AC Milan played their best football of the season in the last 30 minutes of the second half versus Juventus on Tuesday night. Down 2-0, the team scored three goals in five minutes, then capped off the victory with another goal in the 80th minute. The team are essentially out of the Champions League hunt, but this win will go down as their best of the season. Take a look at three Milan positives from the match.
Three AC Milan Takeaways Versus Juventus
Franck Kessie – The Man in Form
Franck Kessie has arguably been Milan’s top performer since Serie A’s return. The Rossoneri‘s last two games made that clear.
Versus Lazio, he effectively shut down Sergej Milinkovic-Savic. Against Juventus, he was pivotal in the midfield and scored the goal to make things level at 2-2.
Rumours had been swirling about his possible departure, but that seems distant now. The two-man midfield shows another side of Kessie, clearly his best version of himself. Much of Milan’s sudden climb up to possible European qualification is attributed to the Ivorian’s performances.
Kessie lit up the statistic sheet. He won all aerial duels, recorded seven interceptions, and completed 90% of his passes. Kessie is changing for the better before Milan’s very eyes. His man-of-the-match worthy performance is the top of Milan’s positives.
Rafael Leão Makes the Difference
Youngster Rafael Leão was key to Milan securing results versus both SPAL and Juventus. Versus the Bianconeri, he scored a wonderful winning goal after an attack that looked dead.
His energy and drive to succeed is clear. He continues to make a positive difference up front whether positioned as a striker or winger. The sheer ability to be as versatile as he is at a young age is impressive.
Leão typically comes off the bench as Zlatan Ibrahimovic and Ante Rebic are seen as the primary goal scorers. He’s done well in that role since football’s return, but is pushing for more. The Portuguese striker has the talent to be a starter sooner rather than later. Perhaps Milan may be better suited starting all three of the aforementioned forwards. Expect his future performances to continue making there way into post-match Milan positives.
Gianluigi Donnarumma is Always Key
Juventus’ first two goals were defensive errors. Neither can be attributed to Gianluigi Donnarumma.
The Italian continues to have a fantastic season. His save versus Daniele Rugani to stop a possible Juventus comeback is easily one of his saves of the season. Donnarumma leads Serie A with 11 clean sheets and is arguably the top goalkeeper in the league. Milan needs to make it their priority to retain him this next transfer window. Teams aren’t built around goalkeepers often, but then again very rarely are there ones this special at such a young age. Donnarumma is the present and the future.
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