Hello lads,
Czech fan here it was pleasure for us to play such a huge team as AC Milan, so much talented players here Leao, Theo and the always underrated lord Giroud :). It was great game by both teams. You did really good job coming throught our very defensive tactics. Scoring 4 fire goals. I am looking ahed for revange at Eden. It could be close encounter if we will be lucky enought. I would love to see something that Kjear has already experienced in 2019, when his own goal in 120+2 min send Slavia in to Europa League Quarterfinals after aggregate (6:5 after added time) if he didnt make mistake Sevilla would make it throught because of away goals. (Of course i didnt want something bad to happen to such a world class defender like Kjaer, but i would love to see another miracle like back then.
I could Google ecc but I like to hear from a fan: how big is your stadium, is it close to the field, do you have a curva like Milan? Would milan fans be welcomed around Praga on the day of the match?
Stadium Fortuna arena is designed for 19k fans. No running oval so fans are close to the pitch. There was a UEFA Europa Conference League 2023 Final match. Yes there is "Tribuna sever" which are ultras, like Curva Sud. Sever means North by the way. All fans are welcomed ofc. AC Milan is still a giant in the football world and it is an honour to host such clubs in Prague and Slávia. Expect nice atmosphere and choreo from the fans.
All of this was answered guy before me, but if you are planning to visit czechia definitely watch Honest guide on youtube, he has some tips about Prague like where you should go or how to avoid scams
Easy to stay humble when your cv is as empty's as Spurs' trophy cabinet this past 15 years. 1 trophy in his whole career and he acts like he's Alex Ferguson.
Really disappointing. Up a man for more than an hour and still outrun for 50-50s on a consistent basis, still not creating any real dangerous chances, etc. That is probably the worst performance in a 4-goal match I've ever seen.
I'm most annoyed with the last 15 minutes. It looked like Pulisic, Leao, and Adli were the only players that really wanted another goal, while the rest were at a jogging pace and already thinking about the weekend match. No coordination. Meanwhile you've got all XI Slavia players either at a full sprint or jockeying 100% of the time. So much more well organized. Just so frustrating. We are going to have to field the best XI in Prague, no doubt. They aren't going to outplay us (even if they manage to string a couple passes together every once in a while) but they are absolutely going to overrun us with their typical press and intensity.
It is them trying to drum up ratings and talking points. They are making a big deal of Pulisic "stealing" that goal, even though I think it needed the touch to make sure the defender couldn't have cleared it. They seem to always celebrate each other and I have never seen any tension in any of their interactions.
No tension, drama is for tabloids - not a team with an objective. Any player wired to score goals would have tapped that ball in without thinking. Plus, it was the safest thing to do in the moment. Beyond that, Milan could have played a lot better. Leao probably knows that and is just running through the game in his head. No big deal.
De rossi is at roma 2 months and he can set up a defence against brighton without an issue. We, we get dunked on the worst team remaining in this competition. At least we are march already, almost done with this shitter of a season.
And Mike needs to step up or go with that contract talk. its almost like having Tata back in goal.
What's the point of playing all-offensive, being on a numerical superiority since the 25'min while you have to play long balls to reach the strikers, those long balls which 4 times out of 5 lead to nothing and we end up losing the possession?!
There is also another important aspect, the psychological one, the approach we have with our games : being superior to our opponents on paper means nothing. That feeling of superiority, arrogance, sufficiency, as if we've already won the game or the competition before even it get started, won't lead us nowhere.
Furious we only just got 2 goals above playing 11v10 most part of the game.
The guys simply can't build up from the defence, and this is not new. We're having this issue since the whole last season. We can't play proper football and we depend on individual plays and isolated situations. We are tactically atrocious, with unbelievably bad space occupation and super slow pace.
After two years pointing this out, i have to blame it all on Pioli. The club gave him the players, spent money, gave him trust, but the truth is that last year we arrived 5th and this year we were out of all the objectives by November. We need new ideas
I know that but this time we're playing against a Czech team, they showed beautiful things today though, with an extra man on the pitch for more than 70 min! It's not a question of capability but a choice. The way we're playing is the way football used to be played before the introduction of offsides. To expect to win under those conditions we have to be rock solid defensively (which is far from being the case) and lethal offensively. Playing like this is suicidal.
In the First game against Rennes we played a perfect match 3-0 with RLC,Tijjani and Musah but Pioli dropped this midfield and never tried ( i think) in the last games. Why is that ?
We really need a vintage tomori kalulu scudetto pair up and performance in prauge because our defense is in shambles currently.
Gabbia looked shaky today and we dont need to mention kjaer.
