AC Milan saw off Tottenham on Wednesday night as the Rossoneri advanced to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
A goalless draw in north London was enough to get us through after holding a slender 1-0 advantage from the first leg, with Brahim Diaz’s goal last month proving to be decisive.
READ MORE: Milan player ratings vs Tottenham: Maignan decisive as Rossoneri advance
While we had chances to make it more comfortable in the latter stages this week, Milan lacked a clinical edge to finish the job more convincingly. However, we produced an excellent defensive performance to nullify Tottenham’s threat for the most part, and we can now look forward to the draw to find out who we face next.
It’s important that Milan get back to winning ways in Serie A on Monday night to follow this up now, as we still face a real battle to secure a top-four finish this season.
Milan show growth, maturity to advance
There was disappointment on our return to Europe’s top table last season as we failed to make it to the knockout stage and eventually finished bottom in a group also containing Liverpool, Atletico Madrid and Porto.
It was always going to be a tough ask but it was important that despite only collecting four points from our six games, that the group learned key lessons and understood the demands and requirements to compete at the highest level in Europe.
Given it’s still a young squad with inexperienced players, that European campaign last year was crucial and we’ve shown through this run so far this year that we’ve matured, grown and improved to adapt to Europe and be more effective in different situations against top teams.
Pioli ticks another key box in progression
There’s no denying that there have been bumps in the road and setbacks along the way, and we haven’t long come out of an alarming slump in form at the start of the year.
However, from returning to Europe to winning a Scudetto last season and now reaching the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in 11 years, Pioli has shown his qualities as a coach to continue to guide us to important landmarks.
It’s hoped that we can extend this run further now, but it’s vital that we get things right domestically too and push to finish second, but at the very least secure a top-four finish.
Maignan decisive on important night
His presence and influence was really missed during his lengthy absence this season, but it’s such an important boost to now have Mike Maignan back between the posts.
From his decisive saves, distribution out from the back, ability to command his area and to organise the backline to make us harder to break down, he played a fundamental role on Wednesday night.
We feel and look a safer and more solid defensive unit with the Frenchman in the side, and it’s hoped that he can continue to play a vital part in our bid for success this season and beyond.
System switch crucial in getting job done
The formation tweak from Pioli had already been paying dividends for some time, albeit there was a setback at the weekend against Fiorentina which was disappointing.
Nevertheless, that’s four clean sheets in our last five games across all competitions, and particularly for this game as we expected to come under sustained pressure to defend our advantage, we defended brilliantly to really limit Tottenham.
Whether it was Malick Thiaw’s excellent job on Harry Kane or Pierre Kalulu and Fikayo Tomori either side of him to keep things tight down the flanks to our midfielders putting a real shift to break the home side’s rhythm and passing, it was a superb effort from all in a system that is really producing results.
Key areas Milan still need more quality
What was apparent in this game again though, as it has been for some time, is that there is still a distinct lack of quality in our final third play when it comes to playing a killer final ball or being clinical in front of goal.
Whether it was Junior Messias missing big chances or our attacking trio squandering dangerous openings on the counter attack, we didn’t make the most of our opportunities to make things more comfortable in the latter stages.
If we can extract that from the current group, great. Further, there are options on the bench that we need to get more from. However, the level of quality in certain areas needs to improve, particularly if we persist with this system as we rely on certain individuals to be decisive on a consistent basis.