AC Milan vs. Carpi: Winners and Losers from Coppa Italia
AC Milan came into Wednesday's Coppa Italia quarter-final against Carpi with two purposes. The first: to advance to the semis, where, thanks to the luck of the draw and some early-round upsets, would leave them in prime position to advance to their first final since 2003, when they last won the competition in a two-legged final against Roma. The second: save their coach's job.
It had been suggested that this game would be decisive for the Sinisa Mihajlovic's future. After a bad loss to Bologna at home, Mediaset reported (h/t Football Italia) that he had two games to save his job. After the team rebounded from a poor start to dominate the second half of Saturday's match against Roma, it was advance or die for the Serbian coach.
Advance he did, winning 2-1 over the Biancorossi with a performance that, for the most part, looked comfortable. In doing so, he fetched quite a prize.
With Serie B side Spezia and Lega Pro outfit Alessandria playing in the other quarter-final on their side of the bracket, the Rossoneri are guaranteed to face lower-tier opposition in the two-legged semi-final—a much easier way in than they would have faced if Roma and Genoa were facing off in the tie.
Who were the winners and losers of Milan's quarter-final win? Let's take a closer look to find out.
Winner: Sinisa Mihajlovic
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We'll get the obvious out of the way quickly.
Mihajlovic simply had to win this game, and he had to win it well. He achieved both of those goals on Wednesday. With no European commitments to distract him, he picked his top option at most every position, and he was repaid for his decisions.
It's certainly been a rough time for the coach. While not nearly as unstable as Palermo owner Maurizio Zamparini, Milan owner Silvio Berlusconi is prone to the same fits of emotion and can have a hair-trigger with his managers when he's in the right mood.
He seems to have something against Mihajlovic, and bigger and bigger names are being bandied about as his replacement. La Gazzetta dello Sport even reported before the game (h/t Football Italia) that Milan are preparing a big-money offer to Antonio Conte should the former Juventus manager, as expected, leave the Italian national team after Euro 2016.
Now, though, Mihajlovic has a feather in his cap. If he capitalizes on the favorable draw, he will likely be able to boast of getting Milan back into Europe for the first time in three years. Even if Milan fails to win the Coppa, the odds are that they'll be facing a team in the top five—and perhaps the top three—in the final, meaning that simply qualifying would get them into the Europa League.
While the target was to be playing on Tuesdays rather than Thursdays next year, a return to Europe in any form will give the team some cash influx and the players valuable experience. The Europa can be used as an stepping stone to greater things in continental play—look at how Juventus jumped from the Europa semis in 2013-14 to the Champions League final last season.
Mihajlovic has this team improving, and the fact that he has the team on the cusp of European qualification despite its imbalance is an impressive achievement. That fact should be celebrated, and he should keep his job. Hopefully on the strength of this game he'll be able to avoid questions about it for a while longer.
Loser: Mattia De Sciglio
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Whatever's wrong with this kid, he needs to get things turned around, and soon.
Mattia De Sciglio likely has a starting spot locked down in the near term with Ignazio Abate injured (again). But he has Davide Calabria coming up behind him, and when Abate returns, he could find himself frozen out of the lineup whether or not the teenager overtakes him in the pecking order.
De Sciglio didn't do anything noteworthy going forward and failed to combine with Keisuke Honda on the right side. When he did get the ball in attacking positions, he either wasted it or was closed down so fast that he wasn't able to put in any kind of ball.
His decision-making was poor. Early on he made a bad situation worse when he went in hard for a misplaced pass from Honda. The defender was about to tap the ball out for a Milan throw, but De Sciglio fouled him instead, wasting a perfect opportunity to build pressure in the attacking half.
The one time he did stand out from the herd, it was for all the wrong reasons—Kevin Lasagna torched him to set up a Matteo Mancosu's goal in the 50th minute.
It's amazing to think that as little as two years ago, De Sciglio was feted as Paolo Maldini's successor. Now it appears the weight of those expectations have crushed him.
Winner: Luca Antonelli
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From the fall of one full-back to the rise of another.
