The varying opinions continue to flood in after AC Milan’s defeat against Bayer Leverkusen, with one piece pointing to the performance of other teams in the Champions League as a guideline for what should have happened.
An article on MilanNews begins by acknowledging that Milan were much improved in the final half-hour of the game against the Bundesliga champions and that we could be talking about a different result but for some missed chances and refereeing controversy.
However, what deserved criticism is the approach up until that point, because Bologna played well at Anfield against Liverpool whule Lille (Paulo Fonseca’s former team) played well and won against Real Madrid.
Aston Villa played well and won against Bayern Munich, and Juventus – with 10 men and two injuries in the 10 ten minutes, with a new coach and many new players – won by coming from behind against RB Leipzig.
Many of the players of the teams mentioned above are having their very first experience in the European field, while many of the Rossoneri players already have plenty of games under their belt. Simply put, this is not the Milan of three years ago who could afford more timid approaches.
Leverkusen are a well-drilled team which has been traveling at a crazy pace for a year, while Milan are a work in progress under Fonseca, but all this cannot justify the ultra-defensive performance in the first hour.
