The hosts took the lead with an own goal from Theo Hernandez and a goal from Baschirotto. In the second half, the Rossoneri reacted with goals from Leao and Calabria
By changing the order of the factors, the product does not change: from 2-0 to 2-2 with Roma, from 0-2 to 2-2 with Lecce, but for Milan the glass is still half empty. By the way, the void is made by Napoli, now +9 on the Rossoneri, expected on Wednesday from the Supercoppa derby which at this point of the season has all the air of a watershed on the season of the Italian champions: the victory of trophy would close the bad moment and relaunch the Pioli gang from a mental point of view; a defeat, otherwise, would send everyone to the dock, with a scudetto almost already in Spalletti’s pocket and the round of 16 of the Champions League with Tottenham to play with morale under their shoes. For over an hour, Lecce toyed with the idea of Milan’s scalp, but still comes out to the applause of its fans: we are six useful results in a row, and the football lesson inflicted on Leao and his teammates in the first half will remain in the long memory.
Milan horror
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In the first half there was only one team on the field: the hungry and aggressive Lecce that Baroni designed to perfection, an almost perfect team to which the two goals scored against the Italian champions are even narrow. With a little more luck, the Giallorossi fans could have cheered for an even better result. On the other side there is a Milan that Pioli had promised “determined” before the match, and which instead stages a disturbing festival of approximation at the Via del Mare: always wrong distances between the departments, careless mistakes, tragicomic clashes in the heart of the “I’m going or you going?” area. The result is at least half an hour of Lecce domination, certified by the two goals that bring Milan to their knees: in the 3rd minute Kalulu loses a ball outgoing and hands it over to Di Francesco, who crosses in the middle and finds Theo Hernandez’s deflection. One to zero and devils in a doll. Again Di Francesco and then Strefezza, the two wingers who drive the Rossoneri defense crazy with cuts and changes on the flanks, come close to scoring but just miss the mark. In the 23rd minute it’s 2-0: on the developments of a usual goal, Hjumland fishes Baschirotto’s head in the center, who slips in a stone’s throw from Kalulu. The Frenchman is in total confusion: he enters on both Salento goals. Shortly afterwards, Tatarusanu still shivered, with a colossal opportunity that Gendrey threw to the wind: his header from a Di Franceso cross went sensationally wide. For the first real signals from Milan we had to wait for the 43rd minute, when a nice header from Giroud called Falcone to detour for a corner. Pobega’s shot in the 10th minute, blocked by Falcone, was a flash in the dark. We are at historic lows: this season a Milan so ugly and impotent had not even been seen in the Champions League beatings with Chelsea.
Shock
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The second half opens with two AC Milan changes: Theo, among the worst, off and Saelemaekers, Dest and Messias on. No system changes, but rather a swerve by Pioli: even an untouchable like Hernandez, if he flops in the evening like here in Lecce, can end up out. Lecce spent a lot in the first 45′ and now it shows: Milan gain ground and trust, and above all find the organization in the middle and some good ideas to go vertical. And so in the 58th minute the devils break through: Pobega finds Giroud, Falcone still opposes the Frenchman but the ball, touched by Baschirotto, ends up with Leao who guesses the farthest corner. It is the right shock, to which Pioli adds another by calling Diaz to the bench for Origi: the attack is attempted with the double center forward. The one with more experience, Giroud, does the right thing in the 70th minute: a magnificent tower for Calabria, who heads in the 2-2. In a game like this, as it is almost logical to expect, the final twenty minutes flow more from the gut than from the head, on both sides. Milan hits the post with Messias who is however offside, Lecce nearly scores with a drunken serpentine from Gallo and a very poisonous ball in the middle, which Tomori deflects for a corner. That’s the end, and it’s only Lecce who smiles.
January 14, 2023 (change January 14, 2023 | 22:17)
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