French is more than his saves.
Kvaratskhelia places the ball on the penalty spot. She puts it right on the chalk, not slightly further forward like most penalty takers do, almost like a nervous tic. He never looks at his opponent, Mike Maignan. In all the duels bordering on the mythological that far west cinematography has given us, the challenge of looks is always fundamental. Kvara rejects it, he only looks at the ball. A look down, as serious as frightened. Perhaps he fears discovering a sure and pleased smile on the French goalkeeper’s face that would further destabilize him. Maignan, however, does not smile: he is absorbed in a concentration that exudes security. He blows his hands, then raises them up to look even bigger than he is. He won’t lower them anymore, he will keep them stretched towards the sky until the last moment, so that they are already stretched out for the parade. Kvara starts and shoots crossing his right, Maignan senses it and parries beautifully. He doesn’t even offer his opponents a second chance, given that the rebound goes directly for a corner.
He gets up from the ground without batting an eye, as if everything were normal, raises a finger to the sky in thanks. All the teammates embrace their defensive leader, especially Tomori, who until a moment before had feared that his hand touch could tarnish Milan’s gigantic defensive performance in the double confrontation. It’s them, Maignan’s teammates, who cheer as if they had scored. Not him. It doesn’t break down in the slightest. He doesn’t lose concentration and, as the great communicator he is, he calls everyone to reposition themselves because there’s a corner kick to defend, and then another 15 minutes of apnea.
In our imagination, the frame of the save on Kvaratskhelia immediately placed itself next to the one on Di Lorenzo six days earlier. The parade that had shown the international football world all the greatness of Maignan between the posts. A lightning bolt to remove the ball from under the crossbar which made it clear to everyone that it was he, Maignan, who was the Rossoneri’s champion. Obviously together with Rafa Leao, who had already assisted Bennacer in the first leg and who served another in the second leg, after a 60-metre ride that seemed like a gift to the play that Gullit, 35 years earlier, had made on that same lawn, in the face of the player whose name that lawn now bears. A serpentine light and powerful like a descent on a snow slope, probably destined to enter the history of Milan.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RGOsyCbrboA
Di Maignan, for his part, has been discussing for a week whether he is not already the strongest goalkeeper in the club’s history. These are vague speeches that cannot find objective confirmation. It must be said, however, that Maignan is establishing himself as a decisive and very showy goalkeeper, capable of entering the clubs highlights of Pioli’s Milan so much in the Scudetto race last year, with those saves on Pilgrims and Cabral, as in this journey in the Champions League. Against Tottenham, in the second leg of the round of 16, he found himself faced with a poisonous situation after 90 minutes of almost total inactivity. A dry header from Harry Kane, in front of which he was ready, repelling it with a flash like a great goalkeeper and preventing the match from being extended into extra time.
In the first leg against Napoli there was a save on Di Lorenzo who made the rounds of social media and in the latter the penalty save that relieved his team from the long final siege of Spalletti’s team. Saves that, in hindsight, also sound like a warning: if you want to score for Milan, it’s not enough just pullyou must be able to to surprise Maignan. And in moments of greater emotional intensity it is not a thing for everyone. Even on the goal from the Osimhen flag, the Frenchman had managed to touch the ball, but too powerful and difficult to be rejected.
The return of Milan in a semi-final of the Champions League, sixteen years after the last time, definitely has the face of its goalkeeper. And that’s why they’re starting to talk about his greatness and his worth. First of all the comparison with Dida, the goalkeeper who in the Milan fan imagination is most associated with European nights. The two are also linked beyond the ideological aspect, given that Dida was the French coach until last July. They share the same explosiveness in the interventions, that characteristic which in the two-year period 2002-2004 had led Carlo Pellegatti to coin the nickname “Dida Baghera the panther”.
Maignan’s reflexes are very reminiscent of those of the Brazilian, especially on shots from close range. Then obviously we cannot escape from the comparison with his direct predecessor: Gianluigi Donnarumma. In hindsight we know that the Frenchman was not Donnarumma’s first replacement available on the market, but a well-identified profile chosen by the AC Milan management: «I noticed Maignan during the match against Lille in the Europa League. They won 3-0 and I told my collaborators that we had to follow him» Pioli said.
