The striker scored after two months: “We should have scored 3-4 goals, we need more ferocity in front of goal. I didn’t want to go out because I felt like continuing, but I respect Pioli”
It started with such a wide smile, it ended with colossal anger. Olivier Giroud’s game was strange, going from the two balls sent to heaven to that electronic board that ten minutes from the ninetieth minute showed his number 9 in the stadium. Oly was observing the fourth official with a frowning gaze, with a sort of premonition that then it was equivalent to a sentence since Jovic and Okafor were warming up on the sidelines. When Marinelli turned on the board, Giroud did nothing to hide his anger, shouting a full-bodied “no!”, slamming his hands on his legs and looking for a long time, grimly, at his coach. Then he went and sat on a cooler next to the bench, and remained there until the end of the game.
nine minutes
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This is the epilogue, but this is an evening in which it is actually especially worth telling the prologue. Two goals in the first half hour, a brace scored in the space of nine minutes between the 22nd and 31st. Oly had been waiting for all this for two months. Endless, tiring to see a team produce a lot and collect little. He stopped after the first three matchdays: four goals, the best start ever and a record that – like Ibra – didn’t seem to exist. Then the bubbles ran out, the last bottle uncorked on September 1st against Roma. In the middle, the usual indispensability because it seems that there are things at Milan that really never change, and the fact that Olivier doesn’t have a credible alternative is one of them.
ferocity
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To tell the truth, when Napoli’s moment arrived on the Rossoneri calendar, more than one person cracked a smile. In general, because in recent years the Devil at Maradona has always shown excellent performances. And in particular for Giroud. In the last two seasons – that is, since he has been at Milan – he has scored twice there and they have not been trivial goals. In March 2022, in the championship, the strike that gave us more or less half the championship. In April this year, the second leg of the Champions League quarter-finals, the goal that protected the 1-0 first leg score at San Siro and sent Milan to the semi-finals. Two goals which, like tonight’s, have a common denominator: they both arrived after a rather long fast. A month in both cases, while this time Oly had never experienced such exaggerated abstinence in the Rossoneri. He really needed Napoli and the Maradona stadium to unlock him. Smiles that at half-time gave the impression of remaining on Oly’s lips, until the Neapolitan equalizer and that indigestible substitution. He will get over it, and in any case the return of his number 9 to scoring remains the happiest note of the AC Milan evening, even if at the end of the match there is still a lot of anger: “I am very disappointed and frustrated for the team – says the Frenchman -. We started well, created many chances, we had to score 3-4 goals in the first half, we had to put the game to bed… We knew that Napoli would return to the pitch with more energy, we told ourselves to stay focused. Instead we lost two points. My reaction at the moment of the substitution? I’m not a robot, I’m human and I have emotions. I thought I could still help the team, the coach makes his choices, I have a lot of respect for the coach and after five minutes I calmed down I felt like continuing, that’s why I didn’t want to leave. I’m competitive, I always want more. It hurts for these two points lost: I was watching Inter first, I hope we won’t have regrets. Deputy Giroud? We have him yes, we have a team of quality and quantity, but we need to have more effectiveness and ferocity in front of the goal.”