The AC Milan fans who attended San Siro for the Coppa Italia game against Roma hoped to see the debuts of Santiago Gimenez and Joao Felix, and they were not disappointed.
As La Gazzetta dello Sport recalls, the first treat of the evening came from the PA announcer ‘Gegio’, who called out the names of the winter additions even if they were not among the starters. First Gimenez, then Joao, and the crowd went wild.
Gimenez and Felix were welcomed like this for their baptism at San Siro, but in the end it would have all been in vain if it hadn’t ended the way it did. The Mexican and the Portuguese ended up coming off the bench and providing something very encouraging, thankfully.
Fever pitch
One figure, meanwhile, already made it clear how the atmosphere was: 12,000 tickets were sold from Monday (transfer deadline day) to the day of the game, or an average of 4,000 per day.
It is the mercato effect, with the five signings having restored enthusiasm and even having the power to stop the recurring protest. The fans would have liked to see them from the start, but a bit of caution was needed.
It is partly for tactical reasons – especially against of a Roma side that have been much better under Claudio Ranieri – and partly because Gimenez was coming off a muscular issue and Joao Felix has a limited amount of minutes in his legs.
They made their entrance with half an hour remaining with the game at 2-1, not too long after Dovbyk had halved the deficit. In short the game was in the balance still, so it wasn’t just a good catwalk to introduce them.
The perfect entrance
It took just one minute to see San Siro rise up while Gimenez quickly escaped Hummels and then didn’t quite win the foot race with Ndicka to get fully through on goal. It took just four minutes to admire the Mexican’s assist for the almost namesake Jimenez, before the flag went up.
Joao Felix – theoretically destined for the position behind Gimenez – moved a bit everywhere, with methods that have been seen very little in this year’s Milan. His first touches, quick link-up play and excellent technique are something that has been lacking.
The ‘forbidden dream’ came true in just 12 minutes, when Gimenez tried again for an assist by putting a team-mate through, this time for Joao Felix and this time onside. The Portuguese applied the finish brilliantly, beating Svilar with a lob.
In the pre-match interview, technical director Geoffrey Moncada made the fans dream a little more over Felix: “Permanent deal? It depends on us, on him. There’s always a possibility. We have a really good relationship with Chelsea, we’ll see in the summer”. In the meantime, Milan can enjoy him now.
