On a night that witnessed the managerial debuts of Arne Slot at Liverpool and Paulo Fonseca at AC Milan in the Champions League, the two coaches experienced vastly different fortunes. Slot guided Liverpool to a resounding 3-1 victory over Fonseca’s Milan at San Siro, as his team remained composed after a shaky start and stormed back from conceding an early goal.
“To come back so strongly and dominate, it was a deserved victory,” said Slot, who replaced retired manager Jürgen Klopp at the Merseyside club. “This is an evening I will remember in the future. Hopefully, many more times like this will come as Liverpool manager.”
Ibrahima Konate, Virgil van Dijk, and Dominik Szoboszlai scored for Liverpool, while Christian Pulisic capitalized on some disorganized defending by the Reds for Milan’s lone goal.
A day after Fonseca stated that his men would need to be “defensively perfect” against Liverpool, they were far from it. The Rossoneri were porous at the back, conceding from set pieces and struggling to contain Liverpool’s attacking threat. The Reds enjoyed a significant advantage in terms of shots on target, with 11 to Milan’s two.
The highlights from Milan as we came from behind at San Siro 🎥 pic.twitter.com/eYlfovqtUQ
— Liverpool FC (@LFC) September 17, 2024
“We played against Liverpool, a great team,” Fonseca, who replaced Stefano Pioli at Milan, told Sky. “We started the match well offensively and defensively, then we conceded two goals from set pieces which changed the game. When details are missing, we can have problems doing what we prepare in training. Liverpool are more of a team than us, we have to work to play without problems for 70/80 minutes.”
Asked about conceding almost identical goals from two center-backs – Konate and Van Dijk – Fonseca said, “For the first goal, we had a man on Van Dijk. We had prepared for this. He was free, it’s true, but the central defenders had to be taken with individual marking.”
The two managers have had wildly different starts to their respective leagues this season. Slot’s Liverpool have won their first three games before a shock 1-0 loss to Nottingham Forest on Saturday, currently sitting fourth in the Premier League. Meanwhile, AC Milan are struggling in 10th place in the Serie A table with one win in four games.
