On the catwalks of Milan, the rossonero is back in fashion. A mixture of colors that once used the best fabrics and that had been greatly devalued for years. Milan, the great, is back. And the biggest culprit of all this is Stefano Pioli. The Italian coach has achieved fit many pieces into a puzzle in which there is no protruding figure, not even one as imposing as that of a Zlatan Ibrahimovic with the broken years counter. The Swede leads seven goals in six games, but game by game he has new partners who, in his absence or with his presence, put on the disguise of the leader of the moment.
In the variety is the spicethey say, and a Pioli that has the Calhanoglu, Brahim, Theo, Castillejo, Saelemaekers or Rafa Leao grabs on with charged batteries and ready to show that this is a choral Milan, loaded with secrets and, for now, unbeatable. You have to go back to March 8, before the pandemic closed the planet, to be able to narrate a Milanese defeat. Genoa, on their visit to San Siro, has this increasingly precious honor. Since then, 12 + 1 games last year that returned them to Europe and 10 of the present that have confirmed their presence in the Europa League and placed them at the head of Serie A. The new normal has brought back the old Milan.
In the domestic competition, only Roma have managed to scratch a tie. Not even Inter, owner of the city in recent times, has been able to resist the waves and succumbed to the push of Devil. Celtic (1-3) and Sparta Prague (3-0) have done the same in Europe, since Milan on Thursdays has little to envy from the weekend. And that is a merit of the deep squad that Pioli has, who congratulated himself on this after triumphing against the Czechs: “They are not simple decisions, I have a lot of starters (…) Tonight I'm happy with everyone. And the further we go, the more difficult it will be to choose if everyone plays so well. I am lucky to have intelligent players of excellent technical level. We don't have a point of reference, we try to read the spaces, but we have to move even better. “No one better than the director to explain what the play is about.
In the match, the headlines were not taken by Ibrahimovic. In fact, he missed a penalty that would have made it 2-0 and was substituted at half-time. “He had already told them both that Leao was coming into the break. Zlatan is a champion, if I had asked him he would have wanted to continue, but you have to dose efforts “, explained the coach, indicating that the forward's performance was not the one that caused him to leave the field. The spotlights were for Brahim, who opened the scoring and is less and less surprise and more reality, Dalot, who made the third and gave the second to Ibra's replacement, Leao.
The appearance of these last two in the game is a good example of the arsenal of hidden bullets that the players have. rossoneri. The winger on loan from United is the usual substitute for the squad Calabria and showed his coach that he was ready for war when necessary. Like a Rafael Leao who arrived among 23 million bluebells from Lille and who has taken flight with his three goals and three assists in his last four games.
Another of the players who lives under the long shadow of Ibra is Hakan Calhanoglu, it is no secret that Milan plays at the pace he sets. The offensive midfielder has put aside the flashes in the form of a direct free kick to show a stable and continuous version over time, thus becoming the thermometer of Milan's game. Theo Hernandez, which has turned the left side into its private highway, Saelemaekers, crack 21-year-old signed at bargain price, or a Castillejo settled and that survives from the transitional stage, without forgetting the solidity of Donnarumma, add more ingredients to the secret cocktail stirred by Pioli who has returned to a Milan loaded with youth the stale air that was so longed for.