AC Milan 1-1 Feyenoord (1-2 agg): Five things we learned – mistakes across the board

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·19. Februar 2025

AC Milan 1-1 Feyenoord (1-2 agg): Five things we learned – mistakes across the board

Despite scoring early doors, AC Milan could not beat Feyenoord at San Siro and have crashed out of the Champions League as a result.

Following the disappointment in Zagreb which led to this game, and then the poor display in the first leg, the Rossoneri managed to outdo themselves in the reverse fixture, leaving things in a really difficult place.

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Milan started the game in the best possible way with Santiago Gimenez opening the scoring just 40 seconds into the game. The Rossoneri were then in control but failed to score a crucial second goal even though they had the chance to do so. However, familiar inefficiency up front prevented them from doing so once again.

Then, it all went crashing down in the 51st minute when Theo Hernandez stupidly got himself a red card for diving in the opponent’s penalty box.

From then onwards Conceicao made some defensive changes which limited the attacking threat Milan had to offer and despite the changes, Milan conceded in the 73rd minute. A goal that knocked them out of Europe after yet another dreadful European performance.

Here are five things to say.

1. Theo costs his team the win

The biggest culprit has to be Theo, who stupidly dived and earned himself a sending-off in a situation where he could’ve chosen so many other options.

The left-back has had a season full of ups and downs, yet he always manages to hit a new low and with that performance, he has really hit rock bottom. Given his experience and age, he should know better than that and he needs to take the responsibility.

Saying that, Hernandez has struggled for quite a while now and there’s no improvement in sight excluding the odd good moment he has.

2. Leao failing to be the difference-maker

In addition to Theo’s poor display, Rafael Leao also had a fairly poor game on the left flank.

It might be deceitful to watch him as he actually started the game well, managing to beat his man consistently, but the reality is that after completing the dribble he lacks the efficiency and has lacked it since joining with next to zero improvement.

The painful truth is that whilst entertaining to watch, Leao’s shooting lets him down in the majority of cases, when he goes wide and tries to cross the ball, he again struggles to provide a good delivery for his teammates.

Of course, with his pace and physicality, he does rack up consistent goals and assists through the season. Nevertheless, he struggles in big games and can’t really play against low-block where he’s so predictable because he has limited space.

So, similar to Theo, if no improvement is seen it’s not far-fetched for the Diavolo to try to gain as much money as they can from a potential sale and look to invest in a more consistent player.

3. Centre-back duo continue to be stable

Amidst all the negative moments it’s fair to at least complement Strahinja Pavlovic and Malick Thiaw on their performances on the night.

The two were really solid at the back with Thiaw picking up an assist early on and Pavlovic being solid all around. Whilst you can argue that the Serb could’ve done better on the goal, it’s not going to be fair to him since the pass was very good and the situation Milan were in was not his fault.

The summer signing also showed great energy towards the end, once again, but was again let down by his teammates.

4. Conceicao didn’t get the subs right

The coach reacted swiftly following Theo’s red card, but he seemingly decided to make his team too defensive too early on and given Feyenoord fielded a depleted side with a lot of youngsters, it’s somewhat worrying that the mentality is that a team like Milan needed to defend for 40 minutes in that situation.

Photo by Jurij Kodrun/Getty Images

Preferably, the site would be trying to keep their composure and the ball and even use the pace to counter and potentially get a second goal, alas, this was not the case.

That being said, Conceicao did mention that a lot of players had some minor injuries or pain and were subbed off. However, the feeling is that he could’ve waited a while before the substitutions because the Rossoneri did not have the firepower to react following the equaliser.

5. Gimenez got his revenge

If we’re trying to pick out some positives then we have to mention that Gimenez managed to get a goal following the defeat in the first leg. The Mexican positioned himself well to give his side a stellar start to the game, but unfortunately, it was not enough in the end.

Looking at the game as a whole, the striker did really well following the goal and combined well with his teammates, especially with Felix, which made Conceicao’s choice to sub him off even weirder since he was quite active and determined to win the game.

However, the Mexican can hold his head high as he starts to unleash his potential and the future looks bright for him and for Milan’s striker position.