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"La fatal Verona" again: Milan draws against Verona

Milan draws against Verona 2-2 blowing away the lead thanks to the late equalizer by Nico Lopez.

By Michele Pasquali
Luca Toni with the "cucchiaio"
Luca Toni with the "cucchiaio"
Marco Luzzani/Getty Images

At the end of the game AC Milan official Twitter account made it easy:

That draw wasn't "easy" though. That draw meant AC Milan continue to have problems winning games and that's not the way they're supposed to play. In addition, that late equalizer by Nico Lopez - who scores every time he faces AC Milan - made even more difficult assimilating the final result.

We had our usual 60% ball possession match, but this time we tried to use the ball better than usual attacking vertically and using Pazzini as "assist man". That worked in the first half thanks to a good pressing (in effect AC Milan had 85% pass accuracy and Verona only 76%) but then we got a little bit tired - Menez and Bonaventura ran a lot during the game - and we went back to the old counterattack tactics. We were better than usual even in the shooting stats: 18 total shots (only 4 on goal) and 61% form outside the box. That percentage isn't necessarily bad because Hellas Verona allows most shot attempts form outside and Pippo planned the game in that way.

Now we have to look at what didn't work yesterday against Hellas Verona. First of all, our midfield. Poli and Jack ran a lot during the game trying to conquer some playable ball and spent most of their energy running up and down the field uselessly. Muntari made their job even more difficult missing a lot of pass, waiting too much with the ball possession and giving up many shot opportunities. Then, Pippo's substitutions. Cerci played badly and was rightly replaced (Honda took his place and played as CAM), but then he unexplainably sent on the field Bocchetti for Pazzini and waited centuries to replace an exhausted Menez with Mattia Destro. These errors costed us our third goal of the night on a good opportunity for Jérémy Menez late in the regulation that he wasn't able to finish it because of cramps and especially costed us Nico Lopez's equalizer because of an error by Salvatore Bocchetti - and the whole defense.

But what does that mean for AC Milan future?

Adriano Galliani and Silvio Berlusconi had to meet in Arcore (near Milan) tonight to decide about Pippo's future, but they put off until tomorrow because that's not an easy choice. Brocchi (our Youth Team coach now), Donadoni - who's living a real nightmare in Parma - or Tassotti are the most probable candidates for taking AC Milan head coach job, but there are even other "free agents" like Walter Mazzarri that could be interested - and that's not a good thing. The decision will probably be official tomorrow after the management meeting but it's almost sure it will be a low-cost operation since the economic situation isn't good.

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