being a protagonist in Europe, he comes back and we are once again protagonists in Europe. You will never understand, the real owner of the club is Maldini, Baresi, and a few others, the house is still San Siro and its power lies in that trophy room and every person saying Forza Milan. Take Maldini off this team and only Tonalli will remain, don’t… Read more »
Don’t forget boban was here and resigned after when he felt these people are not serious about building milan but our legend remains and cares few millions that he received from this scams, why did he lie to us every time and said milan are in good hands to tell you the truth that old Maldini was our legend but this new Maldini is scam
Have you seen that punch from Krunic on the inter player inside our box. ? That’s what a guy dealing with anxiety issues do. We were lucky there
Should’ve been a straight red not only for dangerous malicious play but for sheer stupidity.
Did you see how Dumfries was ramming Diaz? Inter crushed the boys bones this is why you need a guy like Ibra. Where was our captain? Our grintaesque 08?
This should be Messias last game for the team. Awful player
Losing by 2 goals and still passing around in the back! wow
When you sub brahim with Pobega having Rebic still sitting , passing back is the best option.
Everything Pioli could’ve’ done wrong he did; Subbing off Salad, taking off Brahim, putting on Origi, playing slow in the back. Inter were poor in the second half with more pressing we could’ve gotten something.
As it stands we’re lucky to have escaped only two goals down, hopefully Leao and Bennacer are back for the second leg. Thankfully we’re secure in the top four since Pioli put strong lineups and used good tactics we can finally rest our players after a hard campaign for the second leg.
Oh wait…
What did Messias do in orther to stay on the pitch for 90min. He destroyed every atack from the right with his slow pace. Such a waste of 10mil. Didn’t anyone in this team said, hey wait a second this is 30year old guy who has no speed, no superior dribling, no acceleration, no special long shot…so maybe just maybe he is not a winger ment for top teams but ruther one for bottom teams like the ones in which he spent most of his career. Such bad management.
Piolis subs are classy ones , continuously last few matches he is rotating the team and subbing of players in such crucial juncture of the league ultimately to see what happened today.
Remember Arsenal were all along on top of the league and not win it. Someone needs to step in !
Boy!!! Junior Messias should have just remained a delivery boy fr instead of trying out football and stressing Milan fans worldwide. A simple curler into the far left post but the delivery man bottled it.
conceded 2 early goals in semifinal is just unacceptable. You are 4 best teams left in the tournament and you caught “sleeping” in early phase.
i really don’t understand. It is either the players are mentally weak or the stategy is wrong.
hope the team can bounce back at second leg eventhough it will be hard..
We were very lucky, felt more like a 0-4 before the 25th
Anyway, they have Serie A to salvage and grab that CL spot. That should be priority for the club. Also, I wouldn’t want to play finals against Real or City with that kind of showing. We’d be trashed and humiliated.
Sky reports Bennacer already finished his season with serious knee injury and will undergo arthroscopic surgery still today.
I think we have some inter fans here , especially those criticizing our legend maldini… No true Milan fan would be defending the inter fan we have as coach, while bashing our legend… This season we are not in the top 4, not in the coppa Italia, didn’t win the suppercoppa, our only achievement is the UCL semi’s where we aren’t putting up a fight against inter. Some of you claim we don’t have a bench, but everyone thought cdk was a top prospect, origi too was a sensible addition, we also have great defenders in kalulu and thiaw, rebic… Read more »