Brianza poker in a game where anything happens, especially in the final. Goals from Pessina (penalty), Mota Carvalho, Giroud, then Pulisic’s equalizer and finally goals from Bondo and Colombo. Jovic sent off at the start of the second half
– monza
Warren Bondo’s braids flutter like flags on the U-Power Stadium lawn. His good eyes, certainly incredulous, look for teammates and fans in every direction. The man of the match from Monza-Milan is a French boy who chose to score his first goal in Serie A in the ninetieth minute, under the curve, and with a right-footed shot from the top of his hat. Palladino laughs, receives applause and gets his first success of the season against a big team: 4-2 against a Milan that is anything but brilliant. The protagonist, after all, is always the number ten, but this time they are not the figures he hoped to get from Milan. Stefano Pioli showed up in Monza with the reserve trident, Leao on the bench and with the confidence of the last period, eager to achieve the tenth useful result in a row in Serie A, but he left with four slaps on the face and an expulsion, betrayed by one of his solvers. The red card received by Luka Jovic, today in the “tu quoque?” version, is the manifesto of a sudden and deserved defeat (4-2), the result of individual errors and questionable choices. The four heroes who emerged from the mist are Captain Pessina, Dany Mota, Colombo and Warren Bondo. Milan fails to overtake Juventus.
so on the pitch
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Palladino launches a Monza with two faces that oscillates between solidity and imagination. The left-handed players, Colpani and Valentin Carboni, lead the attacking midfield, while Gagliardini and Pessina act in the middle. On the wings, however, two solutions: Birindelli contains and acts as a pendulum, Mota varies and creates, with the ram Djuric ready to elbow in front. In Milan festival of novelties. Pioli launches the B trident with Chukwueze, Jovic and Okafor, chooses the double playmaker (Adli-Bennacer) and dusts off Thiaw, who returned to play against Rennes after four months. The last match in Serie A dates back to 25 November. Ibra and Galliani stand out in the stands.
approaches
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Milan approach the match in the usual way, that is, by building low, releasing one of the central players when there is a need to set up and relying on the outbursts of the wingers, but there is a problem: the interpreters. Chukwueze runs out of gas twice in a quarter of an hour and then switches off, Okafor is not Leao and Adli and Bennacer step on each other’s toes. The tip of the balance is Thiaw, back in the starting lineup after four months but decidedly dazed and in difficulty. Monza, on the other hand, does what it has to do: stems every draft and closes the lines, relying on the inventiveness of Carboni and Colpani. The first, pure left-handed, challenges Maignan with a shot from outside and calls for the ball. Palladino’s imperative is to avoid throwing the ball away, but to build with Olympic calm to find the opening. The first, however, was found by Milan, taking advantage of a wrong pressing phase by the Brianza team, guilty of having left a hole in midfield. In the 23rd minute the Algerian takes the ball and exchanges with Jovic but shoots badly. Monza’s response is a header from Djuric which chips the top corner (30′).
two slaps
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The key to a game that ended in a triple-header was the injury of Di Gregorio, who in the 35th minute collided with Andrea Carboni and went out to applause from the corner. Stunned by the head-to-head, the Brianza goalkeeper suffers a black eye and passes the posts to Sorrentino, who immediately becomes the protagonist thanks to a simple goal kick. The first ball touched. Djuric collects the ball, Mota sinks and Thiaw knocks him out. Pessina appears on the spot at Piazza Maignan. The second goal came shortly after, and it was a slap straight in the face of an already purple AC Milan. A festival of errors that sees Bennacer and Thiaw as extras. The first saves the save, the second is blasted by Colpani, who serves Mota on the left for the 2-0 goal. The Portuguese’s right-footed shot warms up the U-Power crowd and makes Palladino happy.
the bondo tale
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Not even time to settle in before Pioli has already launched the first changes. Okafor, Adli and Chukwueze out, Leao, Reijnders and Pulisic in. The failure of trident B, a full-blown failure of the reserves, never incisive and decidedly isolated. The only survivor is Jovic, who however finds a way to get out anyway, getting himself sent off for a naive slap on the face from Izzo. Direct red after the VAR check. The Rossoneri’s reaction is all in the relaxed face of Olivier Giroud, who did well to sting Sorrentino with a steal goal. The twelfth in Serie A. Cross from the right by Florenzi, header by Pulisic and goal by the Frenchman. At this point the siege is a must, the schemes fall apart and the match becomes a round of lunges and counterattacks, of balls thrown into the area and more or less significant shots. Pulisic and Leao lead the attack, but the American seems to have the fire inside. As if he wanted to communicate to Pioli that he doesn’t need the bench. So he jumps the man with ease, digs to the right, goes wide, serves an assist, and in the end stings with a pearl imbued with technique, precision and quality: a left-footed shot to the far post for the 2-2. It seems like the start of the usual AC Milan match of the last period, a team that collects, goes under and then strikes a comeback, but this time the solver of the match is a twenty-year-old with a handful of appearances in Serie A. Someone who in the past had been also sought by Milan, only to then take a slightly different path, towards Monza. In the ninetieth minute Warren Bondo collects a pass on the edge of the area and invents an uncatchable right-footed shot, causing the entire red and white bench to jump up. The Monza fairy tale has the kind eyes of a boy with his first goal in Serie A, made even more beautiful by Colombo’s final flash that closes the match. The bench is back on the pitch. Monza wins 4-2, late night for Milan.
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