He'll be fine. We're still 10 days from resuming Serie A play. Maybe he'll miss one game. I don't know how long the confederation requires isolation; 10 or 14 days? In any case at most one game. He is reported to be doing well, asymptomatic.
The list for the Champions League has been finalized. No Castillejo (thankfully). Kessié is in. The transfer window is over. We got Kessié for this season. Nobody will want to sign a player in his final 6 months of contract when they can have him for free as a free agent shortly thereafter. Maybe he will sign a pre-contract in January, but for this season, we got him, which is great. Portieri: Maignan, Tatarusanu, Plizzari. Difensori: Calabria, Ballo-Touré, Romagnoli, Hernandez, Kalulu, Tomori, Kjaer, Florenzi, Gabbia. Centrocampisti: Bennacer, Tonali, Diaz, Krunic, Bakayoko, Saelemakers, Kessié, Messias. Attacanti: Giroud, Ibrahimovic, Rebic, Leão, Maldini. A good team, in my opinion.
Spezia 1-2 Milan Very anemic first half. No shots on target. Rebic and Giroud did nothing and got correctly subbed for second half. The team improved a lot in second half. It was nice to see a 3rd generation Maldini scoring for the club; his dad with a rare big smile! Gorgeous assist by Kalulu who also contributed to some defensive failures and was correctly subbed for Calabria; the defense immediately improved. Tonali, Kessie, Saelemaekers did well. Tonali has very rapidly developed into a major player; this guy has a bright future. Leão played well and deserved a goal. Hit the post. Leão is irregular; capable of great performances and of horrible ones. Brahim very opportunistic, has been scoring essential goals, and got the winner. Our defense was poor today and Spezia had some incredible opportunities; we're lucky that they only scored once. Theo had a disgraceful dive in first half, was lucky not to collect a yellow, and he got a yellow in second half which would have been a red if the ref had correctly booked him for the scandalous dive - come on, Theo, don't do that! OK, we got the win but it's a bit concerning that we got challenged this much by bottom feeders.
I remember Paolo Maldini saying on the domenica sportiva when he retired, with all the games he played in (647 in Serie A and 902 total) , he should have scored a lot more. He along with Franco Baresi, Mauro Tassotti and Billy Costacurta never liked to go up and attack in either Sacchi - Capello's system . Alessandro Nesta scored a few times with Carlo Ancelotti but mostly they all liked to hang in the back. Interestingly, Christian Panucci, a guy who came up with Milan was also a defender. He ended up scoring a career total of 60 club goals and 4 with the national team. That’s quite a lot for a defensive player.
Incredibly rigged match against Atletico Madrid. The fix is in. We lost the match to one man: the ref. If not for the ref we'd have beaten the 11 men from Atletico, but with this ref it was impossible. The second yellow on Kessie was preposterous. A normal foul. An exactly similar foul was committed on Tonali and not even called. One man down was essential. We were really dominating everything while we had 11 men. And then, that penalty, WTF? Both players hit the ball with their hands, the Atletico one and the Milan one. Of course the ref gave the penalty to Atletico. Preposterous. I'm shaking my head. And Brahim suffered an injury. He was a lion on the pitch. Leão almost scored the most beautiful goal of the season. One inch lower and his bicycle kick would have been gorgeous. Rebic should have scored in his opportunity. We could have been 3-0 in first half. But playing 60 minutes with a man down and against a biased ref (liked bribed by Atletico Madrid) is not easy, so our guys fought hard but still lost. Milan 1 - 2 Ref. This unfair defeat will have big consequences in terms of surviving this group. With the win we might qualify. This loss (to a ref, not to a soccer team) will likely eliminate us. This is disgraceful.
We're not respected in this competition anymore because we've been absent for so long. When you're a club that has been irrelevant in the eyes of top-flight football for almost 20 years, you lose influence and then games like today happen. This is the price we're having to pay due to one of the worst transitions in football history between an era of glory followed by a catastrophic handover to consecutive owners pre-Elliot.
I wouldn't say that we've been irrelevant for almost 20 years. AC Milan is still a very prestigious club. We've been absent from the Champions League for a number of years but it's not like we suddenly became Cagliari. We have just finished second in one of Europe's top 3 leagues. But yes, upon this return to the Champions League, we did not get any respect from this Turkish ref. I frankly smell foul play. I think that a ref being so biased against a team, stinks of bribery he received from Atletico Madrid. In every way in this match he went against us, every dubious foul was awarded to Madrid when it involved one of our players as the perpetrator, and not called when a Madrid player was the perpetrator. He made sure to take our one of our most important players early on, and waited for an opportunity to award to Atletico their goal from a bogus penalty. Pioli is right: "the ref wasn't the best man on the pitch today."
Why? Most of the time he makes the best of a young roster. We are not a wealthy club like Read Madrid, PSG, Chelsea... with what he is given, he does a rather decent job, in my opinion,
Wow, I didn't know that Ibra was so disadvantaged when he was growing up. Remarkable, all the success he achieved coming a long way from humble beginnings.
Kessies been sold. But he doesn't want to leave until summer. So we get nothing. Good job Maldini and Elliot
I'm about half way through this: https://www.theplayerstribune.com/posts/alexandre-pato-soccer-orlando-city-mls. Good read so far.