This is the big one. When the draw was made I thought we didn't stand a chance, but having really done a deep dive into Arsenal this past week, I really think we can get through this round.

Arsenal are in deep crises atm. And with the way we're playing we'll be more up for it imo. The derby being cancelled gave us some much needed rest, although the cause of that is one of great sadness. So we should be fresh and able to really assert our authority on the match.

They struggle big time when teams go at them and challenge them physically. They won't have any of their big strikers available either. So we need to make this count and really capitalize on what must surely be their worst moment under Arsene Wenger


Did you watch them against Brighton Jack? Honestly, I haven't seen a team looking that defeated in quite a while. Not even us in our worst periods. They looked like they barely wanted to be there yesterday. It was shocking for me to watch. They looked exactly the same against City, but I thought that it was just City making them look really bad, but that's not the case. They seem like they've completely given up and they seem to have turned their backs on Wenger as well.

We'll be fitter, stronger, quicker and hungrier. This is the perfect moment to play them. And missing out on this great opportunity by not bringing our best to the table would be a real shame.

When was the last time we had a big European night? I think it was against Atletico under Seedorf. I think the lads will do just fine. As Han said, Arsenal are utter shite at the moment.

Time will tell, but playing in Europe is different to the league, even though the EPL is in a league of its own and drawing comparisons with EL is ludicrous.

That said, I make no doubt the Arsenal players will be present and ready to go the extra mile as a fixture like Arsenal vs Milan draws millions, this with respect to Brighton does not even compare. Taken this isnt the CL and that Milan is not as strong as it once was. The fixture alone draws a crowd. This will be a test for Gattuso as Milan already are under pressure to keep all competitions alive. The pressure is definitely on.

+1

Not saying that we're going to walk this, far from it. I'm not even saying that they're sh!t either.

But they're obviously going through a very difficuilt moment. It's not just about it being Brighton so they did not bring their best to the table, it's the fact that they couldn't bring anything more to the table no matter how much they tried. They look listless and don't seem to be able to go the extra mile right now because they're completely demoralised.

I'm not saying that I'm expecting them to come to a full San Siro and just lay down for us. But there's obviously a lot of bad vibes going on at that club. And when you compare that to the current upswing we're going through, I am expecting a very good performance from us. I'm not expecting to blow them out of the water but a controlled 2-0 win is my thought going into this

Also, Rino might not be an experienced coach, especially in Europe, but he's played countless ties like this under what I beleive is a master of the 2 legged tie in Carlo. So he knows what it takes to win games like this

I've seen too much of this team's inconsistency to believe any game is easy. This is the Milan that beat Verona 3-0 in Coppa Italia and then proceeded to lose 3-0 in the league with a stronger team. So I'll continue to be suspicious.

Arsenal are a strong team that are playing badly. They might pull off a Milan 2007 on us, so best be careful. I want us to win because I really want us to build some credibility in Europe again. We're favourites on paper, but we're one in-form striker away from me being confident of a win. You can't win in Europe on just defence. You need to pump in the goals and we aren't doing it.

Time will tell han, I have a feeling both teams want this badly. The exposure alone is enormous, as the winner of these two might as well proceed to the final IMHO. That enormous.



I too want that. Hence I’m starting to believe the EL is a great opportunity to prepare this squad for CL and the busy schedule that come with it. It also enhances Milan’s resurgence, as an image at least.

Wenger is a cunning weathered and experienced coach who has the resources to deliver a blow, Milan has to be focused and hungry to close it off in the first leg. Nothing left for chance.

In 2007 we had champions who decided games on their own, Arsenal atm don't have that as 2 of their best players are the ones who have their heads down the furthest (Ozil and Koscielny). Plus we were never as bad in the league as them, we were just inconsistent because we were very obviously prioritising the CL + started the season with a 9 point deficit.

I don't think you can compare the 2 sides.

Anyway, I'm not saying you're wrong here, because you just might be right. Don't get me wrong, I am afraid that our tie could be the one to kick start their season again, that could always be the case. But having watched them in their last 3 games, I'm very calmly confident about our chances, because what they're going through atm is not something that you could just switch on and off at will. And no one knows that better than us


Of course both teams want this badly, and while we still have about a 30% chance of qualifying to the CL through our league, their chances are a big fat 0%. So of course they want this. But as I said, they're going through a major crises atm, and with regards to Wenger, he has the entire Arsenal fan base against him now, not to mention that from the looks of it, it looks like he's lost the dressing room as well

The game tonight is at 7pm CET not at 8:45 btw. The match title was incorrect

We really wilted tonight


I hope this isn't the start of another slippery slope. Bade performance. Plain and simple

Dreadful first half.

