Notes On A Lazy Looking 1-1 Tie At Atalanta

Tonali made a return to the starting line up after missing week 1 with an injury. The rest of the 11 remained unchanged with Rebic up top, Diaz, Messias, Leao behind him.

Leao had an early half chance missing the net. This was a foreboding for the rest of the half as the team struggled to get shots on target or impose themselves against a physical Atalanta team. Messias missed the net on probably the half’s best chance.

The team looked static and unable to free up players centrally into Atalanta’s box. Leao, Theo and wing play was often poor and with no end product. It was in this manner that Atalanta managed to score and opened the scoring. Ruslan Malinovskyi found himself with lots of space at the top of Milan’s box, received Joakim Maehle’s simple cross and shot well to beat Maignan in goal.

A slight improvement opened the second but Diaz looked back to his ineffectiveness. Early on a studs foul on Leao could and should have involved VAR and possibly given a red to Berat Djimsiti but VAR was nowhere to be seen (or heard). De Ketelaere came on for Diaz alongside Giroud for Rebic for a few glimpses but little else. Saelemaekers and Orgig came on for Messias and Leao and soon after a Bennacer curled an innocent looking shot into the far corner to tie the game. The game looked lazy and tired with little pace or action. Origi could have given Milan the lead late but ran into traffic. A few missed targets, by both teams, later and the game ended with a somewhat tame tie.