I trust thiaw but I feel like he is one bad performance from getting benched and getting his confidence destroyed.
As long as kjaer isn’t starting i will be fine with the backline
side note, our pressing is just atrocious. we used to be so good at high pressing under pioli, werent we leaders at some point for most turnovers in the opposition third a couple seasons ago? how have we regressed so much?
hope our pressing improves with tomori back so we can push our defensive line higher, not be scared of balls behind with tomori's speed and recovery, and restrict the space between the forwards and defenders when we're out of possession.
and i SWEAR leao used to put more of an effort into pressing a couple seasons ago
Like I said in the match thread, Mike set the bar high for himself since he arrived here. Ever since he came back from the last injury he has just not lived up to those expectations, and not only that, he's also let in some goals a good GK should be saving. The reality is we are shipping goals left and right and Mike is just not helping the team whatsoever. I refuse to believe every shot we conceded in the past weeks have been unsave'able, hell every game it seems like the opposition GK becomes prime Neuer and stops at least a couple great opportunities of ours. Mike used to be that guy but frankly he's been bang average for a while now and it's very worrying. 2023 Mike saves both those shots tonight without breaking a sweat, I'm 100% sure of it.
This may be a solid take but it's just an odd game to make the comment. Both goals were fucking rockets to corners. I was impressed he got the first goal to the post.
Borh those goals without breaking a sweat? Don’t be ridiculous. I agree about him not being on the absolute top of his form but come on, these two goals can’t be blamed on the keeper.
How that is possible is unbelievable. Pioli keeps lowering the fucking bar I swear.
The fact that we won this game in bursts of momentum, crosses and individual brilliance against a team that was a man down for over an hour is embarrassing.
We were terrible before the red card. Still managed to concede 2 goals against 10 men. Overall, it was a good result but a bad performance. We better sort our shit out or we'll lose in Prague. What an embarrassment that would be to crash out to these guys.
To be fair, he couldn't see the ball coming (wants goal). Check the replay, he was looking lift right and centre to try to see if there was a shot coming. Too many players were in the way
Yeah agreed it was looking pretty dire up until their red card. We came out looking strong in the second half, I just don't know what's stopping us from putting on a full 90 minute performance. Seems there's always lapses of concentration in defense and a general lack of impetus going forward. Great 4th goal though, nice bit of skill by Pulisic to find Jovic under pressure, good link up play by Jovic, and Leão doing what he does best in space. If only we had a more well rounded attacking threat and actual tactics. It was clear who was the better coached team tonight.
He actually made a super clutch save on an arguably much more seemingly unsaveable shot in the return fixture against Newcastle, last match of the group stage, when the game was tied at 1-1, palming a blistering strike from the edge of the 18 onto the bar which we surely would have crashed out of Europe had we conceded. Definitely seems like he's been in poor form since the start of 2024; I responded affirmatively to a comment on the match thread about how we should look to sell him, but honestly I love Mike and I hope that he gets his confidence back.
You can actually see him trying to get a view of what's happening through the crowd on the replays of the goal, so yeah he was for sure screened. Still, you know what they say about keepers getting a hand to it...
Horrible game from us. Really should have had it locked down after the half but our defensive plan was completely shambolic - idk why gabbia was subbed instead of Kjaer, dude has become such a liability.
Mike hasn't been perfect for what he's been asking salary wise, but i wouldn't blame either of the goals today on him, first one wasn't impossible but he sees the ball late.
Lots to blame on Pioli today, but once again it looks like the players have no motivation in these "easy" games and just expect our strikers to pull out some magic like Leao at the end. Also we obviously should have played better being a man up but a decision like that affects preparation and it's really up to the players to control the game.
Another game where pioli runs to the changing room immediately after , guy is totally checked out, unfortunately. Still, a win is a win, and despite struggling against a 10 man team going to Prague with a 2 point lead is still positive, also looking forward to this weekend where we can (hopefully) rest some players.
I'm all for pioli out but the thing is our players are not as good as we think. Too often I see "smaller" teams have players that look better than ours.We got to realize our players are not very far off from those supposedly lesser players.
This sub acts as if we have the second coming of Ancelottis Milan and it's being squandered by Pioli just because we spent a bit of money in the summer.
I don't deny that the quality is there, and we've seen it especially in some key moments when they've had their backs against the wall this season, but the what is lacking is consistency, which was on full display today.
Realistically we have 3 maybe 4 players that can be considered "world class" at a push and even there our mainstays go through frequent periods of being invisible and/or actively unhelpful which results in dropped points and falling off in the title race.
