analysis
AC Milan need a small miracle in the second leg of the Champions League to eliminate city rivals Inter. Star striker Rafael Leão should do it on Tuesday evening (May 16, 2023, 9 p.m., live ticker at sportschau.de).
The fact that AC now officially has to turn the 0:2 from the first leg away is the slightest disadvantage. Away and at home is relative in this derby, the two big clubs from the Lombard metropolis share the “San Siro”, in which the second game is also kicked off.
In order to still be there in Istanbul on June 10th, Stefano Pioli’s team has to present itself completely differently than last time on May 10th. At the press conference on Monday, Pioli announced that she would do that in terms of personnel alone, and the sentence that the Milan fans had been hoping for was uttered: “Rafael is doing better. If everything goes as planned, they should all be there.”
Starting eleven guarantee from Pioli
In addition to the Portuguese top striker, they all include Rade Krunic and Junior Messias, who were also injured recently. However, their return to the team is of secondary importance compared to Leão’s comeback. And Pioli also emphasizes that the planned return after an adductor injury is not about a possible joker role: “If he’s fit, he’ll play from the start.”
Inter can and should see that as a threat. In the first leg, the offensive seemed at times downright helpless, which was less due to the 23-year-old’s final qualities than to his influence on the overall statics of the eleven: In his ten appearances in the Champions League this season, the winger has only scored one goal , but already prepared five. In the preliminary round he provided two assists for Alexis Saelemakers and one for Oliver Giroud. In the quarter-finals against SSC Napoli, he set up Ismael Bennacer’s 1-0 first leg and set up Giroud’s goal in the 1-1 second leg.
contract extension is to be announced soon
Overall, the left wing’s scorer quota is balanced in the current season, Leão has scored 13 goals and prepared 13 in 44 competitive games. In total, he has been involved in 74 goals in 159 games for Milan, and practically all top clubs from all over Europe have long since taken notice of him, because his contract expires in 2024. According to media reports, Real Madrid, Paris St. Germain, Liverpool FC, Bayern Munich, Manchester City, Chelsea FC and Manchester United are said to have recently dealt with his commitment.
However, the internationally renowned transfer expert Fabrizio Romano wrote after the semi-final first leg that Leão had decided to stay at AC and that the contract extension for a further four years should soon be announced. The Portuguese came to Milan from OSC Lille in 2019, at that time his transfer fee was already 15 million euros, but he has long been traded for five to six times as much.
Reckoning and cheering by the Ultras
The fact that Pioli can again rely on the man from Almada on the Tejo estuary near Lisbon against Inter has also noticeably improved the mood among the “Rossoneri” supporters. After the team had received a humiliating, seemingly humiliating, minute-long lecture from the Ultras after the final whistle of the first leg, several hundred fans visited the training ground on Sunday.
This time the pros heard loud cheering, which they even joined in by clapping and singing. The support was surprising insofar as Milan, fifth in the table, had also lost 0: 2 in Serie A the night before. As against Inter, the team simply couldn’t come up with anything in attack, this time against relegation candidates La Spezia – but Rafael Leão was also missing.