Arsenal giving us a lecture on football at San Siro with half strength.

We need to bring Silva in. We need to exploit the space behind Arsenal's back line at the same time bring the striker into play. Calabria was having a torrid time on the right. Maybe Borini? Biglia needs to up his game in the second half. But generally passing has been quite sloppy and we gave away possession cheaply at times. Arsenal's high pressing a game is a problem to build any meaningful momentum.

0-2

This just shows how green we are in Europe now.

From a side with an infinite wealth of experience in the CL to not being able to face a half dead Arsenal.

We don't stand a chance.

Unfortunately this is our best game. There's nothing more we can do with the players we have at disposal.

It might work in the Serie A against sloppy sides, but even a half-dead Arsenal can dominate us given the quality they have at disposal.

Agreed. Some of the players seem a bit naive. It's as if they have never played these games.

This is why I think we need a proper coach. Rino seems to be the ideal fireman, energizing the team in need. But from next season on we need someone with experience and we need several problematic positions covered.

We have to calm ourselves down. Bring Silva or Kalinic in, let's play some football. The players seem desperate, taking pointless long range shots and unable to connect with one another.

It's not Gattuso, it's the players. We simply lack the quality.

Kalinic is in. Let's see whether we can put together decent attacking plays.

Quality and experience...

Gattuso is taking a bit of a risk here putting two strikers on the field. We need to snatch a draw to keep going in the competition. Otherwise this is it.

I think it's the experience factor that's really the problem tonight

So many silly errors that we haven't seen in a while now under Rino

Bonaventura has been so sloppy tonight.

Exactly. Arsenal has not been excellent by any means. It's us making schoolboy errors and poor decision making.

Here is again one small example of why I am so disappointed in Rodriguez. Its normal for Calabria and the green players to make mistakes. But Rodriguez should be able to offer more then these terrible passes and pointless runs...

Case in point that show from Suso. I mean WTF!!! He's so much better than that but this is what we're getting tonight

Suso and his constant shooting

He’s a great player on a good day but boy o boy is he average when the going gets tough...

To be honest, it is very difficult to be overly critical of Milan tonight. We're just not ready to play at this level, period. This is as far as we go. It's ashame but I don't think there's anything else we can do to turn this tie around.

Exactly.

That was bad.

We're 99.9% out of this. I just hope it does not effect our league form

Coach and the young guns lack experience, for sure. But players like Rodriguez, Hakan, Bonaventura, etc. shouldn't be included.

AC Milan 0 - 2 Arsenal. Apart from the backline, our midfielders and strikers are just not good enough for European competitions in the knock-out phase.

Fact is, only Bonucci has serious European experience in this team, all the others have never played a proper two legged tie against a big club. Arsenal were terrible tonight as well yet we got done by two silly goals which would have been preventable had we been at our best

We defended so much better against Lazio and Roma, to see the defending tonight was night and day.

Bonaventura, Biglia, Suso, Hakan, Kessie, Romagnoli and Calabria have been difference makers for us in the league inrecent weeks but fact is, none of them have any sort of European experience and that showed terribly tonight

Kessie, made some terrible passing mistakes. Biglia reverted back to the first half of the season Biglia we saw under Montella. Suso looked absolutely ineffectual, kept trying the same sh!t and it was never working, Bona was really bad, sorry but he's had a bad season imo and tonight really highlighted his shortcomings, Calabria looked completely out of his depth as well

Cutrone showed his total lack of experience as well, Silva was the only one who showed a bit of spark.


To not be able to score a single goal on a team who does not know how to defend says a lot about our performance. We were intimidated, naïve and completely in over our heads. And I immediately had a bad feeling about this when Arsenal started badly even making some terrible passes that put the in trouble and we continued to back off of them as if we were afraid.

We needed to get in their faces, and bully them because we have the physical presence to do that and that's usually what makes them crumble, yet we just weren't even interested in trying to do that

I would hardly say that any of them has any serious experience and know-how in such ties.

They might be older in age to the likes of Calabria and Cutrone but they're not exactly seasoned CL players either.

I think this is Bona's first outing in European competition if I'm not mistaken, and it showed.

This game makes me realize how crucial it is that we play in the CL every year. We need to qualify for the CL this season. Otherwise, we will never return to our previous heights in the next decade. Keep our core young players i.e Donnarumma, Romagnoli, Cutrone and Calabria as they have enough to talent to go far. But everyone else is expendable and cannot cut it for top-level European football.

Oh come on! Hakan and Rodriguez have plenty of experience, Biglia as well. No excuse there for me...


