Derby evening in Lombardy yesterday. For the 12th day of Serie A, we had a Milan derby, which also had a significant sporting challenge, since the two teams monopolize the top of the table and are clearly in the fight for the title. In the end, it was Adrien Rabiot’s partners who won with a score of 1-0 thanks to a goal from Christian Pulisic, thus overtaking their Nerazzurri neighbors and climbing to second in the Serie A standings.
But after this clash between enemy brothers, it is not the American that we are talking about this morning among our Italian neighbors, but rather Mike Maignan, whose face is present on the front pages of all the newspapers and the sites of the main sports media. The French goalkeeper had an excellent match, which could even be described as heroic. Several decisive saves to his credit, and above all a penalty saved from Hakan Çalhanoğlu fifteen minutes from the end of the game. Clearly, the former Lille player was the man of the match and the result would have been very different with another goalkeeper in his place.
An XXL match
It thus receives a nice 8/10 in the notes of La Gazzetta dello Sportwho praises the tricolor goalkeeper in another article: “by reversing the goalkeeper it would have been another derby”. A status of best player of the match shared by all the press, since he also received an 8/10 in Il Messaggerowhile Corriere della Sera gives him an 8.5 to the Frenchman, saying that he “is in the top 5 in the world”.
On the set of DAZNa certain Gigi Buffon analyzed the Frenchman’s performance: “It was decisive and it’s not the first time this season. Any team that aspires to win Serie A or be a candidate for it would like to have a goalkeeper of this caliber, who brings three points every three or four games. If Inter had taken the advantage, it would have been difficult for Milan to overturn the victory. Alone, he has already brought at least 7 points to the team”. Just that. Still, on the Milan side, we would do well to accelerate regarding his extension, his contract expiring next June. Many big clubs, in England in particular, are already on the lookout and this type of performance risks convincing them even more to offer a big check to the 30-year-old goalkeeper this summer…
