Milan, Italy – who knows exactly what thoughts were hidden inside the head of Theo Hernández, just under his tufts of shocking pink hair, when he made the most bone decisions of five minutes in the second half of the series From AC Milan to Liné Clash against Feyenoord?
Games do not often light individual players and surprisingly bad decisions. The latter did it largely, and it cost Milan a place in the end of the Champions League.
A goal from the first step, Milan needed to win by two to move forward. They arrived there halfway there in the 60 seconds following the start: a Christian cross Pulisic, a Malick Thiaw nods through the goal and the new signature of Santi Gimenez at hand to return it.
One-Nil and 89 minutes (more injury time) at home, in front of their fans, to get the second. It seemed easy when you consider their opponents, Feyenoord – who has not been good since the Arne Slot left for Liverpool nine months ago and who has already dismissed his successor, Brian Priske – was not less than 10 players And began three teenagers accordingly.
Milan was downright in control of the first half and missed several chances to double the advance. They started sharply in the second half to get closer to scoring again … but came the laps of Theo.
Rafael Leão nourished his backlog over a overlap while Theo was cut in the penalty area, duly ran to defender Givairo and … very obviously tumbled on his leg, without any contact. Referee Szymon Marciniak had no choice but to show him the yellow card … and then a red too.
For what? Theo had already been warned at the end of the first half, a reservation as useless as it is. The first was for an unnecessary fault on Modern Jakub in the central circle, which broke out in a melee who left Théo’s opponent on this flank, Anis Hadj Moussa, needing to be physically retained.
Some could be inclined (in a Machiavellian way and dark arts) to justify trying to challenge the referee to win a penalty, but there is a time and a place for that. It wasn’t that. These were classic-reversed type-type stuff aggravated by the fact that the way Milan was playing at the time, the second goal had necessarily come.
After the match, Milan officials got into four to avoid Théo as a scapegoat, but it is not difficult to read between the lines.
“The face of Milan’s defeat should be my face, not that of Theo. … I am the only responsible,” said Milan boss, Sérgio Conceição, after the match. The club icon (and now senior advisor) Zlatan Ibrahimovic has echoed the feeling: “The referee was hard: in a game like this, you generally give a warning. … We are not angry with Theo, we are angry with ourselves, we committed suicide there.
Fans of Feyenoord – covered high at the third level of the San Siro – celebrated it by leaving the field as if they had just been marked. They understood the situation – certainly better than Theo.
Equality was 1-1 on aggregate at that time, but Milan could not simply sit and play for penalties. They were the local team, they were the Pedigreed team, they were the ones who were the line of four attackers (from left to right: Leao, João Félix, Gimenez and Pulisic) and they were built to attack. Perhaps they also knew that playing a man down for almost a second half (more injury time) was going to be a great demand.
Suddenly, the tide flowed from the Feyenoord track: the head of Julián Carranza with 17 minutes to match the scoring of the night and put Feyenoord in advance on aggregate.
Milan never came back at that time and to worsen things, frustration began to show. Conceição probably did not help things with his modifications, although he defended them with his usual posture at the final whistle: “I am paid to make decisions: if I do not win, they will pack my bags to me and send me far away.
What did he do? First of all, he removed Pulisic then Gimenez, leaving Félix and Leão on the ground. In a situation like this at 10 against 11, you would have thought that the work rate of the first duo would be more desirable than the flying skills of the latter pair. And indeed, Leão looked like a boy’s runner, happily accelerating in cul-de-sacs, before being shown a red card in a useless post-matt scrum.
Meanwhile, Félix reminded everyone that even if he has a lot of talent, the other t-word (temperament) is sometimes missing: by choosing to dribble in his own half, he beat an opponent, lost The ball when its improbable rotation movement did not train, then driven out and shot down for another yellow card.
Ibrahimovic – Extremely influential to the point that he took the press conference before the prematch despite not having an official title beyond that which he gave himself (“I am the boss”) – had had said he expected his players to heal this game “like a final.”
Until Theo sends, they did it largely. And then, with a wretched decision, the European campaign in Milan collapsed.
