VERONA — Fonseca also ate pandoro, here in the city where they invented it, instead staying away from the other local specialty, that strange spell that often made Verona fatal for Milan and which, in the event of defeat, could have be so for the coach too. The Portuguese, however, escaped with one of those bad and good matches that happen throughout the year, especially if there are two teams facing each other always on the brink of crisis and therefore infected by insecurity, as well as than from the two most precarious benches of the moment. But Zanetti also resists, at least until Hellas changes ownership: the move of yet another local club to an American fund is imminent.
Milan blew it away with a performance of character and confusion, torn in half by the flash in the dark of a very beautiful goal both in the preparation (great verticalisation by Fofana) and in the execution (the usual Reijnders, sharp in the shot and implacable in the shooting: 8 goals in the last 12). Not much else happened, but Fonseca at least received the comfort of the performances of Jimenez, who became a winger after Leao's injury, and Terracciano, who played as a midfielder with unexpected naturalness. From the abundance of injuries (ten) two new starters have emerged to consider. Fonseca, who ended up with a three-man defence, at one point had five full-backs on the pitch (including the revived Hernandez) and two centre-backs.
The match has long been a confusing mess between two teams in difficulty playing on nerves, in fits and starts, without composure and with little logic. Little was seen of the game, Leao was seen even less because in the half hour he gave in to a strain in his left adductor and in short everyone ran a lot, and all in all also quickly but also very confusedly. A shot from here (Suslov) and one from there (Terracciano) involved the goalkeepers, but if Verona did their duty, paying much more attention not to reveal themselves than they usually do (the passes taken recently have led Zanetti to prudence), Milan has often faltered, proceeding with individual initiatives that were not even that impressive. Over time, however, the younger boys grew, somehow creating fertile ground for the quality play that this team and especially certain players have in their ropes: Fofana+Reijnders was the difference.
In any case, the people were not enthusiastic and between one invitation and another to the players to bring out the so-called, the fans did not stop singing the little song which invites (intimate, more than anything else) Cardinale to sell the club, but the reality is that instead the owner bought himself time, obtaining to defer until July 2028 the repayment of the loan (the so-called vendor loan) that the seller Elliott had made to the buyer RedBird, 550 million which in August, with interest, would have been become 693. RedBird immediately returned 170 (in fact, it covered the interest), thus gaining three years and reducing the debt to 489 million.
The Verona-Milan scoreboard
Verona 0
Milan 1 (11' st Reijnders)
Verona (3-5-1-1): Montipò – Dawidowicz (1' st Daniliuc), Coppola, Ghilardi – Tchatchoua, Belahyane (35' st Tengstedt), Duda, Kastanos (15' st Serdar), Lazovic (28' st Mosquera) – Suslov – Sarr (1' st Livramento ). All. Zanetti.
Milan (4-2-3-1): Maignan – Emerson Royal (43' st Tomori), Gabbia, Thiaw, Jimenez – Fofana, Terracciano – Chukwueze (25' st Calabria), Reijnders, Leao 6 (32' pt Hernandez) – Abraham. Other. Fonseca.
Referee: Marinelli.
Note: Emerson Royal and Dawidowicz booked. Attendance 23,635.
