Empoli vs. AC Milan: Winners and Losers from Serie A Game
AC Milan drew 2-2 away to Serie A surprise package Empoli in a pulsating Saturday night contest at the Stadio Carlo Castellani.
Carlos Bacca opened the scoring for the Rossoneri after just eight minutes, capitalising on a mistake in Empoli’s defensive line to slot home.
With the early goal, it was perhaps reasonable to assume that Milan could then go on to control proceedings, but such a notion couldn’t have been further from the reality.
Marco Giampaolo’s Empoli side grew in confidence as they gradually asserted themselves on the game before equalising thanks to a Piotr Zielinski strike.
Another sloppy error allowed Milan back into the lead just after half-time, however. Lorenzo Tonelli failed to adequately clear his lines, with the ball smacking M’Baye Niang in the head before ricocheting to Giacomo Bonaventura, who finished with aplomb.
The drama wasn’t over there. Sinisa Mihajlovic’s men proved themselves once again unable to hold on to the lead, with Massimo Maccarone pulling the home side level for a second time just after the hour mark after Gianluigi Donnarumma spilled a shot into the veteran striker’s path.
Empoli had the better of proceedings, dominating possession and looking the more composed outfit, but neither they nor Milan could find a winning goal.
Here are Bleacher Report’s winners and losers from an intense game of Serie A football.
Winner: Massimo Maccarone (Empoli)
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Despite being 36 years old, Maccarone remains a threat to Italian defences, something he proved once more against Milan.
The bald finisher had the ball in the Rossoneri net through a glanced header from a free-kick only for the strike to be ruled out for offside, though this didn’t perturb him. He eventually scored Empoli’s second, sealing them a vital point.
As the Guardian’s Paolo Bandini astutely pointed out, “the striker knows what he is and what he isn’t,” and it’s that special intelligence that allows him to thrive in spite of his relatively advanced age.
According to Squawka.com, Maccarone is the eighth-best-performing attacker in Serie A this season. He may not be improving, but he shows no signs of slowing down either.
Loser: Milan's Midfield
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One of the primary tactical concerns for Milan in this match was to limit Empoli’s flow of passes in midfield. This was something they did well early, only to falter as the match wore on, perhaps due to mental and physical fatigue.
Early on, Milan’s wide men, Keisuke Honda and Bonaventura, compressed inwards to form a compact four alongside Andrea Bertolacci and Riccardo Montolivo. This did a reasonable job of preventing the fluid passing of Empoli’s diamond, but only initially.
In the game’s latter stages, Empoli continued to knock the ball around to find angles and space, and the Rossoneri struggled to keep up.
Resultantly, according to WhoScored.com, Empoli ended the match having had 62 per cent of possession, with 84 per cent pass success compared to Milan’s 71. In the future, Mihajlovic might want to consider a change of tactic to deal with the multilayered diamond midfield.
Winner: Carlos Bacca (Milan)
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Per OptaPaolo, “Out of his 10 total goals of this Serie A campaign, Carlos Bacca has scored eight with his first shot on target in the game.” It’s an impressive stat, one that confirms the Colombian’s world-class predatory instincts.
In truth, Bacca had to work with scraps as his team-mates struggled to engineer chances for him to finish off. His goal came from a hopeful Luca Antonelli clearance, where once again, he showed his alertness and opportunism to score.
Loser: Mario Balotelli (Milan)
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Mario Balotelli came off the substitute’s bench on 67 minutes as Mihajlovic looked to turn the match in Milan’s favour, but the striker was not at his best.
The Rossoneri coach said of the performance, per Mediaset Premium (h/t Football Italia): “He was hungry, perhaps too much, and you can tell he hasn’t played for a long time.”
While he has been out injured for a while, and that must be factored in, Balo was completely ineffective. He’ll have to do much more if he is to dislodge Niang in the near future.
Winner: Piotr Zielinski (Empoli)
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WhoScored gave Zielinski their man-of-the-match award after the Polish midfielder put in a dynamic performance against Milan.
Getting on the end of Milan reject Riccardo Saponara’s through ball to slot home an equaliser, he went on to work doggedly in and out of possession, shuttling from defence to attack, combining well with his team-mates and playing some nice passes.
On this form, Zielinski will be a shoo-in to make his country’s Euro 2016 squad in the summer.