Luca Antonelli looked to have fallen out of favor with Mihajlovic in the first two games of the calendar year, with De Sciglio taking his spot on the left. But Abate's injury against Roma has given him back his job, and if his performance on Wednesday was any indication, he has every intention of keeping it this time.
Whereas De Sciglio barely connected with Honda at all on the right, Antonelli ran riot down the left, working in concert with Giacomo Bonaventura to get into some dangerous positions. He was the first man to an attacking corner twice in the second half. The first time, his flick bounced dangerously around the box before Capri finally cleared it out.
In the 76th minute, he pinged in an excellent cross that Kevin-Prince Boateng would have headed in if not for a good last-ditch defensive header. In the 83rd, he streaked into the box to pick up a loose ball and put a tantalizing layoff into the box, but no one was able to latch on.
He was no slouch defensively either, making several excellent challenges and ending what was probably Carpi's last meaningful attack with a good-headed interception with two minutes to go in regulation time.
This was an excellent performance from Antonelli, the kind we've seen since he got to Milan a year ago. Barring any fitness issues, the left-back spot should be definitively his.
Loser: Juraj Kucka
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Baseball player Jimmy Rollins, now a free agent after a long career as an All-Star shortstop with the Philadelphia Phillies and a season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, has a major problem as a hitter. He has just enough power to make him occasionally try to hit home runs, which negatively affected the rest of his approach at the plate.
After his goal on Saturday against Roma, Juraj Kucka seems to be suffering from the soccer version of this malady.
Kucka was maddening at times on Wednesday. At least three times he passed up far better passing options to shoot himself, and each time he missed.
The first such incident, in the 19th minute, could be forgiven. He had Carlos Bacca to his right, but in real time it wouldn't be unreasonable for him to worry whether or not the Colombian was offside—and he still forced Zeljko Brkic into a difficult save.
In the second half, though, he really should have known better. He forced a shot into the side netting from a difficult angle in the 62nd minute. Eight minutes later, he had both Boateng and Bacca in excellent position for easier shots but again had the go himself, forcing Brkic into another save but likely sealing his own fate, as he was hauled off for Andrea Bertolacci less than 90 seconds later.
Scoring goals is not Kucka's job. He's there to gain the ball and dish out the occasional kick to an opponent. While he has, at times, shown flashes of skill on the attack, this simply isn't his function, and he shouldn't indulge in his attacking whims the way he did today. With only two spots open for central midfielders in Mihajlovic's 4-4-2 and a lot of options, more selfish performances like this will see him benched.
Winner: Carlos Bacca
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What can be said about Bacca that hasn't already?
The Colombian is having a marvelous season, and that continued today, when he had his hands on both Milan goals.
When he saw Brkic come early on a through ball by Honda in the the 14th minute, he pounced. Beating his marker to the ball, he quickly touched it around the keeper and finished a deceptively tricky shot, getting his angle right and putting enough power on the ball to clear any trailing defenders.
Just before the half-hour mark, he helped Milan double their advantage, blasting past Simone Romagnoli (no relation to Bacca's young teammate, Alessio) and sending an inch-perfect diagonal pass with the outside of his foot to M'Baye Niang, who scored his fourth goal of the tournament.
Easily the man of the match, Bacca is firing on all cylinders and is making it look easy in the world's toughest league to score in. His transfer fee was well spent.
Loser: Zeljko Brkic
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The Carpi keeper made a few good saves, but he made a huge mistake coming out early for Honda's pass to Bacca. Had he stayed closer to home, he might have been able to put Bacca off. In deciding to come out, he severely limited his options. If he didn't get there first, he'd either concede the goal (as he did) or a penalty, which would likely have seen him sent off as well.
It was a costly error. Until that point, Milan had had the hangdog, uninspired look of the teams that had lost big to Napoli and dropped points to the likes of Atalanta and Carpi themselves. The only real chance Milan had had was off a direct free-kick by Honda, one that Brkic had saved well.
Not only did the goal energize Milan, it forced Carpi to change tack and attack more directly in order to make up the deficit. Even though he made some good saves afterward, the entire game swung on this one mistake.
