Luca Gotti fully admits Milan could ‘smell blood’ and tore Lecce apart during that five-minute spell with three goals at San Siro. ‘The team doesn’t have much experience in Serie A.’
The Salentini’s confidence had already been shot last week when fumbling a 2-0 lead in stoppages to draw 2-2 with Parma, especially as they wasted so many scoring opportunities.
The situation was different at San Siro, yet also showed a lot of similarities, because they collapsed again to concede three goals in a five-minute spell going into half-time.
Alvaro Morata’s glancing header on the Theo Hernandez free kick was the first Milan shot on target, followed swiftly by a Theo Hernandez scorcher into the roof of the net and Christian Pulisic bundling over the line after Tammy Abraham hit the post.
Gotti recognises Lecce pattern in Milan defeat
“We had 38 very good minutes, the kind of game Lecce were trying to play here at San Siro. We didn’t just defend, we tried to build moves, create chances, then it all started with a non-existent free kick. I cannot understand what Dorgu was meant to do in that situation, because it’s absurd,” Gotti told Sky Sport Italia.
“We conceded on that free kick, a minute later there should’ve been a free kick on Dorgu that was not given and that sparked the counter-attack for the second goal. The team doesn’t have much experience in Serie A, so it didn’t try to just see it out and reach half-time, instead we tried to force the move forward. Milan are a great team, they can smell blood and took full advantage.”
On the second half, Rafael Leao sent Theo Hernandez into a large gap in the Lecce defence down the Milan left flank.
“It was a long ball and Gaspar should’ve read it better before Tete Morente was going to run after him, he should’ve cut off that channel earlier,” acknowledged Gotti.
Lecce have had 94 shots this season and scored three goals, so evidently there is a serious problem in making them clinical.
“So far, that is certainly a problem.”
Gotti has said before that Lecce must learn to have the right attitude and keep calm at this level, so after these two setbacks there is the danger of further damaging their confidence.
“We’ve got to shake this off as soon as possible and realise there is a different way to approaching Serie A games, the approach we had for most of the first 38 minutes.”
