AC Milan 5-1 Sampdoria (war communiqué)
Titan sports’s all-media correspondent in Italy Shen Tianhao.
Before the home game against Sampdoria, Leon received his Serie A player of April trophy on the sidelines. Is it? Why? What time? Intensive schedule and heavy mental pressure make the boundaries between months blurred, and the 4-goal away victory over Naples seems to have happened in the last era. Milan have won only three of the previous 11 league matches. In April, Leon scored twice against Napoli and Lecce, contributing two of them. The other game was against Lazio, in which Leon was injured, Milan was cornered in the bitter struggle for four, and the team longed for the personal light of the Portuguese.
Leon came back full of blood, and Milan won easily.
Leon raised the trophy, and his own song was played in the south stand. The lyrics were very simple: "Leon, Leon …". Because the Milan winger often plays the leading role on the court, this ballad appears very frequently. Perhaps the south stand needs to consider optimizing its melody and lyrics. Leon came back, Leon scored, Leon led Milan to victory-everything is a familiar script. In the 10th minute of the game, Milan easily broke the deadlock: Brahim Diaz won the confrontation in the midfield, lightly picked the ball and then sent a just-right overhead ball. Leon grabbed in front of Gunther and pushed the far corner directly to the goalkeeper.
Milan have always been helpless against the iron drum array this season, but Sampdoria’s situation is different from that of Empoli and cremona. The last time Stankovic played against Milan, it had to be traced back to the Europa League knockout in 2020-21. At that time, he led the league leader Belgrade Red Star, and the team did cause a lot of trouble to Milan in two rounds. This time, the former Inter Milan midfielder is a team that is plagued by unpaid wages and has been relegated. They have no intention of building a strong city in the San Siro.
Even so, Sampdoria still had his own chance: Zanoli easily broke through Milan’s left side, then knocked back at the bottom, and Quagliarella in front of the door succeeded in pushing and shooting, and scored for 18 consecutive Serie A seasons. Special Olympics made a fool of himself in the process of defense. The two-round derby in the Champions League was a heavy blow to the Milan team, especially for Special Olympics, who seemed to have exhausted all his energy. The nightmare of losing points against the weak team reappeared. Fortunately, Milan woke up in only 3 minutes: the corner kick cooperated, Diaz sent a cross, and Gill’s header was very easy.
Before returning to the goal-scoring track, Gill failed to score a goal in the last six league games-it was his longest goal shortage since he came to Apennine. Gill was annoyed by the defeat. He left heroic tears after the German game. Not scoring goals makes Gill hungry, and he has no mercy on a fragile sailor. Four minutes later, Milan won the penalty: Augello’s long pass was intercepted by Tomori, Tonali’s assist found Leon in the seaman’s defence, and the Portuguese entered the penalty area and was knocked down by Gunter in the process of switching to his right foot. There is no doubt about the penalty. Gill stood in front of the ball, and the opponent was not Napoli, 3-1!
Gill wears a hat and blows the horn of decisive battle.
At the end of the season, it was the first time Milan scored 3 goals in the first half. This Sampdoria team has an uncertain future at the management level, but it has been completely disarmed at the competitive level. For the defending champion of Serie A, this is obviously a weak opponent; For the red and black No.10, his opponent’s loose defense made him feel comfortable in the front waist position for a long time. Diaz sent a long pass for his teammates, decided the direction of the flank attack with the ball, broke the opponent’s midfield defense with the breakthrough, and sent the ball into the net in the 63 rd minute of the game. Calabria-Gill-Salmax-Leon-Tonali-Diaz, with a continuous kick and a clear running route, how long has it been since you saw Milan kick such an offensive?
The goal continues. In the 68th minute, Leon sent a cross from the left, and Gill leaned against Netinke, breaking the door with Ibrahimovic’s unconventional action and gaining the first hat of his Milan career. Pioli praised Ai Jiang after the game: "Olivier never lets people down. Even when he doesn’t score, he can make a lot of contributions to the team. Of course, scoring goals will make him happier! " In the past one and a half seasons, Gill was the only center that Milan could use, used well and dared to use. When he chose to join the team two summers ago, he never thought that he would shoulder such a heavy responsibility. He finally gritted his teeth and persisted. A hat trick against Sampdoria was a fitting reward.
With this hat, Gill tied the report card of 11 goals in the league last season; After opening the record for the team, Leon tied the number of league goals he directly participated in (11 goals and 10 assists last season and 13 goals and 8 assists this season). Milan’s league journey this season can’t be compared with that of a year ago, but Gill and Leon at least tried their best. What’s the problem? Others stand up too few times. Decatur came on as a substitute, which continued to disappoint. His debut season in Milan was doomed to end in nil.
From the technical and tactical level, Milan played against an already absent-minded Sampdoria, and the scenes and results did not have very strong reference value. The question of whether Diaz could play No.10 well could not be answered through this game. From the psychological level, this great victory is tantamount to a tonic for Milan. The blue-black carnival in the derby left a piece of land, and the Rossoneri struggled to rebuild their fortress. Next comes the visit to Juventus, and Gill said after the game that the team should regard this as a final.