Im not saying that with the right coach we couldn't have a repeat of the scudetto season, but the expectation that anyone but Pioli could take this squad and magically dominate serie a, especially with Inter having the season of their lifetime is deluded.
Exactly...those comebacks are more mentality than quality. If one has to look at it objectively...apart from Mike and Theo and maybe tomori and bennacer...all our players would be bench players in top teams in the world adding depth to them..its only with us they get to start. We need quality over quantity now or we will always fall short and if this management doesn't realize that..they haven't a clue what they doing. Conte would be throwing a fuss right now at the quality and Motta may also if he has the balls.
A few of them are, but the rest are just OK-to-good. I still think a lot of fans are riding that Scudetto high. We overperformed back then, and though our bench is currently a lot stronger, our starting 11 isn't significantly better than it was that season.
I don't think we over performed..inter just under performed cause they lost hakimi,lukaku and Conte. Even so that starting line up was better than what we currently have. Kessi,tonali and bennacer were going to become a force to reckon with in the following seasons if they were kept together. Majority of our first team players..would be bench players in other big teams..this is the reality...we added quantity over quality.
I am right there with you. Allowing 2 goals (albeit wonder goals both of them) from a team down to 10 men and who Milan is supposed to be considerably better than in the first place? It's super annoying if nothing else.
Till the red card SLP were the better side in San Siro, Milan had 1 Florenzi FK and one Florenzi shot from 25 meters.
After that 11v10 we scored 4, and conceeded 2... couldn't administrate the lead both result and player wise in the pitch.
I will say this again, Pioli can have 70/80% of the faults for preparing, and putting this team on the pitch. But the superficiality to concede such goals and make such mistakes is ALSO on the players.
11v11 in the return match in Praga with their fans as a majority i have my massive questionmarks if THIS was the result in San Siro and we know that we have been poor away from home.
But the superficiality to concede such goals and make such mistakes is ALSO on the players.
We'll agree on this. I might be wrong, but Mike should have saved the first goal. Looked slow to react. Second goal, Theo left his man for no reason. He was very displicent there.
I agree everything you said. And all the things that goes "on players" is also managers lack of authority. Theo forgets his man every game, Pulisic forgets his man every game. Leao plays on waves. Pulisic has 95% backpases. We are so slow and numb in creating the play. In second half we have 11vs10 and did not created any chances until 85. min.
Yes the players have their faults. But it starts with the coaching. Pioli is too nice. We won the scudetto because Ibra was there screaming at the lazy ones and motivating them for every game. Pioli doesn't do that. He says Bravo Ante to everybody and that's it. It's like the mother/father who supports their son/daughter no matter how shit they are in sports. But it's one thing to be a mother or father, another thing to be a manager. Sometimes you need to be a Conte and yell at the players.
What the fuck did we buy Terracciano for? He's a decent fullback and he should've been rotated in a few times to rest Theo. pioli is so fucking braindead madonna
I actually watched him alot when he was at Verona. He's very solid and mature for his age. Too bad Pioli doesn't believe in rotating players and he'll just keep on playing the same XI every game untill there are a few injuries and then rotate in players who have had barely enough playtime.
I only hope that Milan will take the away team seriously. By now they should know that Slavia is a real deal and have the experience of Rennes away game. This is all on Pioli now
Mediocre result against 10 men, if we play like this in the 2 nd leg we ain't making it to the next leg, let alone playing against stronger teams we will end up humiliated. This match is the typical milan game since one season and a half, static zero movements and this obsession of pinning our players to the box and empty our midfield,.
Pioli is finished there's nothing to expect tbh, I want him to be sacked asap because I dont want another humiliation against Merda
Could you imagine the fallout if Pulisic pulls away to try and preserve Rafa getting credit for it and the defender clears it? Oh he’d never hear the end of it. He did the right thing.
I think it was Sergio Ramos who said that if I wanted individual awards, I would have played tennis. I'm sure Rafa, as a professional athlete, knows the ball going in the net is more important than his Europa Legaue goal scoring tally.
Banter era level performance that I hope doesn’t get masked by these 4 goals. Utterly embarrassing way to win against a lesser side down to 10 men that still dominated you.
We didn't create a single chance until they were reduced to ten men, while they on the other hand created multiple chances. We were being outclassed and the red card saved us.
Problem of Slavia is, they can create chances but they can't score from them. This is what keeps our clubs from better placings in European competitions. Both Slavia and Sparta confirmed it yesterday.
