Milan's young blood 'a big deal' after coming of age in victory over Juventus

There were no tears from Manuel Locatelli this time around. The 18-year-old midfielder had wept live on TV at the start of this month, overcome by emotion after scoring a brilliant first senior goal to help Milan beat Sassuolo. On Saturday night, after serving up an even better strike to seal a 1-0 victory over Juventus at San Siro, he simply smiled, before embarking on an Oscars-worthy acceptance speech.

Locatelli thanked his parents, his cousins, his manager, and his friends – even the two who support the Bianconeri. He dedicated a thought to Riccardo Montolivo, whom he has replaced in the starting XI after the club captain tore a cruciate ligament on international duty. He gave the credit for this goal to Silvio Berlusconi, saying that the outgoing owner has been one of his biggest supporters from the start.

Just about the only person whose contribution Locatelli did not acknowledge, was himself. “I don’t know how to explain what I did, really,” he mumbled. “There was a bit of luck and I need to keep my feet on the floor.”

Or, better yet, use them to keep on shooting. His finish from the right-hand corner of the penalty box against Juventus was extraordinary, crashing so violently into the underside of the crossbar that you thought it might still have enough momentum to burst through the side netting afterwards. This was Locatelli’s second shot on target, ever, in Serie A, and also his second goal.

On the touchline, Vincenzo Montella shook his head, bewildered. The Milan manager scored more than 200 times in his professional career, but even he cannot have hit many better. “He’s a predestinato, [a person pre-destined for great things],” said Montella of his midfielder afterwards. “He did give away a couple of balls coming out of defence, though, and Juve didn’t punish us. Let’s leave him to grow.”

Locatelli did indeed make mistakes early in this game, and on another day the story might have unfolded very differently. Juventus had a perfectly good goal disallowed at 0-0, the referee Nicola Rizzoli initially signalling that Miralem Pjanic’s strike should stand before changing his mind after a lengthy conference with the linesman Gianluca Cariolato.

The sideline official believed, wrongly, that Leonardo Bonucci had been in an offside position as he attacked his team-mate’s free-kick at the far post. Cariolato kept his flag down because the defender made no contact with the ball, which snuck past Gianluigi Donnarumma all the same. Instead, he buzzed Rizzoli to inform him of what he thought he had seen. It was left to the referee to decide whether or not Bonucci had interfered with play, and on this point few would disagree – the Milan goalkeeper was plainly distracted by his opponent’s presence.

If Juventus should fail to win the Scudetto this season, then this incident might one day be remembered in a similar light to Sulley Muntari’s ‘ghost goal’ for Milan in the corresponding fixture back in 2012. For now, though, it is still premature to call the Rossoneri title contenders.

Their neighbours, Inter, were hailed as such after beating Juventus at San Siro last month, but now sit 14th in the table. No wonder Montella was so anxious to keep his own players grounded. Milan are up to third, only two points behind the league leaders, but this season is still very young.

So, too, is Milan’s starting XI. With an average age of 25 years and 260 days, it is the youngest in Serie A by some distance. Not that you would think it to look at some of the players involved.

Gigi Buffon’s own father confessed last week to being struck by the presence of Donnarumma in the Milan goal, saying: “It seems impossible to me that he could be the same age as Gigi was when he started out – he seems so much bigger. My son, at 17, still seemed like a boy.”

Donnarumma played his part in protecting Milan’s lead on Saturday, stretching out that 6ft 5in frame of his to tip away a Sami Khedira shot in injury time. Just as decisive was his forward plunge to push away a Juan Cuadrado cross on the edge of the six-yard box as both Pjanic and Mario Mandzukic steamed in behind.

Already, the goalkeeper has progressed from callow teen into a man capable of inspiring religious fervour. Adriano Galliani, irrepressible as ever on what might be one of his last big nights as the club’s CEO (his future under the incoming Chinese owners is unclear), spoke on Saturday with the tone of a true believer.

“I went to hug Gigio after the match,” said Galliani. “I didn’t know he was bleeding from one ear and I stained my jacket. Let’s not get blasphemous here, but Gigio’s blood is a big deal.”

