Milan cruised to a 3-1 victory in the second leg against 10-man Slavia Praha to secure their place in the Europa League quarter-finals as 7-3 aggregate winners. Stefano Pioli’s side travelled to Prague with a comfortable 4-2 lead in the first leg, but they did even better, killing the Czech Republic.
As in the first leg, Slavia gave Milan an important touch of flavour from the start. Davide Calabria was the target of Tomas Holes’ terror tackle in the 20th minute, forcing referee Glenn Nyberg to send off the home team’s captain. The Rossoneri deserved their numerical merit.
Christian Pulisic opened the scoring in the 33rd minute to finish off the tie. However, Milan refused to prevent it. After scoring with a header in the first leg, Ruben Loftus-Cheek got the score back to double the visitors’ lead with a powerful shot from inside the box. Theo Hernandez equalized perfectly.
Star winger Rafael Leao put the icing on the cake just before the break, scoring an absolutely fine goal to make it 3-0. But despite being down for the second game in a row against Milan, Slavia penetrated Pioli’s half. Porous defensive line when Matej Jurasek scored a comfort goal in the 84th minute.
Let’s take a look at our notes in Milan.
Mike Maignan – 6
The French goalkeeper made several catches before getting injured midway through the first half, forcing Pioli to update him.
Davide Calabria – 6
Despite the red card that put this tie beyond doubt, the functionality of the Milan captain was flattered to deceive, in the front third.
Matthew Gabbia – 6. 5
Although the Italian centre-back’s performance was far from perfect, at least he kept his stoppage time finish up in the air. Still, I made a silly reservation.
Fikayo Tomori – 6. 5
It’s still a little rusty after a long time away. There’s a lot of room for improvement.
Theo Hernandez – 7
While most of Milan’s attacks were positioned on the left, the much-loved left-back took advantage of much of the ball tonight and lent a hand to cap off an impressive performance.
Yacine Adli – 6. 5
It turns out that the hype surrounding the young midfielder has led him to believe that he is a new Andrea Pirlo. Their decision-making and good fortune want to be more clinical.
Yunus Moussa – 7. 5
Unlike Adli, the USMNT star simply stunned tonight, running around in socks in the middle of the park. Running equally both ends of the court.
Rafael Leao – 7. 5
Another piece of magic from Leao brought the crowd to its feet as the Portuguese winger showed off a series of dribbling down his favourite left flank.
Ruben Loftus-Cheek – 8
He may be Milan’s key player in the second half of the season, as evidenced by the electrifying performance of the in-form playmaker.
Christian Pulisic – 7
Not only did he score in the third game of the rotation, but the U. S. captain kept Slavia’s defenders on their feet during the first half with his dizzying runs down the right.
Olivier Giroud – 6
It’s a shame he failed to score in second-half stoppage time to regain confidence in a difficult period, but the veteran striker deserves credit for his commitment.
Marco Sportiello – 6. 5
Malick Thiaw – 7
Kalulu Stone – 6. 5
Samuel Chukwueze – 6
Tijjani Reijnders – 6
This article was first published in The Cult of Calcio and was reprinted with permission.
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