Real Madrid 1-3 AC Milan: Five things we learned – the night of the masterclasses

SempreMilan

·6 November 2024

Real Madrid 1-3 AC Milan: Five things we learned – the night of the masterclasses

AC Milan managed to pull off a surprise at the Santiago Bernabeu on Tuesday night as they beat Real Madrid 3-1 in the Champions League.

Milan might have started their UCL campaign poorly, losing to Liverpool and Bayer Leverkusen in the first two games before beating Club Brugge. That – coupled with inconsistent league form – intensified the necessity to provide a turnaround.

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While most were backing Real Madrid to run out easy winners, Paulo Fonseca had other plans in mind and Milan arrived at the Bernabeu with deadly focus and a desire to prove doubters wrong, which they did with a 3-1 win.

It wasn’t just a win against the current holders of the trophy but also a domination in which many players shone. Malick Thiaw got the opener with a header from a corner, Alvaro Morata pounhed on a rebound for the second and Tijjani Reijnders finished off a fantastic move for the third.

The result was a big statement but also a valuable three points in pursuit of qualification for the next stage. Here are five things we observed during the game.

1. Surfing at the Bernabeu

All eyes might have been on Vinicius Jr. with the Brazilian keen to prove his worth following a disappointing Ballon D’or result where he ended up second behind Rodri, but aside from a penalty goal Milan completely neutralised him.

The real show on the night was performed by Leao with virtually every Milan attack going through him. The Portuguese was benched a few times by Fonseca in attempts to provoke a reaction by the winger and the reaction has arrived at the right time.

It was an electric performance in which Leao being involved in all the goals – winning the corner for the first, forcing the save for the second and providing a lovely assist on the third. It doesn’t get much better that.

2. Supporting cast doing wonders too

It wasn’t just Leao who did well in attack, because both Christian Pulisic and Morata put in a shift up front. For the American it is pretty much routine at this point that he will be involved in goals, with an assist from the corner kick and the pre-assist on the second goal.

In the second half he continued to get on the ball and combine with his team-mates and he probably could’ve done a bit better on a couple of occasions where both him and Leao needed to be more concentrated, but two goal involvements and high work rates are more than enough.

Morata also put in a shift against Los Merengues, his favourite opponents, and added a seventh goal against them as he left his goal scoring problems behind. The Spaniard worked really hard in both phases of the game and dropped very deep at times, which has been counter productive but worked well in this game.

He helped all across the pitch and got the goal to give Milan back the lead just before the hald-time. On the biggest night this was a strong display by the striker, who hopefully can get scoring a bit more often following this confidence boost.

3. Defensive masterclass

It was truly a magnificent all-round performance from Milan not just up front but at the back too, with Thiaw contributing with a goal and Theo Hernandez causing a lot of trouble going forward too. On top of the impact going forward – Theo, Thiaw and Tomori did brilliantly at the back.

The one flop has to be Emerson Royal as he conceded a very silly penalty which could’ve been easily avoided, but he too – with the help of Musah – managed to contain Vinicius for the large part of the game excluding that one moment.

Mike Maignan was also fantastic between the sticks, making a few crucial saves to keep his side in front or level. Overall it was a masterclass by the rearguard and Fonseca’s tactics to stop this Real Madrid attack, given the talent they have.

Against a team like Real Madrid with all of their attacking riches it is difficult to keep them to not having any chances, which means that a ‘bend but don’t break’ kind of night was needed.

4. Winning the midfield battle

Youssouf Fofana and Reijnders were pivotal in the win with the Frenchman doing a lot of the dirty work, but also making himself a passing option most of the times as well as passed the ball efficiently down the flanks.

Reijnders, on the other hand, was the engine and metronome of the midfield as he dazzled through Real Madrid’s attempts to stop him on multiple occasions. His intelligence allowed him to find the open spaces for himself and creating space for his team-mates too.

Combined with his passing skills (including one amazing near-assist with the outside of his boot) this made him very dangerous when going forward which resulted in him picking up a goal and giving his side a two-goal advantage.

It was another outstanding performance by the Dutchman in the competition. He continues to prove who good he is and Milan must look to extend his contract as soon as possible.

5. Inspired coaching

Finally, we need to praise Fonseca for the approach and players he chose that resulted in this amazing performance. The coach has been under a lot of scrutiny this season, with a poor start both in the Champions League and domestically, with glimpses of the fluid football he expects from his team.

The preparation for Madrid and the execution by the players was almost perfect as everybody seemed up to the challenge and played their part. The Portuguese needs to translate this into a winning streak instead of stumbling as the team did after the huge win against Inter.

Interestingly enough, the view should still stand that he has a lot of work to do. Whilst the display against Los Blancos was fantastic, it is also fair to say that they allowed Milan a lot of space, and in many ways the Cagliari game might be a bigger challenge in that sense.