If Locatelli and Donnarumma made the most eye-catching contributions to this victory, then there are plenty more Milan players whose contribution deserves to be recognised. Alessio Romagnoli, the 21-year-old centre-half, had not committed a foul all season before getting penalised this weekend for a kick on Bonucci. M’Baye Niang, has been a key contributor in attack all season, but contributed tirelessly to aid the defensive effort against Juventus.

Sinisa Mihajlovic deserves his share of the credit for the work he did developing these same players while serving as the club’s manager last season. Were it not for the February car accident in which Niang injured his ankle, it is quite possible that the campaign would have ended very differently.

Montella, though, has brought with him an optimism that this club had long been lacking. The atmosphere at Milanello is lighter, a spirit the manager has fostered by breaking up his training sessions with spontaneous diversions like games of touch rugby.

Crucially, he has also succeeded in shielding his squad from a tumultuous few months at board level – as the slow process of the takeover created confusion among directors and stasis in the transfer market. Giacomo Bonaventura, another player who has been central to the team’s success this season, confessed in an interview with Gazzetta dello Sport last week that he had thought about leaving in the summer, before he saw his new manager at work.

“I was expecting to find more chaos, but Montella was very clever in isolating us from that,” said the midfielder. “I thought he would show up and turn everything on its head, but instead he took it one step at a time and the thing that helped was keeping a calm atmosphere.”

Preserving such a cool-headed climate will only get harder as this team soars higher. But if Locatelli’s clear eyes are a guide, Milan are adjusting quickly to their newfound success.

Talking points

Before Milan’s win on Saturday came a hugely entertaining Derby della Lanterna. Sampdoria’s 2-1 win over Genoa had just about everything: an own goal, a missed penalty, both teams hitting the woodwork and a bizarre first-half stoppage caused by a goalline-technology malfunction. Matías Silvestre’s header had come down off the bar and landed a yard short of the line, yet several officials felt their watches vibrate – indicating that a goal had been scored. Happily, after a pause, they decided to go with what their eyes told them.

As with any good derby, there were plenty of subplots at the Marassi, but perhaps the most charming was the one that saw Christian Puggioni make his first start in goal for Sampdoria at 35 years old. A lifelong fan of the Blucerchiati, he was frozen out at his former club, Chievo, after refusing to sign for Genoa on the grounds of rivalry alone. Instead, he would eventually join Samp in 2015, becoming their third-choice keeper behind Emiliano Viviano and Alberto Brignoli. Nobody really expected that he’d ever play a game. But this summer Brignoli, who had been on loan from Juventus, moved on to Leganás. And then, Viviano injured his wrist. Suddenly Puggioni found himself thrust into the starting lineup for the derby. And better yet, winning it, after making several important saves.

That win over Southampton in midweek did nothing to change the overall trajectory of Inter’s season, which only seems to drift further into disarray. Not even a brilliant strike from Éder could rescue them from a 2-1 defeat by Atalanta, and Monday’s papers carried claims that Frank De Boer could be sacked any day now. My suspicion is that such reports are premature, but it must be said that the Dutchman is showing few signs at present of getting a handle on his team’s malaise.

Napoli did get a win to end their own run of three consecutive defeats – though it was only over Crotone, who continue to look hopelessly out of their depth. Any positives were further undermined for Maurizio Sarri’s team by a needless red card for Manolo Gabbiadini – the only healthy centre-forward in the first-team squad.

Edin Dzeko extended his lead atop the Serie A scoring charts, notching his eighth league goal of the season during Roma’s 4-1 rout of Palermo. That is already as many as he scored in all of 2015-16.

Cagliari and Fiorentina combined to match Dzeko’s tally in a single afternoon, the Viola winning 5-3 in Sardinia. They had previously scored six goals all season. The optimistic take would be to suggest that this could be a breakout occasion for the hitherto intermittent talent of Federico Bernardeschi, who scored twice and set up one of Nikola Kalinic’s three goals. A more realistic one might be to acknowledge that Cagliari invite these sort of scorelines with their admirably gung-ho style.

Results: Atalanta 2-1 Inter, Bologna 1-1 Sassuolo, Crotone 1-2 Napoli, Empoli 0-0 Chievo, Milan 1-0 Juventus, Roma 4-1 Palermo, Sampdoria 2-1 Genoa, Torino 2-2 Lazio, Udinese 3-1 Pescara