Call it the “Romagnoli area”. For the second consecutive time it is the captain who gives Milan victory and fourth place, all in full recovery. And so, after the goal in the 92nd minute against Genoa, here's the one in the 97th minute on the Udinese field to seal a hard-fought and at the same time deserved success, as well as heavy as a boulder.
Ten days the Rossoneri world seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown, knocked down by Inter and humiliated by Betis, with a coach in the balance (euphemism) and a team unable to react to any problem. To complicate things then there was a real chain of injuries, which are still ongoing: yesterday evening, just to mention one, Higuain also stopped, who thus joins the already known Biglia, Bonaventura, Caldara and Calhanoglu.
A breath of wind was enough to screw up the Gattuso project, instead 9 points arrived and never mind if the game doesn't enchant: these days three consecutive victories are enough and more to feed the Rossoneri people. Then, for the first time in this championship, a clean sheet arrived at the Dacia Arena, i.e. a match without conceding a goal: until a few seconds from the end it looked like a gray 0-0, but then the light came from Romagnoli, again once disguised as a striker for the stone that beat Musso and sent his teammates to fourth place, albeit together with Lazio.
“I liked the team a lot, we deserved the success – Gattuso commented satisfied – I liked the performance and victories certainly give you more strength, optimism and conviction. We weren't scarce before and we're not phenomenal now but the victory is right."
Words filled with pride those of the Rossoneri coach (expelled in the final for protests), daughters of the enormous tension accumulated in recent weeks, when few believed he could remain on this bench much longer. However, the analysis is lucid: the victory is deserved for having believed in it until the end, despite a good Udinese and the far from secondary loss of Higuain (back bruise, more will be known today but it is probable slight injury) after just 35', however the game must improve as well as the tactical management of the matches.
In fact, the first half was clearly of Friulian origin and this could have led to a very different result, with all the consequences of the case. In the second half, however, Milan gained meters after meters and the final forcing rewarded them with the winning goal, ironically of the fate of a defender, the same as on Wednesday.
In the long run, it probably won't be enough to play like this to get to the Champions League, but today there's no need to be too picky. We needed 9 points in 3 games and fourth place to appease Elliot's hunger: they arrived, without too many frills but they arrived, in perfect Gattuso style. And now Milan's season has a completely different flavour.
