Fikayo Tomori, Olivier Giroud and Christian Pulisic, three Chelsea veterans were present in the Newcastle United box at the same time, drawing a triangle. The Milan centre-back passed through, Giroud was not greedy, and Pulisic, who was in a better position, received the ball and ate the cake easily. Milan levelled the score to 1-1 and suddenly regained their vitality, and while the whole team was celebrating, Rafael León ran to the sidelines and asked the Milan staff: "How many are Dort and Paris?"”
The price of beauty
This is the truest instinctive reaction of a hot-blooded guy. León is certainly not the most efficient player in the world of football, not necessarily the best striker in Serie A, but he is probably the simplest and most sincere of the first-line stars. A few minutes later, León was touched in the box, and instead of taking the opportunity to fall to the ground, expecting the Dutch referee to punish the home team, he continued to try to dribble forward, but his step was already staggering and the ball was returned to his opponent. Pioli on the sidelines was annoyed, and although there was only body language in the camera, what he was thinking in his mind was: At this juncture, why is Leon still so sincere?
Back in the first leg against Newcastle, Leon tripped himself in the first half as he tried to solve the problem with his heel. At the post-match press conference, Pioli's statement was ambiguous: "People who love football will love León, but if I were a player, I would definitely be in that position." After the game, the Milan coach almost choked up in front of the camera, his frustration was visible to the naked eye, and the most regrettable thing for him was, of course, failing to beat Newcastle in the opening game of the group stage. Looking back, if Leon hadn't missed that opportunity, would Milan's group stage campaign have a different result?
León is a beautiful player, and the price of beautiful football is expensive. Newcastle also tried to play beautifully, they dominated in the first half, and after being equalized in the second half, they pressed heavily and finally fell into the trap of beauty. On the other side, León also continued his beautiful mistakes: in the 79th minute, the score was still 1-1, Livramento's mistake allowed Milan to win a counter-attack, Jovic's through ball was just right, Leon strode forward, single-handedly facing Newcastle City, but kicked the ball to the post. At that moment, how many people thought of Niang against Barcelona 10 years ago?
From Niang to León
In the spring of 2013, Niang's squandering spell led to tragic consequences both at the individual and team level. Milan were knocked out of the Champions League by Barcelona, and it was the Rossoneri's last competitive season before the "dark years" fell completelyNiang himself missed the best chance to make a name for himself, and his career has faded into mediocrity amid chaos and successive loan spells at Milan.
In the winter of 2023, Leon's squandering of this single knife ended up being almost insignificant. It was thanks to Chukwueze, who came off the bench in the 83rd minute and scored with a left-footed shot into the far corner two minutes later to open the scoring in back-to-back Champions League games. Despite never being satisfactory in the league, Chukwueze seemed to be energized with extra energy as soon as the Champions League theme song sounded. It was Jovic who provided the assists, and the Serb didn't seem comfortable at the start of the season with an extremely thin presence on the pitch, but in recent games he has been proving his worth with goals, assists and fluid link-ups.
Stefano Pioli, who Chifu was referring to, also relieved some of his burdens on the night at St James' Park, and his substitutions played a decisive role. Previously, Milan was completely passive in the first half, Loftus-Cheek was in the forward position, lacking cooperation with his teammates, and the double back of Reindes and Moussa was almost useless, the Magpies' attack was organized with great ease, and Joelinton's heavy artillery goal was also the result of the home team's continuous cooperation. In the second half, Stefano Pioli turned the deficit around by bringing on Jovic for 442, and then brought on Chukwueze and Okafor, making perfect use of the gaps left by Newcastle's attacking efforts.
Regret is followed by opportunity
Milan did not collapse on a cold night when Newcastle were close to freezing, but the home team's defence collapsed in the closing stages of the game. A desperate Dubravka pressed on the attack, Te'o couldn't capitalise on an empty goal, and Fikayo Tomori slotted the ball to the post on the counter-attack that followed – a goal should have been the best reward given the first half of the time he had made a save in front of the goal.
However, Milan didn't care much about the change in the scoreboard, they cared more about West**, but they couldn't get good news from there: Dort's 1-1 win with Paris meant that Milan were out of the tournament due to the disadvantage of goal difference in each other's records. Last season's Champions League semi-finals were disappointing this season, but given the grouping situation, Milan got eight points from six games in the Group of Death, which is actually okay. You must know that after the draw, from multiple perspectives such as the value of the whole team, the promotion odds, and the club's revenue, Milan is actually the third place in this group, and it may be a high probability event to be out.
Is playing in the Europa League a good thing for Milan?In the 2020-21 season, the Europa League became a stage for Milan to rotate players, give confidence to the whole team, and adjust the pace of the season. I believe that the Europa League campaign that season has largely contributed to the league's performance. What about this time?Pioli said: 'Playing in the Europa League was certainly not our goal at the beginning, but it was also a very important competition. Milan have never won the Europa League in their history, so we'll do our best to go further. ”
For Milan's existing hand, going hand in hand in the Champions League and league may be a bit too demanding. But the Europa League is not the Champions League, and Milan may be able to better digest the Europa League, take advantage of the Europa League and look forward to creating some surprises in the Europa League. Of course, this requires a basic premise: Milan, with a relatively full squad, have already proven their worth in a number of key games;Next, the team can't go on like this.