Milan's defensive makeshift falls apart against ruthless Ferencvaros
A patched-up back line and an unfamiliar midfield shape could not contain a Ferencvaros side playing with the control of a team that has not lost all season.
Milan's Europa League campaign took another blow as Ferencvaros won 2-0 at San Siro, according to Guardian Football, extending the Hungarian side's perfect record in the competition to four wins from four.
The result leaves Ruben Amorim's side with one win and three defeats in the group phase, a sharp contrast to the 3-1 derby victory over Inter that preceded it in Serie A, as reported by Football Italia.
A back line built from necessity, not plan
Milan's defensive selection told its own story before kick-off. With Mike Maignan suspended, Pietro Terracciano injured and Fikayo Tomori and Matteo Gabbia unavailable, Amorim turned to third-choice goalkeeper Lorenzo Torriani and shifted Sankhoun Diawara into central defence alongside Koni De Winter, Football Italia reported.
That is not a reshuffle made from tactical conviction, it is one forced by attrition. Diawara is naturally a full-back, and asking him to read central areas against a team sitting top of its group with a perfect record changes the calculation of every cross and every second ball into the box.
A back four stitched together from absences rarely holds its shape under sustained pressure, because the understanding between centre-backs that comes from repetition is exactly what is missing when one of them is playing out of position for the first time in a given context.
Torriani's involvement compounds the issue. A third-choice goalkeeper making a continental start carries obvious psychological and organisational costs, from marshalling the box at set pieces to commanding a defence he rarely trains alongside in matches of this importance.
Rabiot's withdrawn role left the midfield short of control
Amorim's midfield selection paired Ardon Jashari and Yunus Musah in a double pivot, with Adrien Rabiot pushed higher to support Goncalo Ramos rather than anchoring deeper as he often does, per the Football Italia line-ups.
That adjustment asks Jashari and Musah to cover more ground between the lines without the extra defensive security Rabiot typically provides from a deeper starting position. Against a Ferencvaros side comfortable building through midfielders such as Adam Nagy and Matus Bero, that trade-off mattered.
Omari Hutchinson and Alphadjo Cisse started in support roles either side of the pivot, continuing Milan's pattern of rotation enforced by the absences of Ruben Loftus-Cheek, Alexis Saelemaekers and Samuel Chukwueze, all sidelined through injury.
The volume of changes across the team, from goalkeeper to central defence to the midfield's defensive balance, made it harder for Milan to establish the pressing triggers and transition structure that underpinned their derby win days earlier.
A control habit from Ferencvaros, and what it means for the group
Ferencvaros arrived at San Siro unbeaten in the competition, having already beaten Celtic, Viktoria Plzen and Torreense, Football Italia noted. Kristoffer Zachariassen had scored three goals in three Europa League matches coming into the fixture, giving the visitors a proven direct outlet in the final third.
Their starting midfield of Bero, Nagy and Marius Corbu, screening in front of a back line of Attila Osvath, Mariano Gomez and Toon Raemaekers, gave them the platform to absorb pressure and break with purpose, a pattern consistent with a team that has not needed to chase games this season.
Winning 2-0 away from home against a side missing this many first-team regulars is not simply a result built on Milan's weakness. It reflects a team whose low-block discipline and transition speed have now been tested against three different styles of opponent and have not broken once.
Bournemouth's win, 3-1 away to a 10-man Sparta Prague through a late Evanilson finish, kept Marco Rose's side on course for a seventh straight victory and direct progress to the last 16, Guardian Football reported. That result sits in the same round as Milan's defeat, underlining how far behind the pace Amorim's side now are.
Milan next need results elsewhere in the group to recover lost ground, but the pattern from this match, a defence reorganised under duress and a midfield missing its usual balance, is one Amorim will need to solve with personnel rather than only selection before the next fixture.