Usually I’m not overly enthused about a 1-0 win, especially vs a smaller club. But winning one to nil on the road at a tough place to play and with limited attacking options is a job well done. Milan is going to need more of these efforts all season but especially in the immediate future as there are a lot of games coming up in January vs smaller clubs. Let’s hope this is a good omen to start 2026.
Not all 1-0 score lines (or 0-1) are the same. Sometimes it’s a really hard fought defensive slugfest between two powerhouses and other times it’s utterly inept offenses that couldn’t hit the back of a barn. Sometimes it’s a game where the better-on-paper team is lacking bodies and needs to counteract a home team eager to upset a giant and help their own cause by staying out of the relation zone. The latter is what happened here. And Milan played it perfectly.
Cagliari came out of the gates HARD. I think it caught many of us by surprise how hard they were pressing. It wasn’t a particularly deep press, as it was mostly fought in the middle third of the pitch just on the Milan side of the midway line, but the effort they were putting in to close down ball carriers was pretty relentless. This happened the whole first half and yet Milan still maintained over 50% possession in the half, which meant that the opportunities for Cagliari were few. Despite all that pressure, Cagliari could only mustard 3 shots and their lone on target shot of the game (a pretty toothless header right at Milan). On that last point, Milan is back to the September version of the club, as they’ve only conceded 2 shots on goal the last two games on 15 total shots, with xGs of 0.39 and 0.38. Not hard to see why they shutout both teams.
Milan was a little fortuitous on their goal, as Rabiot’s not-at-all-firmly-hit-cross weaseled through to find Leão on the left, who proceeded to drill a laser despite slipping as he struck the ball. The offense itself wasn’t spectacular but it was never going to be with RLC needing to play as the second striker with Pulisic and Nkunku banged up and Giménez out for 4 months. New signing Niclas Füllkrug did make an appearance but he was never going to play a full half much less the whole game. For the little he was in there, I really liked what he was doing. Basically he was that pure #9/holdup striker Milan has needed since the start of the season. Even if Milan get minimal goal contribution from Füllkrug, with how well Pulisic and Leão are playing, that would be just fine.
The team played well and avoided that in-betweenness I’ve been complaining about recently. They committed to keeping bodies back and absorbing an aggressive Cagliari side looking for an early goal. There were few breakdowns as Milan were waiting for their chance to attack. They waited it out the whole first half and Cagliari came out flat in the second and Allegri finally started to push forward some, netting the goal within 5 minutes. No dumb early conceded goal, minimal opportunities for the opponent, then attack. Had the goal not come so early in the second half, I think Allegri and Milan would’ve continued to ramp up offensively against a worn out side and almost certainly would’ve broken through especially with Pulisic and Füllkrug available to pair with Leão had it been needed.
Milan is going to need more of these performances coming up as Cagliari was the first in a stretch of games between January 2nd-18th against teams in 15th (Cagliari), 17th (Genoa), 19th (Fiorentina), 6th (Como), and 16th (Lecce). That’s a lot of teams in the lower half of the table that Milan have been struggling against. This is a moment of the season that could make or break the Scudetto run depending on how they play.
Milan’s busy schedule I mentioned above is actually easier than what the two nearest competitors Milan have to deal with and Milan HAVE TO TAKE advantage of it. Milan have those 5 games in 16 days but Inter and Napoli have 11 games in 36 days (Milan have 8 during the same stretch of days). Now clearly not all of those games for Inter and Napoli are league games, but the volume will take its toll especially as both teams are almost certainly going to prioritize the Champions League games, of which each team has 2 remaining.
While all 3 of these teams will be busy from now until January 17th/18th, Milan will only have 3 games from that point until February 8th whereas Inter and Napoli will each have 6 games. Milan need to be 3-6 points better than them during that stretch. If they don’t it will be, 100%, a wasted opportunity to put pressure on their direct competitors and get a little distance in the table.
What Happened in Serie A
At the time of this writing (this section), round 19 just started today and some results have gone final. The below review will only pertain to games through round 18.
