4 November 2023: A poor showing in Naples last week, and now what seems to be an annual banana skin as Udinese come calling at the San Siro. Milan have only won one of the last five meetings between the clubs, and they aren't exactly firing on all cylinders at the moment . . . .
Milan (4-3-3): Maignan; Tomori, Thiaw, Calabria, Florenzi; Krunic, Musah (Simic 73), Reijnders (Adli 73); Leao (Loftus-Cheek 85), Jovic (Okafor 46), Giroud
Udinese (3-5-2): Silvestri; Bijol, Kabasele, Perez; Walace, Zemura, Payero, Ebosele, Samardzic (Lovric 81); Pereyra (Lucca 73), Success (Thauvin 73)
The support of the home crowd (yes, there were certainly some whistles as well) didn't seem to lift Milan at the start and, in fact, they found themselves chasing the game after only ten minutes of innocuous play when Kabasele moved forward from the back and one-timed a Payero delivery home from just inside the top of the penalty area. This seemed to send the rossoneri into a bit of shock, as le zebrette seized control and struck again less than ten minutes later, swarming into the box with Pereyra cutting a ball back for Samradzic to roll into the far corner (Tomori getting booked for dissent in the aftermath as a bonus). Now the whistles were front and center but Milan seemed unable to wrest control away from the visitors, who had most of the ball for the remainder of the first half and were troubled little by the Milan front three.
Things didn't really improve in the second half - gradually Milan saw more of the ball as Udinese protected the lead, but chances were very scarce and the game seemed to have gone completely out of reach when Calabria was sent off with 15 minutes left for a cynical, unnecessary challenge on Samardzic. But there was a ray of hope four minutes later when half-time substitute Okafor found a crack in the Udinese defense to one-touch Giroud's cross and bang it in off of Silvestri's glove; the anticipated surge forward of red and black never materialized, however, and the visitors saw the game off fairly comfortably holding Milan to only two shots on target for the match. [scoresheet]
The scudetto is a pipe dream at this point, but Europe is also quickly receding into the distance and a win at strugglers Lecce now seems to be a must-have even though the calendar is only in early November.
Men of the Match:
⭐️⭐️⭐️ Lazar Samardžić (Udinese)
⭐️⭐️ Festy Ebosele (Udinese)
⭐️ Christian Kabasele (Udinese)
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