AC Milan secured a dramatic 3-2 comeback win over Udinese on Saturday night, but it was overshadowed by the racial abuse suffered by Mike Maignan.
The Rossoneri took the lead on the half-hour mark through Ruben Loftus-Cheek, but two goals from the hosts either side of the half-time break put them in front.
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While it seemed as though we were set for disappointment as we continued to probe for a way back into the encounter with no joy, late goals from Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor turned things around and helped us seal the three points.
However, as noted above, the game was marred by the abuse directed at Maignan from a section of the Udinese supporters behind his goal, with the Milan goalkeeper rightly walking off in protest as he refused to play under those disgraceful conditions.
Great character, response to secure comeback win
While it’s still not entirely convincing from a performance perspective, this group continues to show great character and resolve to get the job done in difficult circumstances.
As we trailed heading into the final 10 minutes or so, it looked as though we’d be left frustrated and empty-handed, but we continued to plug away and eventually found our way back.
Ideally, we’ll make it more straight-forward in the coming weeks as in order to make this sustainable and consistent, we need to raise our level. However, it’s certainly still a welcome habit to score late goals and show the required resilience to get wins in scrappy fashion.
Still conceding sloppy goals
Stefano Pioli and the defence should be far from happy with the goals that we conceded, as both were very much avoidable and stemmed from our own mistakes.
We’ve now conceded 23 goals in our 21 Serie A games thus far, giving us the worst defensive record of the top seven sides, albeit many of them have played a game less than us at the time of writing.
Despite that, we have to tidy up our defensive play and organisation as it isn’t good enough, and in turn make it more difficult for opposition sides to score. Of course, we must take the injuries into consideration, but ultimately it will help us avoid situations where we’re behind late in games that we shouldn’t be trailing in.
Maignan abuse disgraceful, action needed
It was a difficult watch to see Maignan make the decision that he couldn’t play on while the abuse from the stands behind him continued, but he deserves praise for taking matters into his own hands and taking that stance.
Further, it was good to see him get support not only from his own teammates but from some of the Udinese players and officials too, and it hopefully sends a message in itself that any kind of abuse will not be tolerated.
That said, further action is now needed from Udinese and the authorities not only to root out those who were directing abuse at Maignan, but to ensure that this kind of behaviour isn’t acceptable in any form in any setting moving forward. It’s easy to run a campaign and support with words, but those in power must do more to get rid of it.
Ce n’est pas le joueur qui a été attaqué. C’est l’homme. C’est le père de famille. Ce n’est pas la première fois que ça m’arrive. Et je ne suis pas le premier à qui ça arrive.
On a fait des communiqués, des campagnes de publicité, des protocoles et rien n’a changé.… pic.twitter.com/47tfcW4oNo
— Magic Mike Maignan (@mmseize) January 21, 2024
Dramatic fashion of win made sweeter
It was clear that the issue impacted Maignan’s focus as the game went on, and ultimately we fell behind and looked set for a frustrating night in Udine.
However, while he may not have taken the win as a form of consolation given what transpired prior to that, the dramatic nature of how we inflicted defeat on Udinese and that minority of their support was a sweet feeling.
The scenes that followed after the game and the show of support from within the club and outside was great to see, and so it can only be hoped that it helped lift Maignan’s spirits too.
Key contributions made across Milan squad as we find form
We’ve long spoken about the over-reliance on certain key individuals in this Milan squad, so it’s crucial to see others stepping up and making vital impacts.
Whether that’s Loftus-Cheek scoring two goals in his last three league outings or Luka Jovic and Noah Okafor coming off the bench to turn a game around, we need these different dynamics and players to deliver when called upon.
Milan are still falling short in terms of our performance as we need to be a lot more convincing if we wish to salvage something important from this season, and so while others are perhaps not hitting top form or as a collective unit we’re not clicking as we should be, it’s imperative we keep getting key contributions from across the group.
