Milan captain Davide Calabria maintains ‘the only way Roma could possibly hurt us was from set plays,’ and acknowledges this is a weakness. ‘We were stupid.’
The Rossoneri were comfortably leading 2-0 thanks to a Pierre Kalulu header on Sandro Tonali’s corner and the Tommaso Pobega counter-attack created by Rafael Leao.
They didn’t allow a single shot on target until the 87th minute, at which point Roger Ibanez and Tammy Abraham on the rebound from a parried Nemanja Matic header completed the comeback on Lorenzo Pellegrini dead-ball situations.
“We thought we’d won it, but we hadn’t, and it is honestly unacceptable to throw it away like that after playing so well,” Calabria told DAZN.
“I think the only way Roma could possibly hurt us was from set plays. They are the best team in Serie A in those situations. Those were their chances and we should not have allowed them, we were stupid.”
It is also not the first time that Milan have conceded from set plays, so is there something that needs to be changed on the marking?
“We always mark in the same way, me and three other players follow our man. They are strong in the air and we can’t afford to give them a single centimetre of space.
“This has to act as a lesson for us, because these situations are part of the game over 90 minutes.”
The Rossoneri are therefore caught in second place by Juventus and the seven-point gap from the leaders means Napoli are crowned Winter Champions with two rounds to spare.
“A game like this has to get us angry, because we should’ve done better in the final minutes,” concluded Calabria.
Curiously, Milan’s opener by Kalulu was from a corner and represented the first header they have scored in Serie A since December 2021, when it was Junior Messias who nodded in.
“We always mark in the same way”
Exactly.
This is why we’re always exposed on setpieces. It clearly isn’t working.
Susy, angry?
Tatarush1t@ss