The third Derby della Madonnina this season was a one-woman-show game as AC Milan striker and captain Valentina Giacinti scored all four goals on a fantastic comeback win for the rossonere.
The result allowed AC Milan to keep the 5 points advantage from Sassuolo before the International break.
Here’s some thoughts on this game:
Head in the game!
Once again, I took about 15 minutes for Milan to get their heads in the game and adjust their defensive marking, giving the nerazzurre too much space to explore. And, once again, Caroline Møller capitalized from it, breaking the deadlock with a long-range effort.
The perfect trio
On an uncharacteristic move, Ganz decided to field the same technical, but not that strong, midfield trio formed by Vero, Jane and Hasegawa as he did against Empoli and the bet paid off. With Jane holding the fort while Vero and Hasegawa were pulling the strings, Milan bounced back in the game right after Inter’s goal. There is no doubt that this is the most talented midfield in the league and as they get to know each other’s movement better, Milan will only benefit from this.
Team player Tash
Natasha Dowie was brought into the project because she is a natural goalscorer. However, besides her 10 league goals, Dowie is proving herself a fantastic team player and on yesterday’s game, she played a part on 3 of 4 Milan goals, adding yet another assist to her name, reaching 5 in the league, becoming the team’s best.
All hail the Queen!
Valentina Giacinti’s outstanding performance yesterday saw her crowned the all-new AC Milan’s Queen of the Derby, having bagged 7 goals against the nerazzurre since the rossonere’s first season in 2018/2019. Also, she not only reached the 50 goals milestone with Milan shirt but managed to go even further, increasing her tally to 53 goals, consolidating herself as the most prolific striker in the short AC Milan Women history.
Substitution timing must improve.
Maurizio Ganz has a lot of good and talented players in the bench, but he often chooses to make the substitutions too late on the game, close to the 80th minute. This way, the players who comes in do not have enough time to make a real impact on the game and those who come off the pitch don’t have time to rest and to heal properly.
International Break and, up next, Napoli!
This was the last Serie A game for the rossonere before the two-weeks international break. On April 18, the Italian league resume play and AC Milan will host Napoli, who are fighting bravely against relegation. The partenopee are level in points (9) with San Marino but are out of the relegation zone due the a better goal difference (-15 against the Titane's -32)
Image credits: acmilan.com
