AC Milan suffered a 2-1 defeat to Atalanta at San Siro on Wednesday night, as the Rossoneri crashed out of the Coppa Italia.
Despite Rafael Leao breaking the deadlock on the stroke of half-time, the visitors were able to respond immediately as Teun Koopmeiners found the back of the net just a minute later.
READ MORE: Milan player ratings vs Atalanta: Disappointing Rossoneri crash out of Coppa Italia
The Dutchman doubled his tally in the second half from the penalty spot, and despite Milan pushing for an equaliser and a way back into the tie, we were unable to find one as we exited the competition at the quarter-final stage in disappointing fashion.
Stefano Pioli and the players will now quickly switch their focus to Sunday night’s encounter with Roma in Serie A, as we’ll need to produce a response and get back on track.
Missed opportunity in Coppa Italia
With the draw opening up after exits for Inter and Napoli, coupled with the fact that Fiorentina would await in the semi-finals, there was a real opportunity to compete for silverware this year.
However, that door has been slammed shut, and we now focus on a top-four finish in Serie A and a Europa League run where the competition is much more fierce.
Pioli and Milan can’t be faulted in terms of the seriousness with which we took the tie given the strength of our starting line-up, but it was so, so disappointing to suffer defeat with such a big chance to win a trophy.
Frustrating officiating decisions prove to be decisive
There were two major calls in the game, and the officials got both wrong. Alex Jimenez clearly got a touch on the ball but was adjudged to have committed a foul and a penalty was given, resulting in Koopmeiners scoring what proved to be the winner.
With the last touch of the game, Milan had a penalty appeal dismissed by VAR despite a clear touch off the arm of an Atalanta player, which in turn forced the ball away from goal and out for a corner.
There was a lot wrong with Milan’s performance, but when these big decisions wrongly go against us, there’s little we can do and it’s simply an unacceptable standard of officiating.
Pioli will face more questions too
As noted above, this was a poor Milan performance. Once again, we struggled to produce quality in attacking areas and pose a sustained threat to put Atalanta under extended periods of pressure.
The Rossoneri had plenty of possession and control, but did very little with it, and when that happens, we leave ourselves susceptible to the opposition hurting us either on the counter attack or when they simply take their chances.
Milan seem to still lack a direction, structure and rhythm to our build-up play, and that leads to predictable, stale passages of play that ultimately rely on individuals creating something special.
Without long-term solutions, we’ll continue to struggle against the better sides and those who are more organised and disciplined, as there are fundamental issues with how we’re using certain players and the roles in which they are playing as part of our collective attacking play.
Leao reliance still an ongoing problem
We’ve bemoaned it for so long already, but the reliance on Leao is still a glaring issue for Milan as it’s predictable and problematic for us across the course of a game.
The Portuguese winger is ultimately capable of producing decisive moments, and we saw that with his goal, while his pace and direct running will always cause defenders problems.
However, Atalanta often doubled up on him and focused on blocking his delivery, and that’s where we need to be smarter and adaptable to take advantage of the spare man and show different dynamics to our attacking ideas and play.
Another big test on Sunday, pressure back on
After seemingly making progress in the last week or so with some positive results, Milan took another step backwards with this display and outcome as it emphasised obvious issues again.
While we have to take our injury woes into consideration as it can’t be easy dealing with so many absentees, there are still question marks over the lack of development, evolution and improvement in our play.
Roma suffered similar disappointment this week after defeat to rivals Lazio in the Coppa Italia, and so they’ll arrive at San Siro looking to respond themselves and will no doubt study Atalanta’s game-plan and approach in this clash and use it to plot our downfall.
It’s up to Pioli and the players to find the answers to ensure we don’t allow this setback to become a bigger blip, but the pressure will certainly be ramped up again.