Conceicao’s near-perfect plan explained: Tactical analysis of Inter 0-3 AC Milan | OneFootball

AC Milan booked their place in the Coppa Italia final on Wednesday night and they did so in the sweetest of ways, beating city rivals Inter 3-0.

The first leg three weeks prior had finished 1-1 with goals in the second half from Tammy Abraham and Hakan Calhanoglu. That meant it was all to play for in the second leg of the semi-final, but few saw it being as one-sided a scoreline as it ended up being.

Luka Jovic netted a brace, putting Milan ahead in the first half with a header from an Alex Jimenez cross, then firing in a loose ball early in the second half to double the advantage. Tijjani Reijnders put the tie to bed in the closing stages, making it 4-1 on aggregate and five derbies unbeaten.

Sergio Conceicao chose not to make any changes from the team that lost to Atalanta on Sunday. That means the three-man defence was chosen again, while Jovic was given the nod up front despite rumours in the build-up that Tammy Abraham would start. Below is Rohit Rajeev‘s analysis.

Off-the-ball approach

Even though Milan lined up in a 3-4-2-1 shape, off the ball they played a 4-4-2 with Jovic and Leao playing as forwards and Reijnders/Fofana pushing to the wide areas.

The extra player in the wide areas helped Milan to prevent the overloads on the right flank caused by runs from Mkhitaryan or Bastoni, something that usually causes the Rossoneri to scamper to and leave gaps in the centre.

From throw-ins, Milan used a man-to-man approach, as Inter played with two layers of men to receive the throw, but the man-oriented pressing pushed Darmian to kick the ball away after receiving back and conceding possession.

Inter’s first attack came as a result of a disorganised press. Milan pressed Inter towards the byline, but the Nerazzurri fired a long pass and Barella was able to make a run after deceiving Reijnders, which caused an overload as Darmian received the ball completely unmarked.

Beating Inter’s press

Inter – in their 3-5-2 system – have hard-working midfielders and combining with the third centre-back they can stunt Milan’s progression space

Watch Milan’s build-up routine as dynamic movements from different players created space for Milan to penetrate the Inter block.

Inter played very high and pressed Milan quite aggressively. They denied Milan space to pass through dynamically shifting their block from the centre to the flanks to deny passing lanes.

To break this, Milan would bait Inter to press by passing back to Mike, and this created a separation between their strikers and midfielders, creating the space.

With one-touch combination play, Milan were able to play out of Inter’s press quite easily.

Jovic’s (and Pulisic’s) role

Milan’s goal came with a move that involved Jovic in the build-up and ended with him quite beautifully.

Conceicao, in the post-match press conference, spoke about how Pulisic and Jovic sacrificed a lot. What he meant is how Jovic and Pulisic were giving man-marking assignments.

The American had to play as a No.8 to mark Mkhitaryan out of the game while the Serbian marked Asllani, who was the Regista to pull strings for Inter.

Wide open second half

The second half resumed with a goal for Milan. Milan overloaded Inter’s far post, and Martinez expected Theo to target the front post. Instead, the Frenchman swung in a delivery to the far post, and a ricochet off Barella fell kindly for Jovic.

Inter made four changes and went full throttle since Milan were 2-0 up, but this again created huge gaps between the midfield and three-man defence.

Milan were still able to find gaps thanks to some good combination play on the right wing.

In a deja vu situation from the first leg, Inter’s Mkhitaryan got into a similar position Barella had found himself, which led to Calhanoglu shooting from the edge of the box. However this time there were enough players to block Hakan’s shot and Maignan was not called into action.

Lastly, Milan’s third goal came after Inter’s man-marking mishap. With Jiminez and Fofana pinning the defenders back Mkhitariyan couldn’t close down Tomori down and the play developed while Reijnders made his third man run to get to the end of Leao’s pass and finish the chances.

Conceicao prepared close to the perfect game plan and maybe, just maybe, with a proper gap between games players are buying into his ideas.