Milan on its knees. After Inter, badly defeated in the anticipation of Florence, it was Milan's turn to fall in a whirlwind, moreover within the friendly walls of the San Siro. On the Sunday that should have seen the Rossoneri with their hands on the Europa League, Empoli smiled instead: yesterday's 3 points, as well as unexpected, could be worth a good chunk of salvation. For his part Montella finds himself forced to reflect on the effective value of his squad, and with him also all the management who have just come to power.
The results of the 33rd confirm that Atalanta and Lazio are superior and leave Milan to contend for a sixth place that smacks of consolation, moreover with an increasingly threatening Fiorentina behind them. “I'm saddened by the result, not by the performance – Montella's analysis – I can't stop and analyze just the score, we created 15 goals and honestly in Serie A it's difficult to do more. We should have been more concrete but otherwise I'm satisfied".
The Rossoneri coach's vision is questionable: if it's true that his team built several chances, it's equally true that they also conceded many to Empoli. And then the reaction came only late in the second half, as often happened during the season. If other times it had gone well this time it didn't, and so the Tuscans took home 3 very important points, "watered down" only by Crotone's victory over Sampdoria who keeps the salvation race alive. Opaque Milan in the first half, too slow and predictable to undermine the orderly Empoli wall.
And when Mchedlidze shot down Donnarumma following a corner (40') the mission became even more complicated. In the second half, the Rossoneri could have leveled the match but Suso, down in the dumps compared to the usual standards, badly kicked a penalty obtained by Pasalic (59'). Empoli thanked and shortly afterwards even found the 2-0 with Thiam, good at exploiting an uncertainty of the Paletta-Zapata couple and beating Donnarumma again (67').
Milan reacted more with nerves than with the head and the subsequent pressure led to a goal from Lapadula (72'), as well as a series of wasted chances (all from Ocampos' crossbar). But Empoli also had theirs and if Donnarumma hadn't been miraculous on Maccarone and Thiam we would be commenting on a much heavier result. The flop of Milan football remains, now light years away from the glories of the past. So much so that talking about a city outside Europe is no longer even news.