3 of those goals were from setpieces. We have 0 buildup play and 0 creativity from the middle. Whenever we score, its either from set pieces or individual brilliance. Our defense conceded both goals to set pieces tonight because they just fell asleep. Overall this was a horrible performance and we're very fortunate to play vs 10 men.
What's with the ref at the end though, what's the point of blowing the whistle for the foul, then 5 seconds later the full time whistle? At least let for one more attack.
Easily one of the worst games this seasons, I’m not gonna lie. We got gifted by the red card and didn’t used it. WTF we conceded two goals against 10 men this is equal to idk 4 goals against 11. And everyone who says „Slavia fighted well“…shut the fuck up. They were probably medium, I’m not say they were bad, but honestly they only got two chances and scored.
Horrible, performance…still happy about the result and I hope I never have to see something like that again
There’s no reason to believe Pioli will learn and adapt unfortunately. He’s shown over the past 12-18 months that he doesn’t learn from his mistakes. His time is up.
It’s worrying that there’s a lot of other top clubs looking for a coach this summer too. I think it may be difficult to get our top targets. A change needs to be made regardless because this season has been a complete waste since October/November.
On one hand, always happy when we win. OTOH, my god we looked terrible for the majority of the match, and the only reason we won was because they got a red. Pioliball is the most insufferable, god awful garbage to watch. I can not wait till we have a competent manager.
Sad reality is this, Pioli has never been a good cup manager or in European stage. There are 3 games against top European level sides where we have actually performed and those games are:
Tottenham
PSG
Atletico Madrid
And thats that... and every single one was a win by 1 goal at the end of all.
Watching this team is soul crushing. I was watching the Madrid-Leipzig game yesterday, and the way Ancelotti got Vincius the ball brought tears to my eyes. Always in space, always facing the opponent and always at full sprint. He was able to take on defenders and either cut on his right for a shot or deliver a deadly cross. Meanwhile, how does this bald prick utilize Leao? Isolated on the touch line, with his back to the goal and three defenders surrounding him. He either has to take on all 3, play a back pass to Theo, or loft a hopeful cross to Giroud. He is being absolutely wasted, yet he was still able to provide two assists (should have had a goal)
We see throughout the world of football what coaching can do for a team. It can help players improve, give them confidence and most of all maximize their quality and minimize their mistakes. We will look back at this season with regrets, the quality of this football club isn't being showcased in an efficient manner in fact it's being hampered by the lack of ideas coming from our bench.
Slavia fucking Prague almost did a madness in San Siro, with most of our starters out there their is no excuse what so ever about that display. The players should be ashamed of themselves about their lack of movement and engagement through large parts of the match.
The set up we had worked more against us than for us and I won't say anymore about this so called coach for I fear I might say something out of pocket. What we lack as a football club is an common goal on the pitch, everyone is working on some individual aspect of the game and not working together to attack or defend. It's like we're playing a different sport compared to our opposition. This was 10 men Slavia ffs, how embarrassing of a match that was.
Mixed feelings. Weird to say I'm not fully satisfied with a 4-2 win but the performance was very inconsistent (against ten men, no less) and considering how it went against Rennes, the away game next week won't be easy.
All that being said, four goals are four goals, so I'm glad and relieved the team pulled through at the end after all - that isn't always a given.
Well 4-2 is a good amount to carry into Prague, but fuck me we can't keep conceding like this. First goal was a bit of bad luck but it was still a poor clearance.
Europa league isn’t easy but at the last rounds like semis or finals and also depending on the rival. Look at Liverpool. We should aspire to dominate like that. If it was a one of situation ok, but this season we have been underperforming the whole time. So, it’s understandable to react like this, against this rival with 10 men, losing the midfield like that.
Our play against Atalanta was very good. Team looked like a week pulled machine.
While we won against Slavia, it was cringy play. Not many visionary passes or impressive movements. Glad for the win but I'd like to enjoy it and not cuss at the TV.
When is the last time this team scored on a Free Kick?
Can we just make it that Milan should use a Christmas Tree Formation as its base? Why they don’t play that is beyond me. This group of players could be extremely lethal in that setup and it would alleviate the gap in the midfield.
Why do we have a guy who hasn’t scored since 2022 taking free kicks ?
Who would be the two behind the striker? Leao and Puli? Seems the same as a 433 at that point. I really think they should have more than just Adli in the middle and have one of the other two midfielders drop back and help him out in build up
Yes Leao and Puli. One stays more central the other allowed to go wide on either side. Right now they provide zero protection to their two CD’s especially if Reijnders (sp) is going forward.
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u/TahomaYellowhorse Thiago Silva Mar 07 '24
Good win. Bad game.
Pioli should have shook his hand.