I really don't buy in that "different games" story. A player is either experienced or not; Enrico Chiesa almost never played European football but I'd still count him as experienced even in European clashes. I really don't think these games are "that" different. Plenty of debutant teams and players proved that much.

Honestly, I don't think we're ready for the CL.

If we're losing to an Arsenal side who just last Sunday looked like they were dead and buried against Brighton, I don't see how we can face up to much better sides.

It's all well and good to beat Italian sides you meet regularly in a any given season, but it's another thing to face sides outside of your comfort zone and dominating them. We used to be the side who knew how to play these ties, now we're not anymore. Look at Juve yesterday, a professional job away from home, never panicked, never over committed. They just know how to play these games now and they have the experience and self-confidence to know that they can play out of it. They might bottle things at the last hurdle but they've certainly come a long way since their first season back in the CL under Conte.

I'm not saying that these players can't gain that experience. But we need a couple of upgrades in the first team, add to that Gattuso has no options off the bench to change things around. Bona should have been off before HT but he left him on so he could switch to a 4-4-2. Biglia is ok for the league but we need better there as well imo. Rodriguez is showing some serious flaws as well while Calabria has a lot of growing up to do. Today he was just running around brainlessly and passing too quickly, the first goal started because he didn't pass out from the back neatly after he won the ball. A completely opposite performance to the game we saw against Roma for example. Kessie as well. I saw him completely dominate Milinkovic-Savic and Radja in our last 2 games, yet today he got out muscled by the weakest midfield in the EPL, just ridiculous how we dropped off today and let the occasion get the better of us

Like I said, I just hope these 2 games don't completely ruin what we had built up in the league before now.

Hopefully we get that win against Genoa on Sunday

We're not ready, surely. But we gotta up are game and sign better players. This summer was a complete mess and it's showing.

Plenty of experience? Really, give me a handful of big CL ties that any of them have played.


I think it does have an impact.

Yes many young players bebut in such big ties and have good games, but there is a difference from when you have the entire team being completely green on the big stage to pushing in one or two players amongst 9 very experienced players.

We simply looked defeated by the occasion itself today, and this was evident in the first 10 minutes when Arsenal were basically tripping over their own feet and we kept backing off of them and giving them respect, when what we should have done is to get right up in their pansy @ss faces.

No doubt, that certain players are not CL level, but they're much better than they showed tonight and they have been showing this in the league.

We have very clear areas that need to be improved upon and our bench is really thin with no one who can be a game changer for the coach to put in.

We need a proper box-to-box mid, we need a proper left winger and a lethal striker for sure.

Rodriguez should also be a rotation option, get rid of Antonelli and use him as a bench player. He's a good player but not good enough when you go to a certain level.

I mean we have to get into the CL year in year out to obtain that experience. We cannot afford to miss out on European football. We have to sign better players for sure but we better not go on another spending spree. Three value added signings are good enough.

Looking at things in longer-term, this is our window of opportunity to build our team to be dominant five years down the road. Most of the top teams in Europe are past their peak as their most influential players age I.e. Real Madrid, Barcelona, Juventus, Bayern Munich. They will go through a new cycle like we did. I predict Liverpool, Man. City to be two of Europe's strongest teams in the next few years as they have great coaches and relatively young but experienced squad. So we should not hit the reset button again. We must build on this instead.

Rodriguez played for Wolfsburg consistently in Europe. Hakan for years with Leverkusen.


A limited one. But it is a circular debate. We lack experience - why? Because are players ain't good enough (the older ones) to play European football. Why hasn't Bonaventura played euro-games so far? Because he isn't good enough.



Not sure here. Yes, they are better. Much better? Not sure.


In modern football he's worth jack. He's slow and inconsistent, which exposes us constantly. Yes, a bench player definitively.

In fact all our buys this summer can be considered sub-par, too many inexperienced players and could-be players as well as bench players like Hakan, Rodriguez, etc. The only good by was Bonucci, and this was a lucky draw. I repeat, we gotta up our investments pronto. No more time for wasted money like Kalinić or too many inexperience.



I don't know man. I'm not that optimistic. These top teams tend to accumulate talent immensely. They have the buying power and they have domination. It's not like before. If something doesn't change in modern football we'll be seeing the back of teams like Real and Barca for years to come.

Yes, I understand, but I also feel like if we get into the CL now and get a slightly difficult group we won't be able to make it out of it.

The EL has allowed the team to get their feet wet. We've stumbled at the first difficult hurdle, no two ways about it, but it will serve as a lesson.

I agree, we need to start this summer with 3 quality signings and maybe 1 or 2 good rotation players.

