‘All over the shop’ – Peter Crouch, Steven Gerrard slam ‘passive and bizarre’ AC Milan performance after loss to Inter

Inter took control of the tie courtesy of an early first-leg onslaught with Edin Dzeko and Henrikh Mkhitaryan putting Simone Inzaghi’s side two goals ahead after just 11 minutes.

AC Milan may well be relieved to still have a fighting chance when the sides meet again at San Siro on Tuesday, May 16, such was Inter’s dominance.

Hakan Calhanoglu hit the post and Inter also had a first-half penalty taken away by a VAR review.

“They didn’t play together,” began former Liverpool midfielder Steven Gerrard, who won the Champions League in 2004/05.

“The manager must be scratching his head wondering why they haven’t turned up. They were second best for large parts of the game.

“There’s a slight improvement in the second half, but that performance from AC Milan is so far away from semi-final level in the Champions League. It was a frightening performance.

“The heart of the team was non-existent.

“For the full 90 minutes, the two centre-backs [Fikayo Tomori and Simon Kjaer], and two centre midfielders [Rade Krunic and Sandro Tonali] were so passive and weak and so far off in terms of what you need to be like in a semi-final of the Champions League.

“For a team like AC Milan with a manager like [Stefano] Pioli and a team that has so many plaudits and credit for their defensive work, tonight it was non-existent.”

Gerrard’s former Liverpool team-mate Peter Crouch believes AC Milan can count themselves fortunate that the deficit isn’t greater.

“I found it bizarre. The central midfielders and the central defenders in a semi-final of a Champions League to be so passive was bizarre,” he said.

“The best thing to come out of tonight’s performance for AC Milan is that it’s only 2-0.

“As it stands now, it’s 2-0, if they get an early goal in the second leg it’s game on again.

“They [Inter] had a penalty shout, they hit the post, Dzeko missed a good chance. Defensively AC Milan were all over the place. I’ve watched them this season and they’ve been pretty solid defensively – we’ve built them up defensively before the game.

“They were all over the shop in this game tonight.

“But credit to Inter, they were on the front foot, they played it like a Champions League semi-final whereas AC Milan didn’t.”

Former Manchester United defender Rio Ferdinand wasn’t surprised by AC Milan’s performance.

“The AC Milan players looked a bit shell shocked. It was a shame to see, really, because you look at this game and you want two teams to be really going head to head.

“But in the end I don’t feel really too surprised about it because we’ve watched AC Milan a few times this season – at Chelsea at Stamford Bridge especially, for periods in the game against Spurs – you look at them and go, ‘they’re not a top team’.

“So to see them come out here today and get beat the way they did, it’s disappointing but I’m not overly surprised.”

Gerrard believes AC Milan will be itching to put things right in the second leg as they bid to make the June 10 final against either Manchester City or Real Madrid in Istanbul.

“I think, as a player, you’re going to be full of regret tonight, you’re going to be so disappointed with the performance collectively and from your own individual performance. You’d want a game straight away, you’d want to correct that.

“I think Inter Milan will have a few regrets as well because of the amount of chances they’ve had tonight they should have tie done and dusted. They should have scored four or five goals.”