Milan Player Ratings: Milan 1-1 Crvena Zvezda

Since the start of 2021 AC Milan has looked nowhere near the form that they had at the beginning of the season. However, they had a chance to turn the tide in the round of the 32 for Europa League against Crvena Zvezda. The Milan lineup saw a heavy rotation and gave Fikayo Tomori another opportunity to step up. For the first 10 minutes it looked like the Milan side of old as they dominated and dictated the flow of the match. In the first 10 minutes they even scored from a Franck Kessie penalty. After that goal the tide of the match flipped and Crvena Zvezda was now the dominate side. Their attack finally broke down the Milan defence scoring in the 24th minute. At the half it was an uneasy draw for Milan.

The second half was a much similar story for Milan with the opposing team looking like the sharper and more dangerous side. Continually throughout the second half Milan had chances and failed to capitalize on any of them. On the other side Crvena Zvezda had their chances as well but Gigio Donnarumma held strong and made saves to keep Milan alive. Late in the match Crvena Zvezda were on the attack and looked threatening to the Milan defence. The ball went out of bounds and the referee surpassingly finished the match instead of giving them a corner kick. Nonetheless Milan are through to the round of 16 with a win on away goals.

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STARTING LINE-UP

Gianluigi Donnarumma: On his birthday Gigio stepped up and stepped up big time. He was one of the biggest reasons that Milan are through to the round of 16. At this point we don't even deserve him. 7/10

Davide Calabria: Davide wasn't great in this match. There were a few moments where he got beat and that led to golden scoring chances. I do believe Kalulu should have been given a shot in this match. 5.5/10

Fikayo Tomori: Tomori was the best defender in this match. In my opinion he continues to prove that he is an ideal modern day defender. Yes, there were points in the match that his positioning was off but overall impressed. 6/10

Alessio Romagnoli: Just another poor performance from the captain and I think he is starting to get in his own head. On the pitch he looks like he has lost all of his confidence and if a player has no confidence on the pitch then he shouldn't be playing. 5/10

Diogo Dalot: Dalot again was awful. I don't think he did anything good in this match. He was tragic going forward and abysmal trying to defend. 4/10

Soualiho Meite: It is clear the Meite is only a stop gap solution at the moment. He had a few ok moments in the match but overall not good enough. 5.5/10

Franck Kessie: Franck was an absolute god send. He was the only player fighting and giving everything he had for the full 90 minutes. He was involved in every aspect of the match and carried the midfield on his back. 8/10

Samu Castillejo: I don't think I need to say more about Samu, he isn't good enough and Milan need an upgrade in the summer. 5/10

Rade Krunic: Like Samu I don't think Rade is good enough for Milan. Yes, he can sort of play two positions but he can't play them very well. 5/10

Hakan Calhanoglu: Hakan again had such a disappointing match. It seems like he just makes all the wrong decisions. When he needs to pass he shoots, when he needs to shoot he passes. Not to mention that he always goes for passes of the highest difficulty. 4.5/10

Rafael Leao: I can't really write much about Leao because he was a complete ghost in this match. 4/10

SUBSTITUTES

Zlatan Ibrahimovic: Zlatan came on and played well. He showed the fire and desire to close out the match. But him not keeping the ball in the corner with less than a minute left was very questionable. 6/10

Ante Rebic: Ante looked lost in this match. He continuously overcomplicated things in the final third and squandered any scoring chances that came to him. 4.5/10

Theo Hernandez: Theo didn't do much aside from a few runs that didn't lead to much. 5.5/10

Alexis Saelemaekers: Like Samu, Alexis came on and ran that’s it. 5/10