Milan will enter the international break with a win to steady their early Serie A campaign, having beaten Lecce to bring the fifth matchday to a close.
The Rossoneri are now two points behind the leaders, with Roma, Inter and Lazio sharing first place. It is not yet a finished picture, but the result gives Ruben Amorim’s side a useful foothold after a start containing both promise and frustration.
Quick facts
- Milan defeated Lecce in the final match of Serie A’s fifth round.
- The Rossoneri sit two points behind joint leaders Roma, Inter and Lazio.
- The league now pauses for international fixtures.
- Amorim said Milan’s players looked freer, with movement and late runs proving important.
- The coach believes Roma and Inter are further ahead in their collective development.
Amorim saw a more fluid Milan against Lecce after recent matches in which he felt his team had become constrained and too static. He pointed to greater freedom for the players, sharper movement and runs from deeper areas as the decisive elements.
“We had been a little blocked in recent games, a little static,” Amorim said. “The players’ freedom, the movement and, above all, the arrivals from behind made the difference.”
Despite the smaller gap in the table, the Portuguese coach was cautious when discussing Milan’s position alongside Roma and Inter. In his view, those sides have had longer to establish their ideas and their automatisms are clearer than those of his developing group.
“Roma and Inter are distant,” he said. “If you look at our way of playing and the opponents, they have had more time together as a team. You can see their mechanisms are already in place and clearer than ours, but we have not dropped that many points.”
Amorim nevertheless argued that Milan’s points total could have been stronger. He felt his side could have beaten Lazio and said they were punished late against Juventus, two matches that continue to colour the assessment of the opening weeks.
“We deserved more points,” he added. “We could have won against Lazio, and against Juventus we conceded at the end. We are doing well.”
The Milan coach also addressed his management of the squad, insisting that listening to players is part of the job but cannot replace the authority required at a major club. The discussion is welcomed, he said, but responsibility for the final call remains with the coach.
“I certainly listen to the players, but for a coach, especially at a big club, it is impossible to make decisions only by listening to them,” Amorim said. “I try to understand them, but the decision is always mine.”
For Milan, the break arrives with a result that eases the pressure without changing the wider task. The leaders remain ahead, the team’s patterns are still being built, and Amorim will use the pause knowing that the next chapter must turn encouraging performances into a more consistent return of points.
