Stefano Pioli’s Milan were left to pick up the pieces in West London after suffering a painful 3-0 loss to Chelsea in their Champions League clash last night, writes Apollo Heyes.
An injury-struck Rossoneri side did not look their best at Stamford Bridge yesterday, falling behind after 24 minutes following a scramble in the box that allowed Wesley Fofana to poke the ball home. Second half goals from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Reece James secured the three points for Graham Potter’s side, leaving an exasperated Milan with nothing in West London.
Here are three things learnt from Milan’s Champions League loss to Chelsea.
For whom the injury bell tolls
An injury crisis struck Milan at the worst time, seeing them without seven first team players as they boarded the plane to London earlier this week. Mike Maignan, Simon Kjaer, Theo Hernandez, Davide Calabria, Alessandro Florenzi, Alexis Saelemaekers and Zlatan Ibrahimovic were all unavailable, heavily limiting Pioli’s options.
Despite their spirit, this situation clearly took a toll on Milan and they didn’t manage to overcome the issue against Chelsea. Only four outfield first team players were on the bench and players who were thrust into the starting 11, like Ciprian Tatarusanu and Sergiño Dest, did not have a good game.
To have Leao and have not
One of the more positive elements for Milan in their defeat was Rafael Leao, who had a good outing in West London as he tried to drive the Rossoneri forward throughout the match. The Portuguese forward proved his qualities on a tough stage and will certainly be regretting his failure to convert a key chance late in the first half.
Chelsea were interested in picking up Leao late in the summer transfer window and his performance, better than many of his Rossoneri teammates around him, would’ve only further wooed the Blues. The 23-year-old completed six dribbles, made four progressive carries and produced two shot-creating actions, trying his hardest to give Milan something to smile about on a tough night.
The young man and the sea
Milan spent their summer chasing Belgian talent Charles De Ketelaere and they finally secured their man, beating out Leeds United, in early August. Two months after his arrival, the 21-year-old is still struggling to show his true qualities in a red and black shirt, something that was again apparent at Stamford Bridge.
Despite his slow start, it’s far too early to write off De Ketelaere, but yesterday’s game is a sign that the Belgian talent will still need some time to fully adapt to both Pioli’s system and the big stage. He only completed 59% of his passes, did not complete a dribble and won only two of his eight duels, so Rossoneri fans may have to wait a little while longer to see why the club invested over €32m into the attacking midfielder.
Don’t sign so many foreigners
Need Italian players. History has shown
Funny thing history, any amount of information can be selected to support any argument.
Not sure what history you are referring to, the last Italian team to win the UCL did so with NO Italian players in the starting line up.
I learned that if you punish Milan once, the team may well fall apart. I doubt any amount of Italians changes that.
Milan great years of you know your history mostly Italians on the field
Don’t forget that my friend.
Inter was lucky that time. But beside that team look at history
1) They stink.
2) They’re overrated.
3) Pioli is a 2nd rate coach.
Be honest, they only won the league last year due to Don Inzaghi. I said it last year and will say it again, Milan do not have enough quality, depth and character in their ranks. Too many brick layers to make things worse. When comparing them to other teams in Europe, they are out matched period.
Still the best team in Italy though.
I have been saying it,am highly disappointed by the display of the team last night but first things first that goal keeper will never remain in that team as soon as his contract expires
We learned 4 things actually.
That Milan only can win inside Italy when pre-arranged options against opponent players are met. Outside Italy when players are not willing to underperform against them it has a very different outcome, LOL.
Example Chelsea crushing Champion’s of Italy 3-0
De Ketelaere needs to watch videos of Kaka and learn from them. One big difference is that Kaka had so much intensity, while CDK is more laidback. Kaka was relentless in his running and had so much conviction in front of the goal, then his talent did the rest. CDK has the talent, but he needs confidence. We need to wait for him.
Milan face the issues that all Italian sides have faced for more than a decade. Lack of resources to have true strength in depth.
on the few opportunities Leao had the ball, he pasted Chelsea’s right hand side. Let’s see how it would’ve been having to cope with him and Theo. Milan played with no first choice keeper, right back, left back, no right wingers available, and rebic and origi not fully fit. A draw would’ve been a miracle.
Add to the lack of depth is a squad with very very little experience at this level. At this level you need quality, leaders and experience. Bar Giroud, the players who played last night have a handful of matches between them at this level. The sad reality is that with the crunched up fixture list due to the world cup, the damage might already be done come match-day 6.
Sad Charles De Ketelaere gets so many chances, yet young Italian get none … what happened to Milan. They use to try to sign and groom young Italians. They were the best at it.
You guys miss the point, 3 mistake 3 goals
If Chelsea had 7 players out. AC win at home.
Chelsea were very Average.
Roso Nieri
Is
So
Right !!!!!
Milan had a lot of players missing and quite crucial ones. Obviously there is an issue around depth of squad – but in that respect no one can compete with the PL.
I’m so fed up with that Italian-obsessed Tony. His history was at the time when no one was allowed to play more than 3 foreign players at the same time, and maximum 6 foreigners could be registered. So you could tell the same “history” with Real Madrid and Spanish, Liverpool and British, etc. Now wake up, we have fast-forwarded 20 years already, tell me how many Spanish that Real started in their last CL final. Are you still in your coma? Hunter gatherer!!!
Milan is not alone. Al Italian clubs perform very poor in Europe and it doesn’t matter whom they play. They become very average, one game they win, another lose against rather mediocre opponents. Napoli is a pleasant surprise but… they don’t win anything, they’ve been having good results against strong teams for some time but… never ever reached even quarter-final either in Champions League or Europa League. Milan looked very poor in the Champions League last year and the same is this year. In all honesty the current team is on par with Salzburg regardless of the result in Milan. And by winning Serie A last year Milan underlined the quality of this competition (like Celtic or Rangers winning Scottish league, so what?)… Unfortunately this is what we have right now. Without changing the whole system, the League will become weaker and weaker… and best players will look somewhere else… I’m talking only about Serie A, not Squadra Azzurra.
Alessandro.
they did try and change the system by introducing the super league. The only way for italian clubs competing at the top table to gain enough income to compete. The situation will actually become worse with the update to FFP.