GdS: Goal o’clock in Milan-Atalanta as Leao and Retegui eye glory for different reasons | OneFootball

As highlighted by today’s edition of Gazzetta dello Sport, it will be goal o’clock at San Siro tonight as Rafael Leao is looking for his first San Siro strike, while Mateo Retegui wants to equal Pippo Inzaghi’s record.

Tonight’s game should be an interesting one despite the standings, with Milan still in 9th, and there are a couple of reasons for that. Starting from the Rossoneri’s perspective, in addition to building confidence for the Coppa Italia decider against Inter, eyes will also be on Leao.

As the newspaper explains (see photo below), Leao has recovered the consistency in recent weeks, often becoming an ‘extra man’ for Milan. Against Udinese in the 3-4-3 formation, he bagged a goal and an assist, while also looking good in general. One thing is still missing, though.

Drought at home must stop

This season, Leao has scored all of his league goals (7) away from home, failing to find the back of the net at San Siro. For someone like Leao, this is far from good enough and it’s only right that San Siro, or rather the fans present, are asking for more important goals from him there.

Since 2019, when he was bought by Lille, the winger has 54 goals in 194 league appearances, with 29 of these coming at San Siro (99 games). Tonight will be the 100th league game at the stadium and breaking the drought is the top priority, having failed to beat the keeper in the last 14 games.

His last celebration at the stadium dates back to May 25, 2024, in the 3-3 draw against Salernitana, on the final matchday of the 2023-24 season. For a player of Leao’s class and ability, the drought shouldn’t be trivialised by any means.

Root of the issue

So, what is the problem? The fact that Leao has scored at San Siro this season, against the likes of Sassuolo (Coppa Italia), Red Star Belgrade and Girona (Champions League), provides an interesting clue regarding the root cause.

Indeed, Leao struggles more against defences that double up on him, as often happens at San Siro.  Away from home, on the other hand, he has a little more space – which we saw especially against Udinese – and so far he has managed to exploit that.

Take a look at the numbers, in 14 home games, he has fired shots towards the goal 27 times with 8 of them being on target. Away from home, meanwhile, the total shots have been 32 with 17 of them on target. A notable difference which, however, hasn’t led to a better away record points-wise (23 vs. 28 at home).

In his career, Leao has never gone an entire season without celebrating in a league game at San Siro. Today, he wants to break the drought for himself, but above all to help the Rossoneri in the pursuit of securing a European ticket. The Champions League is far away, the Europa League less so…

Retegui eyes Inzaghi’s record

As for Atalanta and Retegui, the striker is one step away from Pippo Inzaghi and could match his record at the stadium where the legend had so much success. Atalanta’s top scorer stands at 23 goals, one from the all-time best record for a La Dea player in the league.

It was in 1996-97 that the promising Filippo reached 24 goals and became Pippo; a record that Retegui is now looking to match. After a goal and an assist in the win against Bologna, it’s hard to say anything other than that he’s heading into the clash in great form.