AC Milan Show Some Positives Amid Failure vs. Verona

At the beginning of December, AC Milan's three-game run into the winter break was being looked at as a major opportunity. The Rossoneri were set to play all three of the teams that ended the month of November in the relegation zone—Carpi, Hellas Verona and Frosinone—in succession. It was thought that with three victories, they would catapult themselves back into the title race.

Two games into that stretch, it's turning into an opportunity squandered.

In their previous match, Sinisa Mihajlovic's men dropped points in a goalless draw away to Serie A newcomers Carpi. On Sunday, facing the bottom team in the league in Verona—a team that is still winless through almost half the season—they wasted a lead and slipped to a 1-1 draw.

There were signs from the start that something was amiss. For the first 20 minutes, Verona thoroughly had the upper hand. The Mastiffs produced a series of half-chances for almost 20 minutes, with Jacopo Sala marauding down the right side to take advantage of large swathes of space.

But they didn't quite get the ball into the right spaces for Luca Toni to put it solidly on frame. With the door left open, Milan finally managed to get a foot through it with their first meaningful attack when Giacomo Bonaventura found M'Baye Niang in space with a well-placed through ball. It turned out to be too much space, and the Frenchman dragged his effort just wide.

For the next 10 minutes, Milan held the upper hand, coming incredibly close on two occasions before Verona had a penalty shout turned down just after the half hour. The rest of the half was end-to-end stuff. Just before referee Paolo Valeri blew for the half, saw a goal by Luiz Adriano waved off when Carlos Bacca was flagged offside in the buildup.

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Little did watchers know how much impact Valeri and his assistants would have on the rest of the game.

After Bacca stabbed home Adriano's pass from short range seven minutes after the restart, Milan lost their heads for about 10 minutes. Toni cracked a shot just wide of the post two minutes after the goal, and a minute after that, the game totally changed.

When Leandro Greco burst into the box, he was chased down by Nigel de Jong, who was making his first appearance since September. The Dutchman's reputation as a hard man is well-earned, but it didn't have much bearing on the decision Valeri made when he bundled Greco over from behind. The referee pointed to the spot and produced a red card for denial of a goalscoring opportunity.

The 38-year-old Toni stepped to the spot and showed the benefit of experience, sending goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma—a man less than half his age at 16—diving to the right while he sent his shot high to the middle of the goal to tie the score.

As soon as play resumed Bonaventura nearly supplied Adriano with a go-ahead score, but the Brazilian turned the ball just wide. Two minutes, later Sala fired in a cross that Alessio Romagnoli was able to head away.

Then, something somewhat odd happened: The Rossoneri started taking over.

It was an unusual thing to see from Milan. Over the last two years, the team has not reacted well when going down to 10 men. Last season, when Milan had a man sent off they tended to fold, such as when Bonaventura received his marching orders against Sassuolo at the Mapei Stadium in May.

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In this season's opener against Fiorentina, they were smothered after Rodrigo Ely was sent off. Romagnoli's red against Genoa a few weeks later produced a less extreme but still demonstrable effect.

On Sunday, though, Milan doubled down and started taking over the game. Bonaventura was held back on an offside call in the 63rd minute, and as time ticked down, the Rossoneri exerted more and more pressure.

What they lacked was the finishing touch. Bacca was put through in the 77th minute but chose to try to cross rather than test Pierluigi Gollini with a shot. Six minutes later, Andrea Bertolacci, returning from the hamstring injury he suffered against Lazio on Nov. 1, curled a rebound off a punched cross just wide of the top corner. Perhaps most significantly, Milan should have been awarded a penalty when Rafael Marquez shoved Bonaventura aside to get to a set piece.

While Gollini managed to keep those attacks out and keep the point, Milan's response to going a man down was wildly out of character from what has been seen in the past. They were aided by what looked like a conscious decision by Verona coach Luigi Delneri to not step out and take advantage of the extra man, but the fact they picked up on that and made the push themselves is a step fans wouldn't have seen a year ago.

While the inability to get three points against such weak opposition is a decided setback, there are snippets of the positive to take away from the game. A year ago—even two months ago—Milan might not have reacted to De Jong's red card the way they did on Sunday.

Milan fans have come to accept the team's journey back to the top won't be instantaneous. Not beating Verona represented an unqualified failure, but there was a positive underneath the negativity. For the team to respond so well to the red card is a definite sign of progress. The rebuilding may be slow, but it looks like Mihajlovic has started to get results.

With a few more quality players and a little bit more of a cutting edge, the process may soon start getting real results.