Champions League group is the toughest one IMHO. Even Milan's opponents had a scare.

To grow, a young team needs these experiences. I see the team very much comfortable in Serie A, while in Europe its either they are unlucky or seem to be out of their depth.

Its a learning curve for sure which will help the team in the coming seasons.

Very proud, even if Milan dont make it through (which is very likely) respite there being a slim chance of going through, I dont see Milan able to beat both Liverpool and AM.

Spoken like a true PSV Eindhoven league supporter. I know some people from Holland who even now question Milan beating them in the CL semis because Ambro's goal was irregular.

Yes, referees damaged us a lot this season. Agreed. Yes, we could have won again ManUtd. But we didn't. We did not put up a stellar performance, especially not at Old Trafford. In the end, their experience won them the game. Not some referee.

And well, looking in hindsight, I really don't see how this first CL campaign could have gone differently for us.

We managed to get a very tough group. We have a team with only a handful of players who played the CL. Everyone made mistakes out of inexperience. First not to include Conti and Samu to the CL players list was a grave mistake. Second, Pioli never really took charge both tactically and in terms of intelligent subs. Thirdly the players and team as a whole collapsed several times. We managed to throw away our comeback against Liverpool, we managed to get the stupid red card during a very good second showing and we managed to lose faith and stop playing during the third game. I really don't see how we could have done anything more.

Remember, Pioli's team tends to bend if the pressure is too high. We collapsed last season several times due to the heat being near us and shined mostly when off the radar or with less pressure. We managed to lose or both several decisive games in the past in Europa League as well.

We need more experience, more time to grow. Being eliminated in 21/22 in group stage is pretty much expected.

Bro, it's useless for you to deny the facts. Nobody will buy it. Kessie's goal was regular. FACT.

Secondly, I never said we put up a stellar performance against ManUtd. I said ManUtd had nothing on us. It was a very, very even match that was decided by episodes. Again, if you deny something so obvious and clear, then nobody will buy your arguments.

You always tend to look at the general picture (no experience, no great players etc.) but you always fail to look at the details. And as I said before, football is a game where episodes and luck player a very, very major role in the final outcome. Everyone knows this.

Kessie (flu) and Rebic (ankle) are out for tomorrow. Look at our luck now with Kessie having Covid. (IMG:style_emoticons/default/rolleyes.gif)

Pioli said his test is negative, it's just a bad case of the flu...

Honestly, we cannot catch a break. We have 9(!!) players out. We barely have enough players to construct a first 11 and a bench at this point.

I'm really worried about tomorrow. It's going to be a slog against Miha's team sine you never know which Bologna could show up. I'm sure our injury situation will give them an added boost.

We really need to play a perfectly professional game. Get an early goal and control the tempo as much as possible.

Maybe we can get back Theo for Torino, but that's a big maybe since he was still positive yesterday when they tested him.

I disagree that we cave under pressure

We cave when the squad is thread bare. Because we've otherwise shown that we can win big games when they matter, just like we did last season against Juve. We went on that bad stretch last season during Jan-Feb when we lost first place not because we caved under pressure. We were in a similar injury crises to the one we're in now, which at certain points required us to play Calabria in midfield

Pioli has shown that he's tactically capable of adapting and making changes to the way we play, the fact that Rebic this season has been immense at CF when last season he struggled greatly shows this imo, because we play differently with him up top than when we have a pure CF like Ibra or Giroud. I think this old adage of him being a mid-level coach who's just with Milan to put out a fire is just insulting at this point. Imo, he's made a jump from being a mid-level coach to being one of the best in the league. Not only has he shown that he's flexible and capable of working within certain limitations, he's shown that he can improve the players he has. Look at the leaps we've seen from Theo, Kessie, Calabria, Bennacer, even Hakan last season and now we're seeing the same thing with Leao, Tonali, Diaz, Saelemakers.

I think Pioli has more than proven himself beyond certain stereotypes of journeyman Serie A coaches. Last season we mostly experienced a big dip during the injury crises, That also dispels the notion that Pioli is a strong starter and weak finisher imo. We'll see what we can do this season. Hopefully if we can get over this injury hurdle we can manage to have a fully fit squad for more than a week.

We have never really got to see what Pioli can do if he has that. a 100% fit squad at his disposal, not this season and not last. Only thn can we say what he is truly capable of as a coach

Yeah, I agree. Pioli has proven that he's up there with the elite Italian coaches. It's hard to blame him in a match like the one vs Porto where he basically had his hands tied due to the injury crisis.

I hardly think that will be possible. The hope is to have both Theo and Brahim get negative the coming week so they can start training and be ready for the Roma away match in the weekend.

Leao is becoming immense

Shame on me for ever calling him Niang

Let's no get carried away. He was alright. I don't like that he keeps the ball too much and loses it often.

Good first half. Obviously the red card puts a solid rock on the result. I also think that our attacking game is way too weak. Krunic, Samu, and Ibra are just mediocre. Yes, Ibra too. The guy looks like a pensionary.

He's becoming a clutch player. His dribbling has been a bit off today but he usually burne his man for fun this season. I think he's going to have a great season. He's improving with every game

Ibra looks really rusty, but still put in that assist for Leao.

Krunic is MIA and Samu is his usual self. Even Bennacer looked bad at the start

Theo and Diaz are such big misses. You can clearly see that we miss their presence, they contribute so much to our attacking game

WTF man?? Just wtf

Totally fell asleep

I don't believe this...

Calabria piss poor today, nevermind the goal.

Bennacer also irking me a lot with his ups and downs and lack of consistent play.

Taking off Tonali was a mistake as well.