Inter (1st) and Napoli (3rd) both took care of business this round, the former beating Bologna (7th) 3-1 and the latter beating Lazio (9th) 0-2. The Lazio-Napoli game was a sh*tshow at the end, with guys from each team getting into a slapping contest and being sent off. Lazio ended up being down 2 guys before all was said and done. Regardless, both Inter and Napoli easily took care of their business.
Juventus (4th) drew 1-1 to Lecce (16th) while Roma (5th) lost at Atalanta (8th) 1-0. Como (6th) got an early Da Cunha penalty and rode that to the 1-0 win over Udinese (12th). The dropped points by Juventus and Roma were costly as the top 3 all won as well as Como, tightening up that final Champions League spot.
Sassuolo (10th) had a disappointing draw vs Parma (15th) 1-1 and Torino (11th) bounced back to beat Hellas Verona (20th) 3-0. The back-to-back 3-0 defeats for Hellas (last one to Milan) took them from seemingly on the verge of getting out of the relation zone to bottom of the table.
Rounding out the rest of the games, Cremonese (13th) had a disappointing 1-0 loss to Fiorentina (18th), who have won 2 of their last 3, and Genoa (17th) drew 1-1 to Pisa (19th).
Now, ratings.
Player Ratings
Goal Keeping
MAIGNAN 7 – Solid albeit a quiet day overall.
Goal Keeping Overall 7
Defense
TOMORI 7.5 – The whole backline was solid and the speed all 3 possess helped keep Cagliari from getting behind them during the first half when they were pressing hard.
DE WINTER 7.5 – Best game as a Rossoneri. He defended well in the air and showed his speed when needed.
BARTESAGHI 7.5 – I mean, come on. The kid just turned 20 years old and he’s already playing this well?! Loved that he played a similar type of game as Pavlović, carrying the ball and getting forward, making the opponent have to break off of their preferred assignments.
Defense Overall 7.5
Midfield
SAELEMAEKERS 7 – Solid if unspectacular.
FOFANA 6.5 – Meh. Was kind of mid returning to the starting lineup.
MODRIĆ 8 Co-MOTM– Again, looked good after that break in late December. Wondering how he’ll perform this month with all the games.
RABIOT 8 Co-MOTM – Controlled the midfield along with Modrić, plus got the assist.
ESTUPIÑAN 6.5 – With how different they play, you can tell Bartesaghi just brings more to the table. Estupiñan’s defense was mostly solid, but he offered nothing getting forward.
Midfield Overall 7
Forwards
LOFTUS-CHEEK 6.5 – Back to meh-RLC.
LEÃO 7.5 – Didn’t do much in the first half (got to stop playing him centrally), but scored on an absolute bullet from the left. Not quite scoring at the same frequency as Pulisic but pretty damn close.
Forwards Overall 7
Subs
RICCI 6.5 – Come on for a mid-Fofana and I thought was slightly better.
FÜLLKRUG 6.5 – I like it. Fits the role perfectly. Needs to start and it will hopefully prompt Allegri to alter the formation when appropriate.
GABBIA 6 – Welcome back after the knee scare! Good to knock some rust off.
PULISIC 6 – I don’t know that he needed to play but was probably smart to keep at least one threat out there since Leão had come off.
Subs Overall 6.5
Coaching
ALLEGRI 7 – Much better! Small differences from what had been a not-so-great-run vs smaller clubs. As mentioned above in the editorial, I liked how he had Milan counter Cagliari’s aggressiveness in the first half. Cagliari never really generated any dangerous chances and Milan got their goal early in the second half. No dumb goals conceded because Milan was kinda getting forward but kinda getting back.
I’m going to be really curious to see what he does now that he was a true #9 and Leão and Pulisic are both more healthy now than they have been all season. Don’t forget, both of those guys have only been on the pitch together for something like 100-ish minutes all season.
Final Thoughts
A solid win in a tough place and vs a type of team Milan hasn’t excelled at playing this season. Take it and run.
Next game is Thursday at 2:45pm EST/7:45pm GMT vs Genoa…another bottom of the table team Milan has got to find a way to defeat.
Forza Milan.
gillis
