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Sampdoria-Milan 1-4: Calhanoglu, double Ibra and Leao, Donnarumma saves a penalty

Run-up over, Rome is too far away, 4 points were and 4 points remain. Goodbye. AC Milan will return to Europe, but from the back door. It means that to qualify for the Europa League groups they will have to face well first three preliminary rounds, from September 17th to October 1st. With a calendar that from September onwards will inevitably be congested, it did not take. But so it is. Might as well at this point roll up your sleeves and plan a season that is already here. And that the Devil will have to approach very differently than it did a year ago. That disastrous departure, with the failure of the project Giampaolo, it turned out in the end fatale. Even the portentous was not enough accelerated of the new year, with 38 points in 18 games in the return, a sprint from the Champions League if not as a championship, to completely fix the troubles of an autumn-winter shock. Let it be a lesson.

Regrets remain for what could have been and was not. Regrets and questions, one above all: and if Ibrahimovic really had arrived in August and not in January? Also yesterday Zlatan was decisive, with a magnificent brace of strength and class. His powerful header with which he channeled the evening after four minutes, taking advantage of an assist by Rebic, is the ideal synthesis of his crazy qualities: power, technique, anger, precision. In the second half an increasingly mature Calhanoglu he closed the accounts split, taking advantage of an inconceivable placement of the defense of Ranieri. Then came the three of a kind, again with Zlatan: served deep again by the Turkish playmaker, in front of the third goalkeeper Falcone did not miss the target. “I am like Benjamin Button, I don’t grow old buti »the Swede smiled at the end of the game.

Good test also in defense, with the young Gabbiawho did not regret the injured Romagnoli, but above all with an amazing Donnarumma who saved Maroni his fifth seasonal penalty between the championship and the Italian Cup, before the beautiful goal of Askildes, a 19-year-old Norwegian talentino, and the final 4-1 of Leao in full recovery.

In short, the Devil in Genoa has done his duty, confirming the excellent state of form. The certainty of the preliminaries arrived only late at night, on the return train from Genoa, when Rome beat Turin, returning 4 points ahead and crystallizing the fifth place.

«Se we’ll play foreplay and play 6 games in the first 20-25 daysbut I have young and right-minded players »said Pioli a couple of hours earlier, as if he predicted that Roma would not miss his night match point. It will therefore be Europa League from the preliminaries. Saturday ends with Cagliari, at San Siro, a game that has no real meaning for the ranking. Also because for Milan, in reality, the future is already now. After the confirmation of Pioli who to the sound of results has cast out the shadow of Rangnick, work continues on setting up the 2020/21 squad. The director Paolo Maldini, whose stay with the same position is now certain, has several appointments every day.

It will be a very hot week for the renewals of Ibrahimovic, Donnarumma and Calhanoglu, protagonists last night and – hope the fans – also next season. “We are confident,” admitted the director Massara. The clues increase, the new Devil will start from them.

July 29, 2020 (change July 29, 2020 | 11:46 pm)

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