Europe is still bitter. Ruben Amorim handles his second defeat as Milan coach by responding with class to the taunts of the Bournemouth fans, another loss in the Europa League after the one against Benfica on his debut. This 3-0 defeat at Bournemouth hurts because of the scale of the result, because of Maignan’s crazy sending-off, because of a game plan that went off the rails after just eight minutes (following De Winter’s handball, which Kluivert converted from the penalty spot to make it 1-0), and because of the mere three shots in total (none on target) from a team that was not up to the level of the match even during the first 27 minutes when it was eleven against eleven.
"This match practically lasted twenty minutes, until the sending-off. We didn’t even have time to get started," he said with a grim expression after the match, carefully choosing words he had little desire to say.
Maignan
In the dock, of course, is the captain, who was sent off for putting his hands in Adams’ face during a corner kick. Amorim admits that he has not yet spoken to his goalkeeper, but the red card was definitely a problem, as relayed via La Gazzetta dello Sport in this morning's print edition.
"I don’t speak to the players after the match, things are still too fresh," he explained in the press room at the Vitality Stadium. "We’ll talk about it when we get home, we have to return to Milan. What happened is part of the journey. Looking at Milan’s history, it’s clear that we are in a different position, but I still appreciated the way we tried to fight and help each other."
“I will analyse every single situation from this match and talk about it with the players so that we can improve and not repeat these mistakes: that is my job. However, we don’t have much time to think about it. We play on Sunday, we have to think about Udine.
“We definitely have to improve, and the easiest way to do that is to have eleven players on the pitch. We had a player sent off against Salzburg, another in this match at a moment that didn’t even allow us to start playing. That is what we have to worry about now, and what we will focus on.”
Reaction
Another thing Milan have to worry about is Ruben Loftus-Cheek, whom Amorim reveals he left in the dressing room at half-time "because he felt something." The Englishman’s withdrawal was another reason why this was "a difficult match in every aspect" for the Rossoneri, as the coach described it.
Amorim refuses to analyse what happened after the sending-off: the red card, Maignan’s moment of madness, was the definitive end of a match that had already started badly.
“It’s difficult to talk about the performance, because there was practically no match after twenty minutes. We have to have eleven players on the pitch to try to change a match: we can do that if we are eleven, but today that didn’t happen.
“That sending-off ended a match that had already been changed by the first penalty. There was no match: we cannot concede a penalty from a corner kick and go down to ten men. These are penalties that cannot be given away, especially by the more experienced players, who must not make these mistakes.
“When we were down to ten men, I tried to put my players in the positions where they feel most comfortable, and then tried to change something with the substitutions. Then we also conceded the goal from the free kick.”
It is difficult, after a match like this, to find anything positive for the Rossoneri: it is their first defeat in a month, one that brings to an end a good run consisting of three wins and a draw.
In Udine, they will need to start again. And, above all, remain with eleven players on the pitch.
