After France's qualification for the Nations League Final Four, the French media headlines were all about Mike Maignan, who was decisive in the match on Sunday against Croatia, saving two penalties in the final shootout.
This was in addition to the penalty saved by the Milan goalkeeper in the first leg, which allowed Deschamps' team to lose by "only" two goals.
Praise for Milan's Mike Maignan:
After the match, Kylian Mbappé praised Maignan with these words on TF1: "We know we have a goalkeeper who makes the difference in penalties, so we're at an advantage." But it wasn't only the star of France and Real Madrid who singled out the Rossoneri goalkeeper: "The French national team players know very well that Mike is very effective in penalties. He has that quality, the better. It's a technical skill. He's a goalkeeper who performed well in this penalty series, we owe him our qualification. It would have been frustrating to lose because we had the opportunity to have a bigger gap earlier," said coach Didier Deschamps, as relayed via Milannews.it.
AC Milan has watched its goalkeeper's performances with pleasure and hopes that he can be decisive again in the Rossoneri colors.
In this season's finale, with the Coppa Italia to try to win and a European spot to fight for, Conceiçao's team needs to rediscover the best Maignan and his saves. His season so far hasn't lived up to expectations, but there are still several games to play (11 or 12, including a potential Coppa Italia final) and two important goals to achieve to save both the Rossoneri's season and Maignan's.