Imo, we need a better LB, we need to replace Bona in the midfield, get a really good dynamic mid (I can't get Milinkovic-Savic out of my head but I know that's impossible) and a great striker. Cutrone is a good player and positionally he's 10 years ahead, but he's not a modern striker either, and to be a top side, I think that's essential


All those teams you mentioned have huge spending power so they will manage to rebuild without taking big hits imo.

As for us, the pessimistic side of me, which I admit has been fed by this loss, feels like that once you're on the slippery slope it's virtually impossible to get back to where you were before, especially in today's football climate where money is everything, and that's something we lack. After years of Silvio not investing, we've been sold off to a shady Chinese guy who seems to have a lot of fake wealth. UEFA has rejected out voluntary agreement and we're at risk of being taken over by the hedge fund that loaned money to close the deal if the depth is not restructured.

So, I'm honestly very worried about our future. We spent a lot of money in the summer, but some of it wasn't spent very wisely. Sure more of the players are kicking into gear, and under the right direction we have a top 4 side imo. But they have a ceiling and it's not anywhere good enough in terms of competing for the big titles.


I think that's an exaggeration, you make it sound like they were seasoned CL players

Hakan has a grand total of 24 games in the CL and Rodriguez has an ample 13.

Hardly seasoned CL players. Rodriguez has a couple more EL appearances but not much either.

Fact is, none of these guys have any real experience playing these games, and I think that does have an effect. And that was maybe also part of the management's mistakes. Getting these types of players with the goal of being regular contestant in the CL in mind is counter-productive, no doubt.


Well, Bona was at Atalanta before he came to Milan and we've been out of Europe since before he joined. It's all relative. I'm not saying that he should have been playing in Europe but those were his circumstances.

Look, I don't think Bona is a top class player, far from it, he's a good Serie A player and a good squad player to have, he's been a sort of focal point of the team because everyone around him was basically pants, so he looked very good. I think this season he's been exposed a lot, he's showing that he's reached a ceiling in terms or what he can offer us and if we're serious about being competitive then he has to be a squad player.


The last 5 games have shown that they are much better imo. The games against Roma and Lazio for me were masterful, especially defensively. We showed none of that today.


Like I said, all our buys have a certain ceiling, I think you've been extra harsh on Hakan, he's been good, especially under Rino. I think he's hindered a lot by Bona and Rodriguez tbh because they don't really see the passes he wants to make and don't make a lot of good runs for him. Bona tends to hold onto the ball way too long while Hakan tends to want to release it quickly which causes confusion there.

Kalinic was a mistake, and I think Biglia was also a mistake, he was great for Lazio, and he's been good recently, but he's not someone you can build around when you're aiming for certain things. We should have looked at more dynamic options. Kalinic has been a total disaster no doubt. Rodrigues looked good when everyone else was sh!t but now that everyone else has improved, his flaws are becoming glaringly obvious. Silva for me is a mystery. He's an incridbly skilful striker. He's quick, good at hold up and a very good passer, yet he's not been given the time at all to settle into this team. I get that Cutrone has scored more, but overall I think Silva would be better in terms of general team play, and once he's settled in that the goals would come


Agreed

The money that certain team have is ridiculous, and I fear that we've been lead down a cull de sac with this sale to Li. I don't see how we can compete with any of those sides. Not even with Juve

It's sad, but I really think that our time is over.

Damn Fillipo you are really down on the team right now haha. I wasn't able to catch the game but I watched the result and just like everyone I am disappointed. I had hoped for a better result but Arsenal is ahead of us at the moment. We have been down for a while with a young coach and a very inexperienced team. They have players who have been through the CL, albeit not very far and a coach with experience.

I agree with a lot of the sentiment around here that these players - despite a few all have a glass ceiling. But, you don't buy Kalinic and Biglia and hope they turn into superstars. They are depth players who ended up costing way too much. But, we do have a backbone. Look at the team we have one of the most promising players at a lot of positions: GK, CB, RB, CM, CM, ST, SS. This type of game shapes them. We aren't winning the CL in the foreseeable future. It takes baby steps.

This game will (hopefully) burn the asses of those young guys. Next time they will remember. We need to invest in more players like them. Those 3 players han mentioned should be good solid starters with some room to grow. The squad players should be young guys who will grow into something. This year we spend the squad player money on guys with no future but next year we should once again supplement our spine and buy with an eye for the future.

Sorry for being depressive, but well...

I really don't see any point in all this. Our players are green. The moment some of them cross that tiny imaginary line and become more reliable (good) they will be sold: like Donnarumma who's future is set with one of the bigger clubs. And all was for nothing. Look at Dortmund, selling like crazy and still not getting a grip.

This plus the fact that we are under shady ownership right now...makes me really think that Milan won't be coming back.