Repubblica: Two culprits see Conceicao condemned to ‘painful’ San Siro debut

AC Milan were expected to return home from their Supercoppa Italiana triumph and win against a Cagliari side that are in the bottom three, but failed to do so.

In the build-up to the game, Sergio Conceicao was very vocal about the need to move on from the trophy win in Riyadh and instead focus on putting together a run of wins in Serie A, to begin climbing the table.

As La Repubblica (via MilanNews) write this morning, it was ‘like waking up from a wonderful dream or on the contrary and like being immersed in a painful nightmare’ for Milan last night as they dropped more valuable points.

In Conceicao’s first Serie A game as a head coach and in his San Siro debut, the chance was presented to close the gap to Lazio and Juventus, who had previously drawn. Instead, it was a mistake-filled performance from the Rossoneri, who threw away a lead and missed huge chances.

The paper speaks of an ‘Arab hangover’ that ‘brings Milan back to reality’, with the section headlined: “Morata is not enough, Milan sees ghosts again. Conceicao fails in his first match in the league.”

Then the two most obvious culprits are cited: “Maignan and Abraham decisive errors”. For the former, a blunder that allowed Cagliari to immediately equalise, for the latter two big misses in front of goal.