Santiago Gimenez had gone over two months without scoring a goal for AC Milan, but he ended his drought against Venezia on Sunday.
Calciomercato.com recall that it had been 79 very long days since Gimenez had scored against Feyenoord in the Champions League, his most recent goal. Then, the Mexican centre-forward sealed the win over Venezia with a nice lob, patting the Milan crest as he went to celebrate in front of the fans.
Sergio Conceicao had only given him seven minutes on the field against Atalanta and in the Coppa Italia derby, an unmistakable sign of how he is now behind Tammy Abraham and Luka Jovic in the hierarchy.
With the score at 1-0, Conceicao decided to give a bigger opportunity to Gimenez, who came on in the 65th minute. Things didn’t start well as he failed to hit the target after an excellent cross by Loftus-Cheek, then ruined a counter-attack.
Deep into injury time, he scored a goal that could be considered a potential turning point. He didn’t even connect sweetly with Tijjani Reijnders’ ball over the top, but got it over Radu and it nestled in. It is a third league goal for the former Feyenoord player, who hopes to put the struggles behind him.
The goal scored against Venezia is more useful to Gimenez than to Milan. The Rossoneri leadership ‘have not questioned the investment’ even in these two months without goals and with so many games started on the bench.
Santi will be ‘the striker of the new era’, beyond any evaluation of Jovic and Abraham or the possibility of a new striker arriving. The Diavolo are still prepared to ‘go all-in’ on Gimenez for the present and, above all, for the future.
