And now it's trouble. Milan needed to conquer Turin to relieve the post-derby pain and, more importantly, secure fourth place in the standings, instead they return home with a defeat, the third in just five days, which officially opens the state of crisis. The paradox, in the 2-1 draw at the Olimpico, is that we saw, for at least an hour, the best performance of the season, but this is not enough in the face of another negative result, the umpteenth of this disastrous start to the championship.
Marco Giampaolo was once again in the dock, not for the starting line-up (it is no coincidence that the first half was of an excellent level) but for the substitutions, results which were then wrong, not to mention deleterious. Removing Leao, up until then one of the best on the pitch, and subsequently Bennacer, deprived Milan of the two players most on the ball, even if it is fair to say that the 2-1 final, more than other times, is above all the result of episodes. They went well for the grenade, who woke up in the middle of the second half after an hour out of revs, but badly for the Rossoneri, who sinned individually both behind with Donnarumma and Musacchio and in front, with Piatek and Kessié even unfortunate.
And so Mazzari, in the space of 4 minutes, went from shaking his head nervously in front of an ugly Bull to even finding himself in the lead, to take home 3 points as unexpected (for how he was doing) as heavy. In fact, he is the one to secure fourth place together with Naples and Cagliari, against a melancholy thirteenth Milan with 6 points, in cohabitation with Sassuolo, Brescia, Parma and Lecce.
"We know very well what kind of coach we have hired, we believe he is the right one, he needs time but there is total trust in him" Maldini declared before the match: a concept which, barring sensational twists, remains unchanged even today, albeit with a notch less in the bar of patience. In fact, it is clear that time goes hand in hand with results, and in this sense the next two games really risk becoming decisive: Fiorentina and Genoa will close the mini-cycle of September and October, forcing the club to draw up an initial balance. Which, at the moment, can only be fiery red, as demonstrated by the 9 points gap from Inter, but also the distance from the Champions League area, a vital goal for the club's ambitions.
Yet yesterday could have gone very differently, so much so that for an hour we had undoubtedly seen the best Milan of the season. Beyond Piatek's lead from a penalty (19', a foul by De Silvestri on Leao), Giampaolo's team built goals in series, however missing the 2-0 which, most likely, would have sent Toro down. Then, around the hour of play, there was a blackout that allowed the grenades to take the field and, consequently, first find the equalizer (72', Belotti's right foot from distance weighed down by a mistake by Donnarumma) and then overtaking (76', again the Rooster, this time in acrobatics after a shot by Zaza which was blocked by the Rossoneri goalkeeper).
From then on, the teams lengthened and the result, on both sides, could have easily been rounded off. Torino failed to make it 3-1 with Zaza but it is above all Milan that eat their hands: the mistakes of Kessié and Piatek, in fact, are truly red pencil. At the final whistle of Guida (contested on the same grenade for a very dubious contact between and Calhanoglu at the start of the action), here is the explosion of the Olimpico for a very heavy success, which projects the grenade even into the Champions area and sinks the Rossoneri.
“The match was in control, we didn't have the cynicism to close it, then the match changed in 4' – sighed Giampaolo. – In the final we had opportunities to equalize with Kessie and Piatek, but this was a match to be won. The defeat gained undeservedly slows down growth and the sense of self-esteem, I hope the boys don't give up an inch". The same goes for him, whose future seems increasingly unstable. Maldini's words weigh heavily, but the defeat in Turin weighs more: which is why on Sunday, at San Siro against Fiorentina, one can no longer go wrong.
