Milan-Cremonese 1-1, Messias responds to Okereke

A scratch before the gong. Milan caught Cremonese again at the San Siro at the last minute, but regrets weighed heavily and weakened the team, cheered on under the curve at the end of the game, while there were those up front trying to run away. Okereke, with pride and cynicism, nearly scored away from home with a goal fifteen minutes from the end, but Messias’s left foot brought Cremo back to clay and kept AC Milan afloat. In the meantime, Pioli sees a very fast train pass by him: it is the one for the Champions League, on which Lazio, Juve, Inter, Atalanta and Rome sit, all winners except for the Giallorossi, who stopped in Monza. Milan are currently sixth in the standings, two points behind the Nerazzurri, still clinging to the carriage.

The choices

—

Pioli upsets the team as expected. The next step is Lazio at San Siro, a direct match in a Champions League key, while the semi-final derby is on the horizon. Here are the seven changes compared to the match against Roma: inside the four Belgians – De Ketelaere, Vranckx, Saelemaekers and Origi – Ballo-Touré in place of Theo and the Kalulu-Thiaw tandem in defense. Ballardini responds with a solid and prudent 4-4-1-1, with Benassi as a winger, Bonaiuto on the left and Felix as the only striker, with the aim of not giving references to the Rossoneri. Behind him the Chilean playmaker Pablo Galdames, supported by two running midfielders and substance, Pickel and Meité, who moved from Milan two years ago for just six months.

CDK is wrong

—

The transformist Pioli tries to sting the Cremonese by distorting its dogmas. Milan put aside the 4-2-3-1 and switch to a more offensive 4-2-2-2, where Origi plays the left wing – the role with which he was launched in Lille by Rudi Garcia – and the two playmakers , CDK and Diaz, float on the trocar pushing forward, in the striker area. Ballo tries to play Theo, and for the first 10′ he doesn’t look bad, but the difference is all in the game: the Frenchman attacks in the central streets, the Senegalese goes to the back, so Pioli doesn’t have anyone to break the opponent’s line. However, the tactical approach proves him right: after ten minutes Kalulu rewards the insertion of Saelemaekers behind Vasquez, the Belgian controls and beats Carnesecchi, slipping on the grass and receiving the applause of Ibra in the stands, but Pairetto stops everything: offside . Cremo defends the fort with the best weapons it has, namely the experience of Chiriches and the thrusts of Sernicola, but it is Milan who play the game. The most important opportunity comes to De Ketelaere in the 20th minute. The Belgian is good at chasing a ball lost for thirty meters, but then fiddles with the ball by getting stopped by Carnesecchi, good on the way out. However, the curve appreciates, and for at least five minutes sings in honor of him: “De Ketelaere, let us do a goal”. He tries, he starts well, but as the minutes go by he falls back into that vortex of wrong choices that has been affecting him since the beginning of the year. Origi winger seems to work better instead, commits Cremonese a couple of times, but the Rossoneri do not sink.

Hit Okereke

—

The first acts of Pioli and Ballardini are logical, chess-like: Bennacer out and Krunic in, while Cremo sends Valeri and Okereke onto the field in place of Bonaiuto and Benassi, two quick counter-attack players. Milan builds, keeps possession, but does not affect, bogging down ten meters from the finish: in the 60th minute Diaz devours the 1-0 goal by sending the ball high over the crossbar from not even ten meters, after an excellent thrust by Saelemaekers right, among the best of his. Three minutes later Valeri does the same, always with his head and always from ten meters away, despairing under the clove of the Grigiorossi fans. At this point San Siro vibrates and stands up for the substitutions: Pioli drops the two jokers, Leao and Giroud, who entered in place of a good Origi and the usual De Ketelaere, proactive but inconclusive. In the end, after a sterile siege, Cremonese finds the spark in the 77th minute with David Okereke, the man of heavy goals who had already scored at San Siro against Inter (seventh ring in Serie A). The Nigerian takes advantage of a clash between Thiaw and Kalulu, checks with his left foot and punches Maignan, celebrating next to the flag and with the whole grey-red bench next to him.

Last second

—

Ballardin’s shot succeeds in half. Two minutes from the end Milan show their pride and scratch: Messias’ free kick from the trocar, the ball crosses the area, is deflected and ends up on goal, taking away from the Grigiorossi their third success in 5 games. There is time for the last two thrills: Pickel is sent off for having hit Tonali with a distant ball during action by Cremo on the left. Then Milan’s hopes of a comeback were shattered by a great save by Carnesecchi – the best – from Krunic’s right foot. Thus ends, 1-1 with Messias solver. But in this way the Champions League is a risk.