Tough pill to swallow in this one. Struggled early but held the fort. Sure they seemed to be kicking our ass but honestly a lot of their chances were mediocre at best. The back line held and Maignan was fantastic. The Magic Mike we know and love. Then when we finally conceded I thought we had a great reaction. Some would say we ‘deserved’ a tie but no one deserves anything in sport. You earn it or you don’t. We didn’t.
But first some highlights! Or lowlights? Or maybe some reasons to blame the ref? I mean…we did get some shit calls. Head slap to Theo? Body slam of Tammy in the box? Leao getting trucked from behind? After all that Fonseca got a yellow. Ooof. All valid reasons to be pissed but doesn’t take away all the chances we created and blew.
Player Ratings
Goal Keeping
Maignan 8 – Really controlled his box early. Talked to the defense all night keeping the line up so his area wasn’t too crowded. Some beautiful reaction saves as well. This is the Magic Mike we want to stay for 5 more years.
Goal Keeping Overall 8
Defense
ROYAL 6– See a lot of calls for him to be the flop of the match but I don’t get it. All of Leverkusen’s success came down the opposite side. Stayed tucked in, forced the action outside and held the line. Great? No. Flop? Not by any means.
GABBIA 7– Solid.
TOMORI 6 – If anyone struggled in the back I thought it was Tomori. Dropped off the line too often keeping guys onside. Struggled identifying when to close and when to sit. To be fair though, it’s always tough playing next to Theo.
HERNÁNDEZ 5/7-Needed to sit more in the early going and somehow always seemed to forget about Frimpong. How you forget him I have no idea. Later on did a superb job getting forward and making untracked runs through the middle.
Midfield
FOFANA 8.5 MOTM – Really did everything. Controlled the middle early. Really spearheaded the attack late. Challenged Hradecky several times with rockets from distance. He’s the complete package folks. Ismael Benna-WHO?
LOFTUS-CHEEK 6.5 – Did a solid job as Fofana’s partner. Really prefer him there and Reijnders higher. Gives us some real size in there.
Midfield Overall 7.5
Forwards
PULISIC 7.5– Spectacular once again from Pulisic. You have to go back to the Scudetto season to find the last time we had guys string together a group of games like this. No idea why he went off late. I would have flipped him to the left, dropped Leão and brought on Chukwueze.
REIJNDERS 7– So close! Had several chances in the box but the moment was just too big for him. In the right places at the right time though so can’t totally trash him. Him operating up high with this group of attackers is pure joy.
LEÃO 6 – Had some chances but overall did little. Can’t just run to the end line again and again. That’s fine against Lecce but not against teams like this. Needs to evolve a bit to be a danger against better teams
ABRAHAM 7.5 – Thought he was excellent. Did well defending and did a great job holding up the ball so the attack could get forward. Not every counter has to be 100 MPH. Sometimes you have to hold it up so your teammates can get forward and you can build. It’s been a blessing to watch this guy game in and game out.
Forwards Overall 7
Subs
MORATA 7– Great spark off the bench. Couldn’t have replaced Giroud with a better guy. Gotta be a nightmare to play against
CHUKWUEZE 7– Perfect spot for him to come on. Jumped right into the attack and created. No complaints.
Subs Overall 7
Coaching
FONSECA 8- Thought he played it perfectly. Absorb early and then attack late. You hope that leads to a draw or possibly even a late game smash and grab win. Lineup was great. As mentioned above I would have pulled Leão and left Pulisic on. I get it though. Leão is always one moment away from going from the FOTM to the MOTM. Hard to pull that kind of guy off. Also loved that he played coy on Morata. Pulled all the right strings just didn’t get the result.
Final Thoughts
Coming into this one I expected a draw at best. As mentioned in the preview, this was kind of how I expected the game to play out I just really thought we could get one. If this were last year’s format I would worry missing this point would bite us in the ass. This year though we still have Madrid and then 5 very winnable games after that. Our fate in this year’s CL is far from determined. I still have complete confidence we advance.
Forza Milan
Nonno