A few games were enough for him to stop regretting Donnarumma. Right from the start he proved to be a point of reference for his team mates, who established a strong relationship of trust and admiration with him. After the match with Napoli, Tomori went on the microphones of English television and, to a question on the subject by Thierry Henry, he replied: “It gives us so much calm”. Then adding: «It’s a great presence and off the pitch he is always professional. He talks a lot about the match and what we can do. He is more than a goalkeeper in a certain way. He gives us a lot even when we have the ball and then he makes interventions like the one on Di Lorenzo ».
Yesterday, after a high exit during recovery, Tomori himself had thrown himself on the ground to hug him. He hugged him tightly, leaning his head against the goalkeeper’s. A fraternal image that reflects well what kind of figure he is for his companions. The locker room man who solves problems: Milan’s Mr. Wolf if it were Pulp Fiction. He solves them so well that you can’t help but love and thank him, just like the character played by Tarantino himself does with the one played by Harvey Kietel.
Milan’s season, not surprisingly, had taken a turn for the worse when Maignan was out injured. In January, the Rossoneri seemed bewildered and frustrated on the pitch, unable to bring out positive energies and often picking on their teammates, especially Tatarusanu. The intolerance that his teammates have shown on several occasions towards the backup goalkeeper says a lot about how much Mike makes a difference on the pitch, even in the possession phase.
One of the main differences between contemporary football and that of the past concerns the way we talk about the involvement of goalkeepers, the habit we have of evaluating them also for their qualities with their feet. After Manuel Neuer all goalkeepers had to adapt to the new demand to be able to evade pressure and break the opposing lines with their own passes. A necessary skill in Pioli’s all-vertical system and, in fact, Donnarumma too had had to improve in recent seasons, while continuing to fall into mistakes from time to time that overshadowed his progress. With the arrival of Maignan, Milan have had one more weapon in this sense, as evidenced by the times he found the shots of his companions fifty meters ahead. His confidence and his skills in every aspect of the game give Milan a tangible serenity.
Then there are the prowess in goal, the confidence he puts in high exits and the chemistry he developed with all his team mates. Milan got through to the round of 16 against Tottenham by fielding a three-man defense with Thiaw and Kalulu alongside Tomori, and delivering an outstanding defensive performance. In the quarterfinals, the four-man defense returned and alongside Tomori was Kjaer, another great defender with great leadership and a safer aerial game than Kalulu’s, a key aspect to face an aerial game champion like Osimhen. And, again, Milan got through thanks to an organized and authoritative defensive system, which controlled Napoli by not allowing them too dangerous chances: in the return match, apart from the penalty, Napoli did not produce any shots from more than 0.23 xG according to the data Sofascore. Maignan exudes as much security to his teammates as fear to his opponents.
In the last break for the national teams, with France, he had made a save from highlights in the 90th minute of the match against Ireland which seemed symbolic of the imminent handover between Lloris and him. These last Champions League matches have reinforced the feeling that Maignan is truly a champion. A goalkeeper able to enter the match peremptorily even in the last few minutes, in an impromptu way, without even having to warm up his gloves beforehand. If in the first leg of the quarterfinals he had had to intervene many times before the paratha on Di Lorenzo, in the return he almost didn’t have to intervene before the penalty. After that save on Kvara, however, he got so excited that he came out peremptorily to block or handle almost all of Napoli’s crosses – there will be 42 at the end of the game. He wasn’t even surprised by the cross shot, perhaps deflected by Ostigard, in the 91st minute, his best save apart from the penalty.
To be honest, the save on Di Lorenzo in the first leg could even have influenced Napoli’s choices in the finals. Yesterday, the only two times that Kvaratskhelia managed to leave Calabria and arrived face to face with the goalkeeper, he decided to kick with power, shooting the ball high in both cases, instead of trying to place it with lucidity . We won’t have proof of that, but the feeling is that Maignan has become the kind of goalkeeper who forces you to overthink how to beat him.
Just like Neuer against Messi in the 2014 World Cup final. Like Courtois against Liverpool in last year’s Champions League final. When a goalkeeper manages to get inside the opponent’s head even before he shoots, it means that he has a different specific weight on the pitch. Maignan has it. That’s why Kvara gave up on meeting his gaze before taking the penalty. This is why today we wonder what place Maignan occupies among the best goalkeepers in the world, and we don’t feel too out of place to think that maybe he really is the best. He certainly has been in the last seven days, and that was enough for him to enter the glorious history of Milan with his contagious tranquility.