Player Ratings: Bayer Leverkusen 1-0 AC Milan – French duo steps up | OneFootball

AC Milan failed to clinch their first point(s) in the 2024-25 edition of the Champions League as Bayer Leverkusen prevailed 1-0 tonight. The Rossoneri fought hard, perhaps even a bit unlucky, and below are the player ratings.

If you haven’t already, make sure to check out how we decide the player ratings. From the scale to what affects the rating, we have compiled everything there.

Starting XI

Maignan (7.5 – MOTM): The goalkeeper made a couple of very good traditional saves to deny the home side but above all, he stopped several dangerous crosses from reaching their intended targets. Even if not fully, he got them out of harm’s way. He was also good with his feet.

Emerson Royal (6): Taking the entire game into consideration, he did enough to get a pass here as he was constantly available when going forward and also did okay on the ball. Defensively, he was beaten a few times but also had good moments.

Gabbia (6): Calm and collected for most of the game, with some good interventions, and the goal was an unlucky one to concede for the entire defence.

Tomori (6): Just like his centre-back colleague, he defended well for most of the game and his pace allowed Milan to have slightly higher positions on the left-hand side. He perhaps could have done better on the goal, but it was a great run and an even better pass.

Hernandez (6.5): Helped out Milan quite a lot going forward, using his ‘cut-inside skills’ relatively often to open up space. He defended well for the most part too, even if it wasn’t always easy against such a fast opponent. He also hit the bar with a thumping effort, albeit deflected.

Fofana (7): In my opinion, this was the best game from the Frenchman in the Milan shirt. He truly commanded the play in that second half – when the Rossoneri actually got going – and even created a couple of good chances himself. His defending was very important too and this is exactly what we want to see from him.

Photo by AC Milan

Loftus-Cheek (6): While he perhaps wasn’t the most creative player, he added much-needed physicality and had the right movement. He was also quite unlucky not to get a goal after managing to keep his effort down on the half-volley.

Pulisic (6): He was almost always available, like Emerson Royal, and picked up some good positions in the centre-right of the pitch. More incisiveness in attack would have been nice, but he just about gets a pass here.

Reijnders (5.5): This is going to sound very harsh, but only because we know just how well he can do normally. Don’t get me wrong, his movement was more or less spot on throughout the game, but he wasn’t best friends with the ball and that hurt him in the critical moments. The missed chance when he was through, thinking there was still a defender there, was fatal.

Leao (5.5): Again, it might seem harsh given the fact that in the first half, he was our only source of output with some good runs to give us a breather. However, the feeling is that he could have done a lot more in attack in that second half.

Abraham (6): He worked incredibly hard from start to finish and probably should have had a penalty, brought down in the penalty box after a nice run with the ball. It was also nice to see him battle away in the aerial duels, with some success too.

Substitutes

Morata (6): It was more or less what you would expect from him, with hard work and an ability to get on the ball when the crosses came in. Unfortunately, perhaps except for the rebound on Theo’s effort, there were no clear-cut chances for him.

Chukwueze (5): Poor crosses and rash decisions in the first phase of the defence. This was certainly not what we wanted to see from the winger tonight.