Milan Circle
Napoli and Inter Beat Atalanta and Juventus respectively, and AC Milan were forced to draw 0-0 at home by Bologna – in serie A round 31, the league structure did not evolve in the direction expected by red and black fans, but made the championship battle confusing. Dropping points under the watchful eyes of the 70,000 fans at the San Siro Stadium is somewhat to the chagrin of milan's generals, but life always has to look forward, and finding problems before the real hard battle arrives is not entirely a bad thing. If red and black want to rise, the iron needs to be hard.
Familiar plot, familiar score
We might as well put some "poisonous milk" data first -
Prior to this serie A round, Milan had won six straight against Bologna and scored at least two goals in each game, and in the first round of the season, Bennacer and Ibrahimovic scored two goals in the last minute to help Milan win 4-2.
Milan have won 11 of their last 12 games against Bologna, the last loss was six years ago, when it was only a small 0-1 loss.
Bologna have won 2 of their previous 4 league games and lost 2 of their previous 10 serie a games, only 1 of the last 10 serie a rounds, plus coach Mikhailovic have suffered from leukemia twice, and the whole team is in a state of mourning...
Milan, on the other hand, are in the midst of a three-game winning streak in the league, with a match-tolerant rate on the table, and the soldiers have even moved into the training base, which can be described as high morale. In terms of strength and form, the Rossoneri should all take three points at home.
But the result? Let's put another set of data -
Against Bologna, Milan fired 17 shots from the first half, the highest half-time shot in a Serie A match since Catania in April 2013, and the 33 shots on goal in the match were OPTA's most unscored shots in Serie A since the 2004/05 season.
With 33-8 shots on goal, 7-4 shots on target, and 11-42 goals, Milan's data in San Siro can be described as an overall advantage, and the players' position map even shows a situation of offensive and defensive drills, but the final score is 0-0.
Like Juve in the Italian national derby the day before, Milan had the initiative throughout the game, and the overall performance was not bad, but they could only accept the end of losing 2 points at home, which once again explained the charm of football - the momentum may not score, the score is the last word.
In fact, such an outcome was already foreshadowed. In the penultimate round of Serie A last season, Milan also played at home, facing the same desireless Cagliari, and finally the whole game was unsuccessful, harvesting a 0-0 game, forcing itself into the desperate situation of Atalanta in the final round, and almost missing the Champions League qualification. Tackling tough battles is the obvious shortcoming of this Milan team, which can explain why Pioli's team will become a "home bug" and an "away dragon", which is also one of the reasons why Milan is good at strong dialogue.
Phased analysis of the draw at Bologna
If you look back at the whole game, Milan are not without a chance to score three points. At least the post-match ratings of the players are very telling, except for Messias, who was replaced at half-time for poor play, the Milan starters all scored more than 7 points, which shows that the team as a whole is playing normally, failing to win the game, on the one hand, the shooting is not good, on the other hand, the opposing goalkeeper is hanging, in addition to the lack of some luck, and all of this is part of the game.
We can think of the first half as the first stage of the game. Bologna did not put on the iron barrel array, but sacrificed the posture of hand-to-hand combat, and almost every point on the offensive end of Milan was mainly "disturbed". The key to Milan's attack is the left side of Leo and Theo, as well as the forward position of Díaz's starting organization, and when the two places are rhythmically mixed, it is difficult to launch a layered and sharp attack. But Bologna were not a strong team and were almost out of touch before half-time, but Milan failed to seize this point in time to complete the decisive blow that set the winning moment.
The first half of the second half was the second stage of the game. Pioli saw that the attack was unfavorable, but fortunately replaced Mesias, who played mediocre in hand-to-hand combat, with Rebic, hoping to use the "strongest spoiler" to control chaos. The arrangement did work, with Bologna's physical and morale battered and almost overwhelmed by the half-time. If Bologna doesn't seek change at this point, Milan are likely to win the game in a single shot.
Since all-round hand-to-hand combat was no longer feasible, Bologna changed its strategy and opened a full-scale retreat, thus entering the third stage of the game. Pioli did not let Ibrahimovic and Giroud play a double center at this time, but replaced Giroud with Ibrahimovic to continue to attack, which became the most debatable point for Milan's impromptu adjustment. Milan, who was in a difficult position, began to try to hang the high ball into the box, but the effect was not obvious.
Milan bombed in the air, Bologna will not be indifferent, they replaced Bonifazzi in the 82nd minute to make up for the height gap in the defense, so that Milan also lost the advantage in air supremacy. Therefore, the final stage of the game can be regarded as the fourth stage of the game. The Rossoneri frequently played high balls, but with little success, Ibrahimovic's header was high over the crossbar, Rebic's final blow was deflected by the brave Skorupuski, and the scoreboard of San Siro could only be fixed at 0-0.
Throughout the course of the game, Milan's way of playing was not too much of a problem, and the failure to win was the result of many factors. An interesting statistic is that in the last 4 rounds, Milan have fired 80 shots on goal, but only scored 3 goals, of which only 1 goal has been scored in the sports battle, which is far more than "low". A 1-0 win is efficient, but first of all to make sure that he can score, and based on a solid defense of five consecutive clean sheets, Pioli should find more offensive changes for the team.
(Post-match rating, no low score for the Milan team)
Peer support is only for a while, and glory needs to be fought for by oneself
After the end of this serie A round, Milan have good news and a bad news - the good news is that due to the loss of one of the main threats, Atalanta, Milan's points advantage over the 5th place has stabilized at 13 points, unless there is a super crash, and the "consecutive Champions League" season goal is basically achieved; the bad news is that due to Napoli and Inter winning, only one point ahead, but the relatively unfavorable milan title situation has become grim.
(Rivals in the final stages of serie A champions)
According to the general expectations of public opinion in the season, this season's Serie A should be juve and Inter competition, the result is that the Bianconeri frantically dropped the chain in the first half, and the Nerazzurri in the second half of the quagmire, because of the "background of peers", Milan can still lead the standings at this node. The current situation of Apennine football is that there is no team with absolute dominance, so whoever in the top three of the table passes by the champions will feel sorry.
For Milan, the first task is still to stabilize the basic set of entering the Champions League, and then run to the dream at their own pace. After all, you can't always expect your opponent to make mistakes, and all glory must be won by yourself. At the same stage last season, I used "Instead of hoping for others, it is better to rely on myself" as a column title, and milan today faces the same situation, but the stage has changed from competing for the fourth place to competing for the title.
Compared with competitors, Milan's strength and schedule are not dominant, and they can rely on nothing more than a fight, but it is this desire to win that can become the capital for the rise of a team. So far this season, the red and black soldiers have faced difficulties again and again, and finally come out with unity and resilience, in this sprint stage, I hope that the small setbacks at home can once again become the driving force for the growth of the team, and run to the finish line without regrets. Forza Milan！